Recipe for Creating Great Website Content in 2021

Content Marketing Graphic
by: Dev Sperling | blogging, content marketing, marketing strategy, website content

Recipe for Great Content

“Content is King.” You’ve probably heard this quote, originally taken from an essay written by famed Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 1996. This idea stresses the marketing strategy of providing quality digital content in order to have a successful website. The premise is still as true today as it was when it was first brought to the forefront over two decades ago. 

Take a closer look at your business website. What content are you offering your readers? The content that you put out there is like the magnet of your website. It draws readers in, differentiates your business from the millions of other sites on the internet, and can help you retain clients by making them loyal readers for years. 

I have been creating business content and blogging professionally since 2012. While things have changed considerably since I first began, there is a fairly simplistic recipe that I often use to create quality content in the form of blogging. Here are a few tips and tricks-of-the-trade that could help you produce quality and valuable content for your business blog. 

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Determine Your Objectives

What do you hope to accomplish with your blog? Do you want to engage your readers? Drive traffic to your website or shop? Increase sales? Generate leads? Build brand awareness? Keep your customers/clients up on current news for your industry? Or perhaps, you want to add valuable content that will keep your readers coming back for more? 

Whatever you determine your objectives to be, curate your blogs with those goals in mind. This should include how they look, the headlines, images, meta titles, and topics that you choose to include in your publication calendar. 

Create A Topic List & Content Calendar 

Now that you have a better idea of what you hope to accomplish with your blog and website content, you can start with the fun stuff: a list of topics and a calendar to keep you organized. 

When I begin creating a topic list for clients, I like to do some research first. I ask myself questions like: 

  • What are the main products or services this organization offers? 
  • Who is the target audience: consumers, vendors, or other businesses? 
  • Are there any niche audiences can we focus our attention toward?
  • What information or knowledge could be passed along to readers as an added value to visiting the site, such as: insider tips, tutorials, or posts that show how your organization is an expert in the industry. 

Once you have created a list of 20 or more topics to draw from (depending upon how many you plan to publish per month), start mapping out when each topic would be best suited to “go live” on the site. You may find, depending upon your industry, that some topics may fare better in certain months or seasons over others. Create a calendar of when each blog will be posted so you can avoid overlap and repetitive content. 

Find Your Voice

Now that you’ve carefully crafted your topics, meticulously organized your calendar, and determined who your niche audience is, you can finally begin to write. I admit, this is much easier said than done. 

One thing you can do before you put the proverbial pen to paper (or in most cases, fingers to the keyboard) is to find your voice. Will your content be more educational, professional, or perhaps, down to Earth and humorous? 

Your voice can showcase your brand’s style, your company culture, or even your personality if you are a guest blogger. Your voice could very well determine the type of readers your content attracts. Choose carefully and stay true to your “inner writer.” 

Add Effective Headlines & Meta Titles To Your Page

Business bloggers often write their website content and fail to remember to add in the details that will help optimize the content for search engines to find and rank your blogs. Always have in mind what the major search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, want to see within your content, especially keywords that could help rank your blogs higher than others.  

Once I have crafted a piece of content, I like to look back and make sure I have completed these key items: 

  • Generate interesting headlines. Since only 20% of the people who click on the headline will go on to read the article, make it something that grabs their attention, answers a question, or shows value in reading. I like to ask questions that clients may be plugging into search engines, create Top 10 Lists, or educate readers on a topic specific to the organization’s expertise. 
  • Use subheadings such as H2s or H3s to break up your content and make it more readable. 
  • Add meta titles to your page to give readers a compelling reason to click on your article. 
  • Choose visually appealing and relevant images to accompany your post including a feature image that will pull through when you use the blog to entice readers from your social media platforms. 

Edit, Edit, Edit 

Before you post your blog online, make sure that you have someone read it for both grammatical and typographical errors, but also for value and accuracy of the content. An extra set of eyes on each piece of content you post can save you from having to rewrite for accuracy or from having to fix spelling and grammar mistakes. 

If you are new to the content creation game, try starting small and limit the number and length of your blog posts. Quality is always better than quantity. Stick to what you know and your personality will shine through to your readers, and quite possibly keep them coming back for more!