Phanatique

How pleasant is a glass of icy tonic water with 2 slices of lemon in a torrid summer day? Let’s make your web site as cool and refreshing as this drink!

First, you have to know that a web site is not just an online brochure that presents in a static manner your business. A web site gives you the opportunity to keep your users up to date to all new things about you, to interact with them and to learn many things from this interaction. In this way you can evolve, be better and more competitive day by day.

Ask yourself: how often would you visit a web site which is the same every time you visit it? Probably 2 or 3 times. Your users’ online behavior is the same. If you do not offer them new stuff regularly, you will lose them for good.

What is to be done then?

1. Build your website with the possibility to refresh your content (include in the menu at least 2 or 3 sections that offers you the possibility to add new content constantly).
2. Determine a strategy for your web site content (based on your target public, your field of activity, your keywords, your channels of communication, etc).

Benefits of adding fresh content are significant:

• Makes your site attractive – for users and for search engine spiders. Both categories will visit your site more often if you keep it fresh.
• Fresh content will multiply your keywords appearances in the text and will help you with the search engines ranking.
• You will gain visitors loyalty – good content can lead to linking, free advertising (word of mouth) and new visitors to the web site.
• You will increase your brand awareness, your brand familiarity among users.

In this point, we will probably have these questions:

What can I write about?

Should I write this content myself or do I need help on this one?

Let’s answers. First question: you can write about trends, updates, competitors, products lifecycles, events, tradeshows, new offerings, entering new markets, tips and techniques, advice, opinions, new certificates for your business, successful projects, and plenty more.

Second question: web content writing is a time-consuming job, and not a part-time one. You can do it yourself if you have time and you know what to do. Or, you can hire a web editor, a person who will be responsible for all the content on your web site (text, video, audio, graphics).

Some ideas that help you generate fresh content constantly:

• News section – in this section you can write about all the new things related to your business and your field of activity.
• Events section – in this section you will keep your users informed about all the events in your domain of activity, events in which you take part or events that your users would be interested to participate.
• White papers – these are online essays on a specific topic. These are longer then editorials (5 to 7 pages) and written in a formal style.
• Editorials – types of content on different topics (opinions, events, analysis) similar to the editorial from newspapers. These are shorter and less formal.
• Press releases – these should be centered on topics related to your activity and should include your keywords to be optimized for web release. They can have an outstanding effect on your back-linking strategy.
• Newsletters – can include promotional offers, new services or products you are offering, new articles, links, anything that you want to reach your client in a short and attractive form.
• Products reviews – this is a section in which your users create new content, sharing their impressions about your products.
• Blog – this is the most direct, informal and effective channel of communication online. A blog gives you the chance to talk about all the relevant things in your activity and all other things off-topic.

P.S. Now, a funny treat for you: Ugliest / Worst Web Sites of 2009: Honorary Winners
This web site has enough funny treats for a whole year=))

Tags: blog, brand awareness, channel, communication, editorial, events, fresh content, keywords, linking, news, newsletter, online behavior, online marketing, press release, product reviews, site section, strategy, target public, visitors loyalty, white paper, word of mouth

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.