One of the biggest headaches for both a website designer and a client is the subject of content for a proposed website. The size of the site will tell you how much content is going to be needed but it’s always one of the most difficult areas to develop for a website.
At the start of a project, a client may not have prepared any pre-written content for any of the sections of the site and may just have an idea. This is where the role of a web designer plays an integral part.
What I will discuss today are a few quick and easy helper hints that will hopefully give any businesses thinking about setting up a website a starting point as to where to begin writing some website content.
Most websites have a similar structure
There are a few basic elements that are included on 95% of websites. These are displayed in a variety of ways but they are included if you look through any site on the web. What I’ve done for this blog is split these up into categories for their corresponding pages.
Index / Homepage
This is always the most important page of any website. It helps to give a first impression to a viewer what it is you do and what your site is about. When it comes to content for the homepage, it is important that this page is informative but doesn’t appear cluttered. It’s a common occurrence for a site to try and have as much information onto their homepage to tell the viewer as much information as possible. This isn’t necessary and we would advise when starting to write content for a homepage, to write a small summary about who you are, and then white a small section on what your site is about. A website is split into separate pages for a reason so that a viewer will be able to choose which content they want to read so keep it brief and to the point on the homepage.
About Us
It’s good to make a head start with the about us section when thinking about having a website created. This is your chance to tell a website viewer any information that you think they would want to know about you or your company. Some of the items you could include are meet the team, where you give a bit of information about the team you work with or a breakdown of the history of the company. People tend to trust companies that have been established for a prolonged period of time so if your company has some history, write a small section on it.
Services / Products
It’s important to break down your company if you sell a service or a product to the viewer. If you are planning on creating an e-commerce shop, a good place to start is to think about the categories you want in the shop and maybe a little bit of information about each of the products you plan to sell. If you provide a service, it’s a good idea to think about each specific service you provide and then write a small piece of content relating to that service. This will help you and web developer know what type of information you want to include within the site and how much text content you plan on providing so they can design a page appropriately.
Contact Us
This is an easy section to prepare as these pages normally include items such as phone numbers, addresses and email addresses. It’s common these days to use a Google Map representation of a location of work if you are a business which helps them find you if you provide a service or to locate your shop. You can also include items such as opening and closing times which will help a viewer know when best to contact you.
Terms and conditions & Privacy
These are items that are very important when having a website online, especially if it’s a trading website or product based service. We always recommend that these sections of a site are drafted up by professionals for example lawyers and solicitors. It’s probably not the first section of content you should consider when the site is being created but it is important to be considered at some point during the project.
These are the most commonly found sections on the web today, but there are of course many different ways of representing this information. There are also pages such as registration screens, catalogues and blogs that you’ll find on many websites today but these tend to be created once a framework has been developed.
Hopefully from these little break downs, it’ll help give you an idea of where to start when it comes to content writing. It doesn’t have to be a painful experience and if broken down into small, easy to manage chunks, it may even help you develop a better understanding of what you hope to get out of the site.
Useful information and facts! I have been previously looking for something like this for a little bit now. With thanks!