A geeky blog about digital thinking, digital doing and technology

The internet serves billions of users across the globe and is composed of millions of networks linked to deliver a vast array of content.

But there is a lot of bad content. I’m sure you’ve all come across something that looks dull, irrelevant or confusing.

So what makes good content?

You make good content. Or at least if you want your site to be interesting you should be creating good content. So where do you start to ensure that your target audience will stay on your site once they find it?

• First things first, ask yourself, what’s the purpose of your website? Define your purpose at the beginning, before you even write the first piece of content. Otherwise you’ll waste time and money going round in circles trying to find a reason for writing content.
• Who are you talking to? What is the best way to communicate with these people? Do you actually need a website or is it a blog that you need?
• Content is king to both your visitors and to search engines. Don’t just fill the white space, research and plan what you have to say then clearly structure your delivery.
• Don’t overcomplicate your language, use straight forward words that your users will understand. It’s also worth noting that the passive voice gets a better response…
• Hone your humour, informal language doesn’t always result in popularity. Again consider who will be reading what you write and run a sarcasm check before you publish it.
• Most importantly proof your copy and check for spelling mistakes. There’s nothing worse than having your audience send a smug note informing you of an error!

And finally but very importantly, if you can pretty up your site with some visual imagery that’s great, users react to well laid out and considered sites, but don’t get distracted, content is still king.