How Much Content Comprises A “Proper” Web Page?

Content Length Misconceptions – Learn What Not to Do

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a prospective client pertaining to issues revolving around the lack of informative, quality content on each of the pages on their website. This is not the first time over the years, that I’ve had to address this matter with prospects. And in all cases, I kid you not, each person has strongly defended the lack of content, telling me that either: a) they read “somewhere”; or b) their web designer “instructed them”, that the correct length of the content on each web page should be entirely visible above the fold, and NEVER below the fold. So they did everything correctly and “web proper”. Sigh …

The term “above the fold” is used in web development to refer to the portions of a web page that can be visible on the monitor without scrolling.

Umm … so based on the conviction of “a” and “b”, that means when we land on a website, only the portion of your computer monitor’s screen should have the content. So why, pray tell, is there a right side vertical scrollbar visible on practically every web page we visit?

A scrollbar is a graphical object which allows the user to view continuous text, pictures or anything else that does not fit into the space in a computer’s monitor screen.

Because of this most recent conversation, I dug back into my memory bank, and thought I’d educate those of you who are new to having your own website by sharing an experience I had with a client of mine about a year ago.

I was hired as an SEO and online marketing consultant by a real newbie. Bless her heart … she had absolutely no idea about what it would take to get her service related business online. She shared how, because of her naiveness (which of course ANY newbie would have, I completely understand that), she got suckered in to paying someone $200.00 to design a website for her. Oh yes … what a “deal” she thought she was going to get!

Without going into the whole story, let’s just say she got exactly what she paid for! A very crappy poorly coded antiquated-design mess of a site, if you could even call it a “site”.

As a matter of fact, this $200.00 design job was supposedly done by someone who had told her they really understood HTML coding. HA! What a joke! Let’s just say anybody could have done a better job by going online and researching basic HTML coding structure.

After I explained to her everything that was wrong with her site, the content, the SEO, etc., she begged my helping in redesigning the site, which I did handle for her, but for a fee of course.

If I seem like I am going off track here with the topic at hand, that being “How Much Content Comprises A “Proper” Web Page”, well I am … sort of. But I’m telling you this first part about the website design fiasco because this same “expert” gave my new client some of the most ridiculous information about website content and how much you should write for each page that I’d heard in a long time.

My New Client’s Understanding of Proper Content “Length”

My client had provided carefully written content for the 5-pages she wanted on her website that would promote her business. Part of my job was to research the keyword phrases to target for her niche, and to properly SEO the tags. Along with that, I coached her how to tweak her content so that it incorporated the keywords into each web site page of content.

Her pages definitely needed to utilize the keywords I’d chosen for her, but I also mentioned she needed to flesh out the content a bit more, too. Reason being that I knew her website visitors would be more prone to stay on her site and hopefully place an order with her, if she wasn’t so sketchy with the on-page information. I told her they’d probably click right off her web page and go back to the search page to find another site to visit.

In regard to this conversation she emailed me saying:

“My understanding of a ‘page’ is what you can see when strolling [sic] down before the page ends, and I was told that it was better to have it all in that area only.”

Ummm … okay … say what?

So … she believed that a web page’s content ought only to be visible above the fold. Or another way to put it, to only be visible on a computer screen without needing to scroll down in order to continue reading the rest of the page.

Wrong! (Like I said before, bless her heart! She was trusting this other ill-informed person to steer her in the right direction.)

So, to straighten her out, here was my email reply to her:

About web page length … I believe I understand what you are trying to explain to me about “what you can see when scrolling down before the page ends”. This is referred to as “above the fold”. Whomever the person is that told you that is quite ill-informed. Please know that a web page is however many words of informative and well written content and/or images it takes to complete that page and to make sense to the person reading it, and to provide the information they were hoping to find when they landed on that web page!

Think about it … how many darn websites do you go to that you do indeed keep scrolling down to continue reading the content? It is very rare that we land on a website that has just a couple of short paragraphs on each web page!

So, if you are brand new, or even more than a little new to getting a website up and running, please know that each page of content you write should be everything and more for your visitors! If a short page is all that is necessary and does the trick, then fine. If it takes many many words and images to provide a great web page, then fine! Scrolling down a page to keep reading the content is NOT even an issue!

I believe wholeheartedly that it is much better to over-deliver in the information you provide on each page. I personally maintain this attitude for almost everything I write for my websites and blogs. I do not take into consideration it’s length. I focus on quality of content!

I suggest you adopt this same attitude, too. You can’t be wrong by doing so, and your web site content will be all the better because of it!

Not sure if your website could use a little tweaking or a major over-haul in order to better promote your products or services to a larger target group of customers? That is why I am happy to offer a free 30-minute SEO phone consultation to you. To learn more or set-up a call with me, please go to: Complimentary Consultation. I look forward to chatting. My goal is always to help my clients achieve all they desire via their website and online marketing efforts!

Website Content: Put Your Best Foot Forward & Write An Effective “About Us” Page

Whether It’s “About Us” or “About Me” … Visitors Want to Know About You!

Are you aware of the importance of well written website content that is information packed for your “About Us” page? You’ve probably noticed this page on practically every site or blog you visit, but what are the key factors you really can’t afford to overlook when writing this page for your own site? Well, let me tell you what I believe you should not ignore if you want a great “About Us” page …

I often find many omissions of important information on people’s “About Us/Me” web page. Since I usually view web content with a critical SEO eye, I know that those omissions are also causing the site owner to miss out on a little extra ranking juice. But this doesn’t has to happen to you.

It’s important that you do your best to give your web site or blog visitor, who just might be a potential customer, a nice overview of you and/or your company, and what you do. It’s also very easy to take advantage of optimizing this page for search engine ranking purposes. The informative content basically goes hand-in-hand with what the search engine spiders are looking for, so it really isn’t hard to make your “About Us” page a good one in all respects.

Here’s what I suggest you should include on your “About Me” or “About Us” page:

• Highlight yourself and your key staff members – write a little something about each of you.
• Visitors love to see who “you” are. Include a nice smiling photo of yourself. A group shot of your staff works well, or individual photos work great, too. Make sure to list their names and if they have phone extensions, list those too;
• Be creative with the photo(s) of yourself or your staff. This a big plus and can really help drive across the uniqueness of what you have to offer. (And in the case of the first photo, can provide a chuckle for your visitor!)

  If it is appropriate in your marketing niche, something beyond the standard head shot is a great idea. In an image search on Google for “about us”, I found some of the most interesting photos and they sure made me understand the “feel” of what the web owner was wanting to get across to their site visitors.

  I’m showcasing these three “About Us” photos because I think they are excellent examples of how thinking outside the box can make your “About Us” or “About Me” page much more interesting and I do believe an approach such as these will leave a lasting impression in your customers minds!

  Please note I have NO AFFILIATION with any of these businesses … I am merely showcasing them to help give you some creative inspiration. Click on the photo to go to the “About” page of each business:

• Provide a short history of how you began and where your business is now (explain it’s growth);
• Proudly list your mission statement, or what sets you apart from the competition, as example;
• Any special recognitions, industry awards, etc. that are worth noting;
• Any business groups or organizations that you or your staff belong to;
• Your street address (or P.O. Box if you work from home and wish to protect your privacy), city, state and zip code;
• Your phone number – it’s preferable for SEO purposes to list a phone number with area code versus an #800 number (but list your #800 too if you do have one);
• Testimonials and/or a link to your Testimonial page if your have one;
• Anything else that you feel would set you apart from your competition and is worth noting.

Your “About Us” Content Needs to be Written as if You’re Speaking to that Visitor

Every bit of web content that I write, even for my www.SEO-Innovation.com site (which is purely an informational site for highlighting my SEO consulting and web developement services), is written with my personal flair.

I am a big advocate of writing as if you are literally speaking face-to-face to your visitor. Why not? This approach has always served me well, and based on the emails I receive saying “you express yourself in such a nice way … your tutorials are so easy to follow and understand”, etc. that I encourage you to use the same style when writing the oh-so important content for your “About” page.

Seven Little Tips For Writing Good Content

Easy To Do Tips for SEO Friendly & Reader Friendly Content

There is just no getting around the fact that “content is king” for any website or blog. It’s hugely important for SEO purposes, as the more keyword focused well written content you are able to place on your site, the more chances you will have at being found by an online searcher.

In addition, if your web page material keeps that searcher reading and interested after they’ve clicked into your site, then you’ve accomplished another important step in steering them towards the ultimate goal – which for most of us is to make a sale, and/or gather that person’s name and email address for our mailing list.

Informative & Original Content Will Always Serve You Well

I personally can’t “get away” from writing content on a daily basis, as I have two blogs and other online marketing projects in the works that demand I create fresh and interesting articles and web page copy. I am also constantly coaching my SEO clients on how to write good quality articles to place on their websites, so I provide lots of edited suggestions for improving their content for them to learn from.

And then I re-review, re-critque and/or re-edit my clients content before I let it go live on their sites, too. Not to mention I am hired by all clients to put the final finishing SEO touches to their articles such as writing the Title and meta tags, the page Titles and subheaders … and making sure each page is keyword optimized.

Whew … that’s a normal day for me … write, write, write.

So, in the spirit of all this, and my newest client who has never had a website before, and is not real web-savvy about what constitutes good quality content, I thought these seven little tips might come in handy for her, and anyone else reading this.

Simply put these tips are:

• Write ORIGINAL content – plagiarism is a no-no.
• Make sure that original content exudes “you” – write it like you would “talk it” if you were face-to-face with the visitor.
• Create informative content that serves your visitor’s needs first and foremost.
• Write the content to provide exactly the information your visitor was searching for. Length of each page of content is exactly as many paragraphs as it will take for you to provide quality information!
• Create great content that your visitor will be glad they found. And PLEASE make sure your content makes sense! Read it back to yourself, or better yet someone else, before you upload it onto your site.
• Make your content keyword focused and based on real “behaviorally based research” – in other words DON’T guess and use keywords you think people are typing in as search queries (90% of the time you’ll probably be wrong!). RESEARCH the keywords people are actually typing in as search queries.
• And lastly … make sure your content has a solid, well written “call to action” if appropriate for that particular page and the information it provides.

Happy writing.

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