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5 Website Content Mistakes We See

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As a website owner, you rely on your content to drive traffic, increase your leads, promote your products, or win over customers. If your content is high-quality, you stand a better chance of accomplishing all of these goals. That means that you can’t afford to make mistakes that will jeopardise the quality and the effectiveness of your content. Experts who perform SEO audits have found that many business owners tend to lose out because of simple mistakes that could easily be avoided. Here are 5 website content tips about common mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.

Failing to lend geographical relevance to your content

Many small businesses operate within specific geographical regions. If you own such a business, you need to create content that is locally relevant, so that your site visitors and prospective customers are able to tell the difference between your content and all the other generic stuff that is out there. If your business is not limited to a certain location, you may not need to tailor your content as much with regards to geography. However if you are a big business with operations in multiple localities, it may be beneficial to create content that specifically targets each area. For example, if your website is a cleaning company with operations in multiple cities, you can use testimonials from clients in each of the cities on your website. Prospective clients are more likely to respond to your content if you make it clear that your services are within their reach.

Using too much technical jargon

In the digital age, there is so much information out there, so people tend to search for content that they can easily comprehend. When your site visitors can’t understand your content, it’s highly likely that they will just switch over to a different website to get the information that they are looking for. So as a website owner, it’s in your best interest to write as simply and as clearly as possible.

In many businesses, content creation is usually left to the technical experts because they have a better understanding of how the product was developed and how it works. The danger with that is that the technical experts may end up using lots of terms that are common in the industry but not necessarily well known to the general public. If you let your technical experts create your web content, you should make it clear to them that they need to explain the products in layman terms. Instead of delving into too many technical details, your content should simply explain what the product is, why the site visitors should care about it, how it would make their lives better or easier, and what they should do if they want to acquire the product. You can always cite real-world facts about the performance of your product, and show any evidence which indicates that it really works.

Failing to include a clear and concise call to action

All content is created for a reason. It could be that you want your site visitors to buy a product, to go to another website, to stay on your website, or to join a conversation. Whatever the case, you should always make sure that your audience knows what to do after consuming the content. If you want them to visit a sales page, make sure that your invitation is prominently displayed on your page. Make it as easy as possible for your prospects to respond to your call to action. If you fail to include a call to action, all your hard work will be in vain. Even if your content is purely informational, you can still ask your site visitors to read some of your other pages.

Failing to optimise the use of testimonials

Another major mistake that website owners do is that they limit the use of testimonials to a single dedicated page. Many businesses publish positive testimonials on their website, but market research indicates that consumers tend to disregard or distrust those testimonials, and they instead rely on reviews from third party websites such as Yelp or Google. This, however, doesn’t mean that testimonials are useless. You just need to know how to use them properly.

To get the most out of your testimonials you should use them alongside relevant content, and in a way that comes across as objective. For example, you can create content about how your product can solve a specific problem, and then include a few testimonials from actual customers within the prose to back up your claims. This is better than just listing a bunch of positive testimonials and hoping that prospective customers will believe them.

As we’ve already mentioned, testimonials can also come in handy when you are trying to create some geographical relevance to your content. Whenever you use a testimonial, mention where the testifying client lives so that your customers can know that the area is serviced by your business.

Failing to talk about prices

Many businesses shy away from putting up product prices on their websites, either for fear of prematurely turning away prospective customers who are looking for bargains or because the actual prices are subjective. This is a particularly common issue with businesses that offer services to other businesses. However, this is a mistake. Prospective customers often go online expecting to get at least a rough idea of how much a certain product or service would cost. If you offer them no clue whatsoever, they are likely to get annoyed and seek that information elsewhere. If you have no definitive prices, you should at least let your customers know the price range of your products.

As a business owner, it may be in your best interest to let your customer know your price range. Having prices on your website makes most people believe that you have a legit operation, and you are not just looking to hustle them once they call you. If a prospect contacts you after seeing your prices, it means that he or she is a much more serious lead. It’s better to have a few people calling to know how they can buy your product than having lots of people calling to know your prices and then hanging up once they hear them. This saves you a lot of time and manpower.

A trick that we use here at Pixeld is to ask for a users contact details before providing pricing information. This acts as a bit of a barrier, but it is intentional. Whilst anyone can get access to our pricing, it’s an indication of a users intent if they decide to provide their contact details in exchange for it. But beware, ‘gating’ your pricing information isn’t suitable for everyone.

How does your website stack up?

Review your own website and see if you have these points covered. It can be the difference between just being online versus having an effective lead generating website. You can of course talk to one of our experts on how to take your business website to the next level.

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