Website content ideas

More ideas for your website

Looking for website content ideas to complement your written pages? Text will probably form the bulk of your website - unless your site focuses specifically on an image-based niche.

Even if videos or images do make up a major focus of your content, however, don't forget about the importance of written information for search engines.

A properly optimized web page with a mixture of text and images, for example, could be the best way for you to attract traffic.

Curb your enthusiasm to put too many "extras" on a page. It's easy to get carried away with a whole pile of website content ideas that will end up annoying your visitors!

Depending on the theme of your site, surfers may not expect to find your pages swamped by

a glut of images
bursts of music
or continual offers of ebook downloads

Basically, use your common sense - keep your choice of features relevant to your site.

Website content ideas - Images

Adding images to your website helps visitors
Images certainly add that something extra to a page, making the content layout more attractive and, if carefully chosen, letting the visitor know they are in the right place.

Careful placement of images, white space and text help lead your reader down the page and direct them to the next step you want them to take - which could be visiting another page on your site or clicking on a money-making link.

You can add alternative text to the HTML of your images
This can include keywords relevant to the page and help your image be found within image search results on the search engines.

Also, visitors using speech browsers or text-only browsers will still be able to follow what's going on within the page.

Many excellent websites use very few images
Other sites need them, however. If you're advising on flower arranging, photos of your masterpiece will let your visitor know exactly what the finished product looks like. And for a fitness or diet site, "before and after" images are fascinating!

Video

Video - the latest hot website content idea!
It's relatively easy to make your own videos, and again, they come into their own on travel-based sites or within how-to pages.

You don't even need to have a video camera to make your own videos. Combining images, screenshots or simply text with your own voiceover can provide your visitors with useful information in an attractive format.

You can upload your own videos to sites such as YouTube. Not only can this help drive traffic, but video is also beginning to appear in regular search engine result pages.

Music

Music adds another extra dimension
It's not something every site will be suited for; but if you're teaching kids' songs or promoting your latest (potential) hit, your visitors may appreciate the experience. Basically, if it's relevant - include it. If not - don't!

Games

Many bigger sites include an online games section
This website content idea, if done well, can be a good way to attract returning traffic. All too often, though, sites with content of less quality and quantity include uninspriring games too.

Still thinking of adding games?
If so, make sure they're fast to load, give clear instructions how to play, and concentrate on fewer games of better quality.

Forums

Forums need traffic to make them effective
People don't post on empty forums. Think hard before jumping into forum building - this kind of website content idea can mean a lot of hard work for very little return if it doesn't work out.

Forums as an add-on to a site
Forums help to keep visitors coming back - and let you find out what they think about your topic - as well as your site.

Wait until your website traffic merits a forum, however. Conduct a survey on your site first to see if there is any interest. Do your visitors already interact with you via feedback forms or polls on the site or competitions? Does your site cover a topic that feeds a lot of discussion?

Some websites are forums
Do your research carefully before you start - how are you going to attract your initial contributors and promote your site?

Forums need constant monitoring
You'll need a moderator or two to keep things organized once the traffic starts flowing. You'll need to read posts, answer them, edit them, move them around a bit or delete them. It all takes time.

So all in all, this is one of those website content ideas that certainly shouldn't be rushed into.

Downloads

There are all kinds of downloads you can add to a site:

games
music
software
video...
...or ebooks, for example.

You'll have to decide whether to charge for some or all of them; but offering a few freebies always goes down well with your visitors and may get your site extra exposure.

Ezine/Newsletter

Keeping in touch via email
Providing your visitors with a regular newsletter keeps your visitors coming back for more - or at least reminds them you still exist! Building up a decent ezine list takes time and a reasonable amount of effort.

Plan your ezine before you start
Promising a weekly newsletter can be too much too soon at the start. A monthly, or as-and-when newsletter can work fine, too - think of your topic and audience and suit it to them.

Poll/Votes

Do you take part in website polls?
A lot of us do! Adding an interactive poll to your site can be interesting for your website visitors; often included in a side column, you can obtain quite a lot of useful information from your audience.

Ideas for using polls
Find out visitor opinion; get them to rank top baby names or choose from a list of suggestions about how a problem should be solved - and let them see the results as the poll grows.

You can then write a page about the poll, what it asked, what the results were and what it all means. Another page of content!

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