In this blog, we will see the guidelines that have to be followed while preparing website content. Hope you have gone through my previous posts- Design Guidelines and Technical Guidelines.
• Every page should be focused on a particular topic, if possible. If you have different products or services, better you discuss about each one in different pages. In this way, your products/ services will get noticed more than if they were listed in a single page.
• Like unique pages, you should contain unique page titles that give an overview of your service / product. So don’t forget to write accurate, relevant page titles.
• Give attention to the “description” meta tag. Surely the search engines will look at the “keywords” meta tag. But if you could write a unique and pointed “description” meta tags for every page, it will create a great impact much than the “keywords” meta tag. So remember- a well-crafted description can persuade searches to click your link.
• More often you add good content to your website (articles, latest news, blog posts etc.); more often crawlers will visit your website. The benefit will be seen when you add a new product or service. The crawlers will find and index your page soon.
• It is more time consuming and tiring for eyes to read from computer screens. So, try to make the content simple and clear. Avoid jargon and complex sentences in your website. Using short words and active phrases can also be considered as a good technique.
• The website content has to be written for your visitors first, I agree. But remember- search engines are also reading your website. So, try to include as much keywords as possible while trying to make your website content simple and easy to understand by people. Please don’t make your website a keyword-stuffed one.
• Assigning single and unique idea to each paragraph will help your website visitors to scan through your web page content. Also, they will more likely move on to the next paragraph, hopefully thinking there is some usable kind of information.
• It is better to follow a ‘Front-load content strategy in website content also. I.e., putting the conclusion first and then explaining how and why. This will help people to quickly scan through the opening sentence and to decide whether to read the rest content.
• Boldening important words which describe main point will also makes your website content readable.
• Using lists will help readers to read the information vertically. Also lists are easier to scan and less intimidating.
• Left-aligned text is easier to read than a justified one. Normally center-aligned and justified text makes reading very slow. So, readers may skip the content if it is time consuming.