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With the new Toy Story 3 film upon us, I started thinking….
I love Pixar films! What I love about them is that they are ‘story-driven’. Yes, they have spellbinding effects and they have A-list actors to do the voices, but all that is secondary to the ‘story’. Everything revolves around the ‘story’. The story is king.
I give this example to my clients when they want a website designing. I explain that you can have a great looking website with lovely designs, Flash and links to all the coolest social media sites. However sooner or later your visitors will see past all that and they’ll think you are more froth than Cappuccino. They will think you have no substance – and content is substance. In the world of websites, ‘content’ is king.
Think of your favourite websites. Why do you keep visiting them? Why do you spend large amounts of the day on any particular site?
The Answer: Because they are interesting.
What makes them interesting?
The Answer: Because they have great content.
Content is what makes a great website. No one visits a website that doesn’t have anything to look at or do. The most successful websites have great content. They know how to keep the customer interested by having fresh and relevant content.
Nowadays more and more businesses are understanding the power of content and are changing their websites accordingly. You’ll see for yourself how more and more websites have blogs, free articles, vlogs, podcasts, video content, and links to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc. All these things make a website more interesting. There’s more to see, to read and to do.
When you keep changing the content and keep it fresh, the customer will keep coming back – all because of the content.
Remember – content drives action.
If you want to sell something on your website, remember that the ‘content’ is what will:
a) Drive people to your site
b) Keep them there long enough and inform them of your product/service in an interesting way
c) Ultimately help them make the decision whether to buy from you
d) Hopefully keep them coming back again, and again, and again….
Make sure your website is ‘content-driven’. Make your website interesting. Make it fresh and relevant. Give your customer something great to see, to watch and to do. Don’t get caught up so much in how good the site looks. Don’t get me wrong, make it look nice, but give it substance. Make sure that after all the Flash, glitz and glamour, that there’s something underneath. When doing a movie, Pixar will think, “The story first, the animation second. “
You should think, “Content first, design second.”
Our websites need to be more ‘content-driven’. Ultimately that is what will keep our visitors interested (and keep them coming back!)
Maybe we should think more like Pixar and make our websites more ‘Content Driven’ because ultimately ‘Content is king’.
Hi, I’m Haroon Rashid and I’m the author of this blog and the founder of Finisher Creative. If you are a small business or a charity/non-profit I would be more than happy to talk to you about your online marketing and social media needs. If you’re in the Yorkshire area (UK) I’ll even take you out for a coffee! You can email me on info@finishercreative.com, check me out on Facebook or follow me @FinisherCre8ive I look forward to hearing from you!
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I couldn’t agree more. I must admit I fall for the making it pretty trap. After all a picture paints a thousand words and as a photographer that what I do. I wish I could write good content to go with the pictures.
Posted by John Steel | July 14, 2010, 13:26Thanks for the comment John!
One thing we are implementing in our own website now is great content alongside every portfolio picture. We are going to discuss the background of each design; why that design; challenges; successes; our likes about it etc. If you include some web links to the client’s websites and some good ‘Key Words’ you’ve got a better chance of your website being found.
Maybe that’s something to consider?….
Posted by finishercreative | July 14, 2010, 13:33Like the philosophy. So many websites are no more than glossy e-brochures. I want content. I want to be informed and i want to learn about my field. I will judge how good someone is by their ability to provide a solution.
Posted by Richard Roylance | August 3, 2010, 08:00