How to plan your website content

Plus Free Website Content Planner Guide

Anxiety, overwhelm, panic.

These are common with my clients when I ask for their website content.

Most come to me completely unprepared and don’t have a clear vision of what they want their website to look like and achieve. They just know that they need one. Sound familiar? That’s cool. Trust me, you aren’t alone.

The first question I ask my client is: “Why do you need a website?” Nearly all will tell me that “my competitors have one, so I need one too”. Yeah ok, fair enough and true enough. But I need to know more than that.

When planning your website REALLY think about:

What you want to achieve with your website now.
What you want to achieve in the future.
Who is visiting your website.
What your customers want to achieve.
What your customers want to experience.
What YOU want your customers to do.
Your budget.

If you start thinking about these, you are on your merry way.

How to nail your website content

via GIPHY

What you need to achieve right now.

Really think about what you are needing you website to do to help your business right now. Maybe it’s to tell clients about your services, answer frequently asked questions and tell them how to contact you. Maybe you just need a simple website presence so you can win a tender. Or, you are needing a way to streamline your business to cut down on admin time by directing clients to book your services and pay in the one place.

What you want to achieve in the future?

Having a clear goal in mind can help build the foundations of your website. If you are wanting a membership portal with and e-course or a place where clients can see their products and services you will need to let your designer and developer know so they can prepare your website now and avoid any expensive overhauls in the future.

Who is visiting your website?

Who do you want visiting your website? Do you have a clear vision on who your ideal client is? Having a target market avatar will help with website branding, layout and UX (user experience). It will help choose colours, imagery and even fonts that appeal to them. It will help your copywriter considerably to be able to speak to them in your brand’s voice.

What do your customers want to achieve?

You will need to place yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes. What are they wanting to ultimately achieve by visiting your website. This will come down to the previous question and depend on your target market.

Perhaps you are a landscaper for the budget conscious and your ideal client avatar is Bob. Bob will want to see your services, packages and most definitely your pricing. Bob will want to see if you are an actual person – he will check out your About Me page, guaranteed. Bob will want to know your contact number – because he hates email.

On the other hand, maybe your a high-end landscaper. Your ideal client Jeanette doesn’t have a budget. She will want to see your services, portfolio, references and how to book you (preferably online).

Knowing what your customers’ goals are will help know what pages you are needing for your website and the content required.

What your customers expect to experience

Considering what your target market is going to want to experience affects the design and the content of a website.

Again, we are going to slip into Bob and Jeanette shoes.

Bob’s a country guy, straight shooter and just wants to get in, get the job done and get out. He’ll want clear directions on where to head next with clear, no bullshit copy. He basically just wants the information laid out in front so he can make a decision and have an easy way to contact.

On the other hand, Jeanette is probably in the luxe bracket so she is wanting the luxe experience. She wants to see all the pretty pictures, to be wooed with fluffy words and to be given a journey throughout the website. She’ll probably head to the landscaper’s instagram page to stalk for a while and then decide to contact them at a later stage.

Having a clear idea of your target market’s avatar will be extremely beneficial when understanding what they will be expecting when they arrive on your website.

What YOU want your customers to do

Think about what you want your customers to do when they visit your website. For example, you might:

want them to book online to streamline your business and create less admin for you;
contact you via phone so you can chat and create a relationship;
see your services so you aren’t repeating yourself 50 times a day;
sign up to your newsletter so you can start warming up a cold audience.

‘Call to actions’ help direct your website visitors by simply telling them what to do. You will have seen them scattered over every website you have ever been on. “Buy Now”, “Book Your Stay With Us”, “Read More”, “Download our latest Newsletter” all of these things tell your visitors what you want them to do – and basically, people love being directed and told what to do next.

Your Budget

It’s important to be realistic about your budget and what you can achieve right now. While you may have awesome plans to have a membership portal, e-course or online bookings etc etc. These things take time to plan and are very time consuming to build. You may have plans for a 10 page website but only have the budget for a one page. This is all ok! Think about whether you need them straight away when you launch your website. If you do, then you may need to save until you have the required budget, or just simply launch your website without them and build on it later.

Conclusion

Creating a website without a clear plan can make the process overwhelming and have your running for the safety of your bedcovers. It doesn’t have to be like that, thankfully. When you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve now and in the future, who your target market it, what they want to achieve and how you want them to achieve it, content will start coming together. Once you have it mapped out, you can hand it over to your web designer and copywriter or create your own website with confidence, making the whole process a hellova lot smoother, quicker and less stressful.

FREEBIE!!

YAY! Who doesn’t love a GOOD freebie?!

Get your nerd on with my Website Content Planner Guide. It’s 16 pages of guide-ness to get you started with your content. You can download it below.

This way it will give you a clear idea on what copy to create for your website or you can hand it over to a copywriter who will bless you for it and create amazing Googley words for you.

If you aren’t creating your own website, hand it over to your web designer and they will probably cry tears of salty joy.

Plan your entire website with this free downloadable website planner.