5 Content Musts for Your Small Business Website Part 2

Guest post by Megan Totka, chief editor for ChamberofCommerce.com.

To the average business owner, the wealth of content and information being created, packaged and sent out on a regular basis can be absolutely daunting. When our teams are relatively small and the task of content creation is scaled down to a single role, we can’t help but worry for the well being of our business and its site.

Keep calm, there is still a lot that small businesses can do to stay ahead of the game. In Part 1 of this article, I discussed the importance of content quality and finding your voice. In this article, I will outline how to display your content and the types of content to consider.

Live and Die by Design

Many business owners fail to consider how their content looks on paper or, in this case, your small business’ website on-screen. Take into account exactly how the elements of design impact the look and feel of your content:

Breaking Up – Nobody wants to squint at a brick of text. Improve the flow of your content through headings, subheadings, bullet points and lists. Images also play a huge role when it comes to breaking up your content; and we’ll discuss them later.

Look Professional – Your site is the hub for your business’ content; and it needs to look professional while housing it. From functionality to font or something as simple as color scheme, there’s a lot to take into consideration when creating a professional small business site.

First Impressions Matter – While looking professional is part of making that good first impression, so is how you optimize your landing page. Your sites navigation and functionality will greatly impact how people decide to take in your content. What do people see when they first land on your site?

Images, Imagery and Imagination

Did you know that sites that include images alongside their articles and blogs drive 94% more traffic?

When we discuss content, we’re often talking about written content. When you ponder the massive popularity of infographics, image macros and memes, however, you come to understand the importance of creating visual content.

Sometimes people want to digest something quickly and easily rather than reading an entire article or blog post. In an increasingly mobile and fast-paced society, this is completely understandable. Content creators should learn to embrace this trend rather than shy away from it. Images should be integral to your content strategy, whether you’re creating your own or simply using them to catch the eye of your visitors.

Note: Don’t forget about moving images, or gifs and videos. Between the sheer volume of YouTube and growing popularity of platforms such as Twitter’s Vine, videos are becoming more and more widespread. If there’s a place for videos on your business website, be sure to leverage them.

Embracing the Headline Era

The traditional newspaper may seem like a dying medium in the midst of social media. Bear in mind, however, that we currently live in the era of the headline.

Smart sites are taking notice of this. Consider sites like Reddit and their 70 million-plus monthly visitors. The entire site is essentially clicking through links based solely on their headlines. For this reason, your content needs to create a sense of “Extra! Extra!” urgency to help encourage clicks and reads. Headlines including questions, statistics and controversy can help encourage such behavior.

While this tip has a large potential to help drive traffic to your site, don’t rely solely on tabloid-style sensationalism to represent your business. Instead, use headlines as a means to pique the interest of your users.

The Bottom Line

Your site thrives on its content and your content thrives on your site; make sure that both are working together in harmony to ensure targeted traffic and readers are finding what they’re looking for.

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About Megan Totka
Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. Chamber of Commerce helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.