Keeping content structured and ordered is a task many WordPress site owners struggle with. There are so many hours that go into WordPress site management, that organization of content is rarely seen as a priority. But a cluttered website without clear pathways of information can be a turn off for the visitors. When visitors can’t find what they seek for they leave instantly. Keep in mind these simple tips for organizing your website content:
Before you embark on a journey of organizing your content you need to get some basics straight.
Here are the three things that you should identify:
No matter what website you own, there are certain rules that are commonly accepted by everyone. These pages are usually expected by all the visitors:
Homepage. A homepage is where people first land when they click on your website address. Most people would expect to get the important information about the brand right away so think about the main message to put on the homepage. Your USP (unique selling proposition) is a great message to put on a homepage.
About. About page is where you talk in details about your company. You can feature the company story here as well as your brand mission, values, purpose, and brand promise.
Contact. A contact page is crucial for the website because this is how visitors can actually access you and request more information or buy a product. Not having a contact page can have dire consequences for businesses, as it makes an impression that the company is out of business or is a scam.
Blog. The need to run a blog is a reality of the twenty-first century. Not only an active blog increases your authority in the eyes of a user, but it also aids your search engine rankings. The more you blog the more search engines love you. But make sure you always relevant content that provides tons of value.
Landing pages are often perceived as sales tools but they are also a great way to organize your content. Ideally, each service, product or offering should have a landing page. A website is basically a large store with many different sections and shelves. In order for the visitors to navigate the store, you need to place pointers everywhere and assign a dedicated place for each product. A landing page is essentially a dedicated place for each offering.
Think about product groupings that can make navigation easier for visitors. If various products perform the same function, you can help visitors find and compare them by placing them on the same page.
Just like a physical retail store your website need clear navigation. Headlines and menus are navigational elements of the website that greatly improve the user experience. Come up with creative and concise headlines that communicate the gist of the offering. Headlines are intended to sell, but they also tell the visitors exactly what to expect at the very moment they land on a website page.
Here are some tips to make the website user experience even better:
Avoid cluttered navigation bars. A navigation bar is a menu bar usually found at the top right corner of the top part of the website. You want to place the most important pages at the very top of the navigation bar, and then allow users to choose options from the drop-down menus.
Get rid of long drop-down menus. Dropdown menus are great for keeping the content clean and organized. Consider the principle “less is more” and only keep the most important menu items.
The simplest way to organize your website content is to make a map. This is done easily but is often forgotten about as business owners rush to creating content instead of planning it first. Understand the hierarchy of your website and how each element relates to each other. You would usually have a homepage at the first level with contact, about, and product offerings pages at a lower level.
Once you organize your website content, you will want to take a look at website metrics to see if the changes brought any positive results. See how long visitors browsed your website before the reorganization happened and compare the numbers to the current state. Testing is the key part of website management because it helps to improve website experience because no matter how well you understand your target audience, there is no better source of information as hard data.
Website content structure is the hardest to correct once the website the site is live so you want to get it right from the very beginning. Get a bigger picture view by reviewing your brand communication, call to actions, and target audience. Have a dedicated landing page for each offering and create a navigational map and signs. As you do all of these things, remember the “less is more principle” and don’t feature the information that doesn’t have any value for the user. Ultimately, a great website is the one that puts the user first and delivers the user experience that speeds up the process of finding the information.