How To Create Content for Your Website (Plus Tips)

Updated June 30, 2023

Having a professional website and successful online presence can help businesses attract new customers, provide value to existing customers and establish themselves as leaders within their industry. Since customer needs and market trends are always evolving, it's important for a business to ensure the content on their website is up to date, accurate and valuable to their customers. Whether you're looking to create a brand new website, completely redesign an existing one or simply make some improvements, understanding how to create effective content can benefit you.

In this article, we describe how to create content for a website, explain why it’s important to have good content and offer some helpful tips for your design process.

Key takeaways:

Website content includes artifacts such as text, video, images, charts and audio that end-users can interact with.
When you create content, it's important to consider what's unique about your website, your audience and any key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you measure success.
Website content is important for increasing lead generation, improving visitor engagement and highlighting your specific industry expertise.

What is website content?

Website content includes visual, textual or audio content that users experience when they visit a website. It may include text, images, sounds, animations or music. Some common types of website content you may create include:

Blog posts
Downloads
Testimonials
Webinars
Videos
Podcast episodes
Photos
Graphics
Case studies
White papers
E-books
Surveys and forms

How to create content for your website

Here are some steps you can follow to create regular content for your website:

1. Determine your unique value proposition

Before you create new content for your website, consider what your unique value proposition is. A unique value proposition is a clear statement that defines the benefits your company offers, how you solve your customers' needs and what distinguishes you from your competitors. Explain your services, products and process to potential website visitors so that they understand why they should be interested in your company and how you can work together.

Determining your unique value proposition is important because it is the overarching theme for all the content you create for your website. Ensure your unique value proposition is easy for visitors to find on your website, and refer back to it often for reference.

2. Conduct a website audit

If you already have an existing website you want to update it, conducting a website audit can help you determine which areas are working and where there is room for improvement. It can also help you identify what pieces of content you can reuse for your new website, which can save you time. Create a list of all the content you plan to repurpose, content that needs to be refreshed and content that needs to be created. This can help you allocate your time and resources more effectively as you create content.

3. Identify your target audience

It is important to identify who your target audience is to ensure you create content they want to read and engage with. To get a better understanding of who your target audience is, consider developing customer personas. A customer persona is a semi-fictional archetype that many companies use to represent key attributes of a large segment of their target audience. You can base each customer persona on previous observations, research and analytics collected from your existing customers. Some of the key elements customer personas often include are:

Demographics: Identify the age, gender, geography, education level, income and family situation of your average customer.
Values and goals: Consider what your customers may desire, fear, believe, hope and aspire to in their personal and professional lives.
Career: Ask yourself what industries or job roles may relate to your ideal customer's career.
Hobbies and interests: Think about what your average customer enjoys doing in their free time, what types of entertainment they consume and what interests them.
Motivators and challenges: Consider what motivates your customers to make decisions and what challenges may prevent them from purchasing your products or services. This can help you identify ways your content may convince them to purchase from you.

Here is an example of a customer persona:

Tina Lawry is a 35-year-old woman who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her golden retriever. She works as a personal trainer at a local gym and teaches yoga classes on the weekends. Fitness is very important to her, and she enjoys reading health and wellness magazines. One day, she hopes to open her own fitness studio.

Read more: How To Create a Buyer Persona (With 4 Examples)

4. Include the essentials

Ensure your website includes the most valuable information for visitors by identifying which elements are essential. People may visit your website to conduct research, learn something new or discover relevant information. Some of the key elements you may consider creating content for on your website include:

An about page
A services or products page
An FAQ section
Employee spotlights
Career opportunities
Case studies and client testimonials
A portfolio to showcase your best work
A blog section with regularly updated content
A contact us page or form

5. Create content for each stage of the sales funnel

It is important to create a variety of content to use on your website because different types of content appeal to different customers at different stages of the sales funnel. A sales funnel is a marketing term that refers to the journey a customer goes through before they make a purchase. Here are the different stages of the sales funnel where you may want to create content:

Top of the funnel

Visitors at the top of the sales funnel may not have heard of your brand, services or products before. To engage with these potential customers, provide content that introduces your company and your unique value proposition. You can also include content that features your team, shares your vision or educates your visitors.

Middle of the funnel

Visitors in the middle of the sales funnel may be familiar with your brand, services or products, but they still need to be convinced to make a purchase. To provide value to these customers, consider offering free educational resources, such as short informative blog posts or infographics. You can also include case studies and client testimonials to influence their decision to purchase your products or services.

Bottom of the funnel

Visitors at the bottom of the sales funnel have already engaged with your content and have a clear understanding of the benefits you offer. To provide value to these potential customers, consider crafting premium content that they can download by completing a short form or supplying their contact information. Examples of premium content include webinars, e-books or downloadable worksheets, and you can add a call to action to these pieces of content to help increase your leads and sales.

6. Optimize your website content

Once you've identified what type of content you plan to create, you can learn how to optimize it to rank well on search engines. This can help visitors find your website. To optimize your website content, focus on:

Keywords: Search engine optimized (SEO) content typically depends on a specific keyword that your target audience cares about and may search for. For example, if you are a wedding photographer, some of the keywords people may use to find your website include "wedding photography," "engagement photographer," "places to take wedding photos" and "wedding photography inspiration."
Length: Most search engines require website content to be a certain length so that they can accurately determine what the content is about. Aim to have at least 300 to 500 words per page or blog post to improve your SEO rank.
Quality: Producing quality content can keep visitors on your website longer, which may increase your SEO rank. Revisit your customer personas to create content with your visitors in mind, and use clear, concise language that is easy to understand.

7. Develop a content schedule

Next, develop a content schedule to help you strategically organize how often you plan to create and publish new content on your website. Include what topics you plan to cover and who is responsible for developing the content. Try to plan ahead by outlining a content schedule that covers the next month or quarter. You may also decide to focus on a specific customer persona or part of the sales funnel to get started and incorporate more variety as you progress.

8. Measure and track your performance

To ensure your content is relevant and valuable to your website visitors, routinely evaluate and track the performance of the content you produce. You can consider which pieces of content are being shared, which pages are receiving the most views and how long visitors are spending on each page to help you determine what type of content is the most successful. This can also help you identify where there is room for improvement and optimize your content schedule to focus on more engaging topics moving forward.

Why is it important to create effective web content?

It is important to create regular content for your website to ensure you are providing value to your visitors. Creating new content for your website can:

Increase your search engine optimization (SEO). Creating quality content that is relevant and up-to-date can improve your SEO rank and help people find your website.
Improve your visitor engagement. If visitors find your website content valuable, it increases the likelihood that they may share the content with their friends, family members and social network. This can help you increase website traffic, leads and sales.
Increase the time visitors spend on your website. Visitors who find your content interesting may spend more time on your website, leading them to learn more about your products and services. This can also influence them to become a customer.
Highlight your expertise. Creating professional content for your website can help establish you as a thought leader in your industry and increase the credibility of your brand.

Tips for creating effective website content

Here are some tips to help you create effective website content:

Learn basic HTML coding. Even if you hire a professional website developer, learning basic HTML coding can help you properly format and update the content on your website. Consider enrolling in an online course, watching a series of instructional videos or researching simple HTML codes to enhance the design of your website content.
Promote your website on social media. Use your social media channels to drive traffic to your website by sharing links to the content you produce. You can share links to new blog posts, educational resources and downloadable premium content.
Proofread your website copy. Before you publish a new piece of content to your website, take the time to proofread it carefully. You can also ask a friend, family member or colleague to proofread your content for you.
Focus on quality over quantity. While keeping your content up to date and providing new materials for your visitors is important, make sure the content you create is quality. Focus on crafting content around keywords and topics your customers care about and provide them with valuable resources and information.