Content is often the forgotten part of most websites. Many choose to believe that because a picture tells a thousand words, all we need is a few images, diagrams and some photos and it's all taken care of. But that's not true. Images, diagrams and video all have their place, but good, well targetted written content is vitally important.
Content is king and it always was. It's what you say about your products or services that matters. This has always been the way you engage with your customers. In the digital age this is even more so, as people (your potential customers!) search using words.
Even though web content is arguably the most important element of a website, it often gets delegated to the last item to be thought of when developing a website. The usual story, in the rush to completing a website, is we'll just copy the contents of our brochures and other printed material and once that is done, we'll give a sigh of relief - it's all over with and we can get back to the things that matter!
Decide who you're writing for
You'll here many say that you need to be writing for search engine in order to appear high in searh engine rankings. I think that's wrong. You need to be writing to your customers and telling them what they need to know, answering their questions and putting their minds at rest as you write. If you have written good content, it will already be rich in the keywords that matter. Ok, there's still a few search engine optimisation principles and techniques to apply, but basically your home!
"Words are of course the most powerful drug used by mankind"
Why you need top quality content for your site
Well written content will engage your readers: Besides providing good quality information, the role of your content (and design) to create a call to action. You want your content to lead to an action, whether that be to purchase or make an enquiry.
Good content attracts inbound links: When people read good quality content they link to it. This increases inbound links and in turn increase your traffic and helps the indexing of your page on search engines.
Good quality content will increase your search engine rankings: Search engines are thirsty for great quality content. Content that is well formed and naturally rich in keywords (it has a focus!) is rewarded.
It's good content that gets visitors to your site: Search engines are really good at reading website content, but they cannot read images on your pages. There's nothing wrong with images, but use them to support and augment your content.