In the past 10 years, there have been hundreds of thousands of articles written and posted to the internet. However, the majority of these pieces state the same old thing – over and over again. For example, you can likely research how to find a dentist and find thousands of articles preaching how you should ask for referrals, search online and interview the dentist. This content is no longer valuable or informative and represents one of the many ways that your content is likely losing visitors to your website.
Keep in mind, if you don’t find your website copy interesting, chances are your visitors won’t either. Instead of focusing on what you should be doing, here you will learn how you are driving people away from your site and how you can make changes to keep this from happening in the future. Remember, the content you publish needs to convey your message while keeping your visitors engaged. With the help of the professionals at Helix House, you can get the engaging content you are looking for. Avoiding these content killers will ensure you do not lose visitors due to less than great content.
1. You have Content that was Written Specifically for Google
Chances are you have found information regarding what Google likes. This information lets you know what to rank you have to include your specific geographic locations, as well as the particular keywords you are targeting all throughout your website. As a result, this is precisely what you have done. This also likely means that every blog post starts with your location and what you offer, for example, “Long Beach Dentist.” Your site pages also have a number of the same keywords, repeated over and over. Even if they are inserted naturally, this can make for tedious reading.
The good news is that the way Google, and other search engines, now rank your content is based on relevant and high-quality information that adds value to your site. In fact, this type of material is much more important to include than listing your keywords and location 50 different times on your website.
2. Visitors cannot Easily Determine how to Contact You
If a visitor to your website has a question, chances are they are not going to spend more than a few seconds trying to locate your “contact us” information. If you have it hidden, or completely unavailable, chances are you have lost this potential customer for good. You need to have contact information clear and easy to find on each page of your website. This will ensure that no matter where they are on your site, your visitors will know how to reach you for more information or questions. Things to include are your email, phone number, and social media. This will provide your visitors with some options for contacting you and let them pick the option they like best.
3. Your Content is Extremely Self-Absorbed
The content that you have on your website should showcase what you have to offer. However, it is important to remember that, not only should you highlight your skills and experience; you should also show why your expertise can benefit your clients and visitors. All of the copy that you have on your homepage, for example, should highlight how you can solve your visitor’s problems and what you can do for them.
There are far too many profiles that will focus on experience but never address how this experience will benefit a visitor to your site. The bottom line is to clearly answer the question that your visitors are going to have, “what can you do for me?” When you are able to do this, your visitors will likely stick around longer, and be more likely to come back.
Working with a reputable content marketing company is a great way to avoid mistakes with your content. Content Mavericks has a comprehensive content marketing guide to help you understand the ins and outs of content marketing and how you can do it the right way.
“if you don’t find your website copy interesting, chances are your visitors won’t either”.
A great – but often overlooked – piece of advice.
I would add that experimenting with new kinds of content can help a lot, too: for example, users who don’t like reading might appreciate a short video or an infographic, instead.