There’s no denying it: it is difficult to drive traffic to your website. There are countless competitors, whether direct or indirect, vying for the fickle attention of the web surfer. The marketing plan you develop to bring visitors to your website can have various effective tactics and techniques, but the one that should top your list is often given a lower priority—and sometimes forgotten completely.

Content is king

You may have heard that “content is king.” In making your strategy for attracting website visitors, nothing could be truer. Think about it: you can spend good money to bring web surfers to your site. However, if what you have to give them is poorly written, outdated, or irrelevant to their needs, you will have lost them in seconds.

Of course, there’s another reason why you want top-notch content on your website. Search engines reward excellent writing with higher placement in search results. Isn’t that what you’re after anyway?

Four signs of great content

So now that you know you need powerful, well-crafted content, what’s the next step? If you have the resources, you may consider hiring a skilled copywriter. At the very least, you should work with someone who is familiar with good writing and can help with editing. If you plan on writing your own content, make sure that you have others read it before you post. Whatever you do, make sure your website displays these four signs of great content.

1. Great content is worthwhile and relevant. While there are few objective rules that can determine this for you, you probably have a good idea from your own web surfing what content on websites is “worth your while.” Ask others what they would want to read when looking for a website on your topic. Show your copy to others, and ask their opinions. Make sure, too, that search keywords and phrases are in your content in addition to similar words and phrases.
2. Great content is updated frequently. A good suggestion is to make sure that your website’s writing is revised and updated at least every two months. More frequent revisions will serve you better. Not only will this keep readers coming back, but search engines love it, too!
3. Great content avoids writing convention errors. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors can detract from the best content. Readers will not view error-riddled writing as authoritative. And once again, there’s reason to believe that search engines consider a website’s spelling and grammar in determining ranking in search results. If you’re not a grammar expert, ask an editor to read your writing.
4. Great content is short and to the point. There may be few places where this is more true than on the web. People are quick to click elsewhere if you don’t give them what they need. Keep paragraphs at just a few sentences. Use bulleted and numbered lists interspersed in your copy. Break up long sentences and paragraphs. Your readers will thank you by continued reading.

If you want to drive more traffic to your website, content is clearly the best place to start. Your website content should always command the most of your attention when working on search engine marketing. Not only will search engines reward you with higher placement, but your visitors will keep coming back for more!