Content vs. Container

There is a common type of website owner that has a tendency to believe that no further effort on their part is required once the initial setup is complete. For them, the site is nearly done after a good domain and the proper content management system are chosen. All that is left for them to do then is to use such avenues as AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and traffic will simply come pouring in. The hard truth for these website owners is that all the money and time spent on SEO efforts such as these are pointless unless the site itself is regularly updated with fresh and valuable content.

Content Must be Fresh

The primary characteristic of good content is that it must capture the reader’s attention. If it fails to do this, then all further efforts are pointless. Attention spans on the Internet are notoriously short and site owners only have a few seconds to garner their reader’s interest. The tone of the content goes a long way to ensure that visitors do not stray. To accomplish this, the language used should generally be accessible and lively, but not to an extreme degree. Otherwise, the reader may feel that their intelligence is being insulted and they will soon look elsewhere and never come back.

Content Must be Valuable

It does not matter whether visitors wish to learn something new or simply to be entertained for a while: Content must be something the reader can use. The more important it is to their interests, the more value that content has. There is a balancing act involved in creating valuable content. The message should be tailored to as wide an audience as possible without being diluted to the point that it loses its relevance.

Content Must be Regular

The visitor must know that when they return to the site, they will not just be offered the same things they have seen before. Certainly there will be items of interest that they wish to revisit, but dependably-timed updates will keep people engaged on a regular basis.

The most important thing to remember is that a CMS is not the content itself. It is merely the container that holds the content. What many website owners have lost sight of or never considered to begin with is that there is no point in spreading the word when there is nothing being said.