Part 3 of Building a Successful Website: Content

Previously in this series, I’ve explored the research and planning stage, as well as the design stage of building a successful website… now it’s time to look at the all-important content stage.

Without content, there’s nothing to design and no reason for people to visit your website. The type of content you include will depend on the purpose of your site and its relevance to your target audience.

You should be aware of the the impact certain types of content will have on your site. For example, predominantly text-based sites with little or no imagery will be quick to load, but could be fairly bland to look at. On the other hand an all-singing, all-dancing site with large full-bleed imagery and featured videos may look amazing but could take ages to load, meaning few people will wait around to view it. Therefore, the challenge is to get the right balance between a fast page-load and an attractive design.

The way in which your content is arranged for the audience to digest, plays a huge part in the success of your website. The hierarchy of information, created through headings, pull-out quotes, bullet points and succinct text will capture the audience’s attention far better than long chunks of uninterrupted text.

Using a ‘call to action’ (CTA) is a great way of encouraging your audience to visit a certain page or complete a certain action, such as getting in touch via a contact form, signing-up to your newsletter or reading more about a specific subject. This will help you shape how your audience uses your website, to make sure important information doesn’t get overlooked.