A business manager, Steve, returns to his office after attending a conference. He has several business cards that he received there, some of which he wants to follow up on. He remembers that a really friendly and outgoing rep named Robert gave him a business card and encouraged him to call. But Steve prefers to get as much information as possible before making a phone call. 

He punches in the website on the rep's business card. While the company's website looks nice and makes a decent impression at first, Steve's search for vital information on the website proves fruitless. Many of Steve's questions can't be answered by browsing the website. So, he pulls out another business card that he received at the conference. Robert has lost the sale.

Almost all consumers (97%) research products and services online before making a decision to purchase 

Why did Robert lose the sale? His organization's website lacked informative content. It looked nice and was built, perhaps, to enhance the company's image. But the website failed to engage Steve and, therefore, lost his interest.

Why is website content so important? Let's examine 3 reasons.

Reason #1: Attracts Visitors Through the Search Engines

A high amount of relevant, informative content can significantly increase your ranking on Google and the search engines. Therefore, content creation--or writing good articles on your website--is a key SEO (search engine optimization) strategy.

If you go to WebsiteGrader.com and grade your website, one if the things it will show you is how many pages Google has indexed for your website. If your website only has 10 pages, then Google will only index 10 pages. If you have more pages on your website, then your website becomes more relevant in Google's eyes. Then they rank you higher.

Reason #2: Keeps Customers and Prospects Engaged

A study performed in March 2010 showed that almost all consumers (97%) research products and services online before making a decision to purchase. This means that businesses have to engage customers online, on their website. Customer engagement only goes so far on Google Maps, Twitter and Facebook.

The customer thinks: "Wow, they really know what they're doing."

So, how do you engage the customer on your website? When you have information on your website that your customers and prospects really need to know, they'll stay on your website for a longer period of time. The more time a customer spends in a store, the more likely they are to remember that store. It's the same with your company's website. Not to mention, Google measures the amount of time visitors spend on your website.

Reason #3: Builds Confidence in Your Organization

If a customer gets information on your website that they can actually apply to a specific task in their day-to-day and it helps them to succeed at that task, that really builds confidence in your organization's competence. The customer thinks: "Wow, they really know what they're doing." That increases the chances that they'll do business with you.

How Do I Build Content on My Website?

Time. It takes time. But it doesn't have to take months or years. Someone in your organization needs to dedicate time each week to writing high quality, useful content. Here at aimtheory, we make an effort to make at least two blog posts each week, just like this one. On top of this, we're always making sure that our permanent web pages are up-to-date and changing so that the search engines will capture those updates and reward us.

Many business owners and their staff are busy enough taking care of customers and may not have time to devote to writing website content. In that case, you can outsource the content writing to a web firm. They will usually work closely with your organization's SMEs (subject matter experts) to create the high quality content that your customers are seeking. The ROI on this strategy is proven, as the highest ranked sites on Google continue to be websites with large amounts of relevant content.

So, what's the conclusion on the importance of website content and building for your business? Simply--It works.

Would you like to build content on your website? Would you like some help? Just contact us.