Content marketing is not going to be effective without a modern website design. So before you start publishing content, consider these four elements websites need to support content marketing.
Many brands have now realized the importance of content marketing. They are blogging and creating content formats to publish on their website. But this may be all for nothing if your website does not look and work great. You can have the most insightful content in your industry, but get zero response if your website isn’t optimized.
Here are the four things your website needs to support content marketing.
Your site must be mobile-friendly.
Geez, it’s hard to believe this is still a design concern. However, it’s still a prevalent issue. Know this, if your website is not mobile, your users will have a negative user experience. Users in the US now spend over half their time using mobile devices over desktop. Nearly 80 percent of time spent on social media platforms is on a mobile device. And 63 percent of all emails are opened on mobile devices.
With all this data, it’s mostly likely that your prospective customers are using a mobile device. And they will ditch you as soon as they see your site isn’t mobile. For example, if you post on Twitter a blog link, and a user clicks on it as it’s piqued an interest, they’ll be disappointed to end up on your non-responsive site.
And guess what, Google and other search engines punish you as well. Good luck coming up in any organic results. Thus, your SEO efforts won’t get you the results you expect.
If you do nothing else, please make your website mobile friendly.
Your site must look modern.
What does a modern site look like? And why does it matter in content marketing? Well, if you want to drive traffic to your site where users can read great content then they will expect this modern attributes:
- Top navigation only; no side menus. Side menus are rarely seen in modern website design.
- The site stretches the entire length of the screen; it’s not in a “box.” This is an indicator of a dated layout.
- Imagery is contemporary and timeless; this is a big one that is so easy to fix. If you are using images that look like they are from the 90s, users are going to infer that either you’re no longer in business or are operating like it’s another decade.
- You have a blog that has categories, tags and a search function.
- Fonts have been updated to reflect modern options; leaving old fonts like Times New Roman behind.
There are many other attributes of a modern website. It’s important to optimize and leverage the design to lead users to the path intended.
Your site must provide great UX.
The user experience (UX) is imperative in getting users to stay on your site and read more. Your content must have been interesting enough to get them to your post. Great UX can help them stay.
This means navigation is simple and intuitive. It also means a lot of little things, you may not have thought about like:
- Providing indicators of an action or click. Does the button change color? Does the word become underlined? These are necessary for mobile users.
- Giving users a quick way to get back to where they started.
- Strategically placing signups and CTAs that stand out and lead to where a user expects to go.
- Allowing easy checkout on ecommerce sites. If you make it too hard for users to purchase, guess what, they won’t!
Your site must have action!
Users are very accustomed to seeing motion on a site. Now this doesn’t mean that you need to have videos on your home page. But consider how motion could improve your content marketing efforts. Does it make sense to use Gifs or short video in your content.
This doesn’t have to be limited to just brands that sell consumer goods or products. Think creatively about how motion can add to your content. Use it purposefully not just as check off the box element. Then measure it; you can test with and without motion to understand what benefits your content more.
Content marketing and modern website design must work together to generate results like leads and purchases. One can’t work without the other. It has to be a joint effort! So if you have content but don’t have a modern website to publish it or need to add content marketing to your current, awesome website, send us a note. We can help build a great website to support content marketing!
