Website content: what it is and how to use it

Published by Incomedia in Guides and Tips · Wednesday 22 Feb 2023 · 9:00

There's a moment when you stare at the blank screen of your PC with the cursor flashing and time seems to stand still, blocked like your mind which can't produce anything.

Creating website content isn't always easy. Luckily, something finally unblocks, and ideas and words then begin to flow.

To help you overcome this "writer's block", it might be useful to take stock of the various types of content you can use and reiterate why and how you should use them. If, at the end, you're still looking for ideas, we'll take a look at some tools which may be effective for unblocking the situation.

A brief introduction

If you're getting ready to produce content to insert into the pages of your website, this means you've already done a bit of thinking and, consequently, you've made a few decisions.

You've defined your goals i.e., what you want to achieve
You've identified your relevant audience
You've established the tone of voice to maintain

What's that? You didn't? Take the time to do it. Only with clear ideas on these points can you create content that truly interests those you're looking to reach, leading you to the results you're looking for.

If, on the other hand, you've done your homework, you're on the right track for creating excellent content, i.e., content that's capable of satisfying people's needs for information, training or commerce and has the ability to stand out in the vast sea of the internet.

Types of content

Not all content is the same. Each type has its own specificities and lends itself well to certain purposes compared to others. As such, they're typically at their best when they're used in combination with each other.

Let's take a look at main types of content we can use for a website.

Text

This is THE quintessential content. It's into this category that all written material falls, from short bits of news to long blog articles, from product descriptions to reviews. Text can be used for many purposes: to provide information regarding a company or an organization, to present products or services, to tell a story, etc.

To be high quality, it's not only what's said that's important but how it's said. As such, it's always good to keep in mind the rules of good copywriting. It must be written in clear and easy-flowing language that's consistent with the website's style and is relevant to the reader.

Finally, the text must respect SEO rules so it can be optimally positioned on search engines.

Images and animations

Another type of content that never fails, images make web pages more attractive and appealing, set moods, suggest emotions, show products and clarify the concepts expressed in the text.

Given the importance of the role they play, it's wise to choose the images carefully, aiming for quality and, when the budget allows for it, investing in ad hoc professional images.

In addition to static images, you can also use animations. You can create GIFs and use them, which are especially popular on social networks, or go for more complex HTML5 animations depending on the situation.

In any case, images and animations must be carefully optimized, so their size doesn't excessively hinder the loading of pages.

Infographics and diagrams

Infographics and diagrams can make information easier to understand and more attractive. They can be used to explain complex concepts, show data or statistics, or present information in a visual way.

Considering that the human brain takes a long time to process letters and numbers, and after a few days, 90% of this information is forgotten, replacing a wall of text with an infographic can significantly help the reader, making him or her more able to remember the information you're looking to convey.

With the tools available today, creating an infographic is pretty easy, but it still requires a bit of effort and work.

However, the investment is justified if we consider that infographics are one of the most viral types of content on the internet.

Video

Another type of content that's extremely effective and potentially viral is videos. Videos are a great way to tell a story and therefore convey engaging content with a high emotional impact.

At the same time, videos are also good for communicating a brand's values, presenting products/services and providing information and training.

Of course, making videos requires more effort than more traditional content, but with the tools available today, it has become a task that's within everyone's reach. Naturally, we must always aim for quality videos optimized for the internet, but a certain number of technical imperfections are forgiven if the basic concept is successful.

Podcasts

Finally, we can't forget podcasts which, in recent times, have risen to prominence, capturing an increasingly large audience. It's basically audio content that's usually saved as an MP3 file.

The most common examples are radio podcasts, but there are many others in these truly diverse times. Generally, they have the purpose of entertaining, informing or training. People appreciate them because they can also listen to them at their convenience, perhaps while they're busy doing something else.

Content styles

So, in your web pages, you can insert texts, images, animations, videos or audio tracks, but to create what? With these ingredients at your disposal, you can create surprisingly different recipes and dishes.

Here are some of the most common and most used formats on the internet:

Lists: Numbered or bulleted lists are ideal for presenting information in a concise and easy-to-follow way. Use them to avoid creating walls of text or endless monologues.
Storytelling: Storytelling can make content more engaging and interesting, helping to create an emotional connection with the audience. After all, everyone loves to hear a story.
Interviews: You can use interviews to provide a different perspective or to present an expert opinion on a topic.
Long-form: Long-form content is great for providing detailed and in-depth information regarding a topic. Useful for SEO, it requires a greater commitment, both on the part of those who create it and on the part of those who read it.
Reviews: These help potential customers form an opinion about a product or service. They're actively sought out since other customers are thought to be more trustworthy than a company.
Reports: These are a good way to tell the story of a company or an organization, thus offering a glimpse inside.

Tools

At this point, you know what types of content you can rely on, and you also know how to combine them to create some of the formats that work best on the internet.

It could still be, however, that you don't know which topic to develop your content around, or you may realize that you don't have the necessary skills to create it. Luckily, there are tools that can help you.

Google Trends

The first tool you absolutely need to know about is Google Trends, a service that, as you can easily imagine, is available for free from the Mountain View giant.

This tool allows you to see, in real time, the most popular search topics. In practice, Google analyzes the searches that people do every day within Google Search, Google News, Google Images, YouTube and Google Shopping and determines the trending topics.

You can use Google Trends in different ways. For example, you can start from a search query of your choosing to see how much interest it's experiencing, or you can simply view the list of trending topics for the last 24 hours.

In a short time, you'll be able to gather ideas and useful information to decide which topic to create your next bit of content around.

AI tools

Speaking of trends, one of the topics that has recently undergone a surge on Google Trends (and remember that "surge" means an increase in search volumes of more than 500% over a specified amount time) is precisely that of Artificial intelligence.

The promise of AI is to help us solve tasks that, until recently, were completely up to people.

GPT Chats is something has really sparked everyone's interest and curiosity. It's an artificial intelligence-based chatbot with whom you can speak in order to receive answers on any topic. But it can do much more than that. It can write text, proofread, summarize, translate, simplify complex concepts and create tables from texts. It can also write code. The only subject it's not good at is math.

It's currently free. You can simply register, chat with it and let it help you create your content.

Chat GPT, of course, is not the only AI tool to consider. There are others for text editing (also optimized for SEO), there are those for image generation (such as Dall-e and Midjourney), those who work with video, audio, code, etc. There's also Futurpedia.io, a directory that collects AI tools, and it's growing at a rapid pace.

The debate on the use of AI tools is ongoing. There are many issues still to be resolved, but these are tools that can help us with many tasks. It's worth staying informed, trying them and discovering how to use them to increase our productivity.

In closing

Of course, you can get help from an AI tool, but the fact remains that creating content, especially if you want it to be useful and of high quality, requires a certain investment of time and energy. Why, then, limit yourself to using a piece of content just once?

Keep in mind that content can be recycled. If, for example, you have written a long, in-depth article, you can use it to obtain an abstract to publish on Linkedin, or a series of snippets to publish on Facebook or even an infographic to share on Instagram. It's a smart way to optimize your investment.

By working this way, with passion and a process, you'll be able to overcome the infamous writer's block, produce interesting content and - what ultimately matters most - satisfy your audience.