Content is King

You'll hear this over and over again as the Web evolves. The Web, as you probably already know, was created to deliver content. Design was secondary. For several years, design took over and we've seen all sorts of gimmicks in the look and feel of websites.

Not any more. For a site to gain popularity today, that is, to attract and maintain readership, it must contain value.

Value is stored in rich content.

Let's say you have a restaurant. A few years ago you'd have a 5-page site that contained information about your business, your menu, your specials and how to contact you. Today, to make your website content-rich, you'd have all of the above plus some recipes, photos of your key people, perhaps a story about what your staff is doing in the community, photos of the little league team you sponsor, photos of your award-winning pies at the fair, photo of your new renovation, printable coupons, links to important community websites, back links from those sites to your site. Perhaps a quiz about your customers' favorite foods from your menu. You might even include a company store where people could order T-shirts or hats with your logo online. You'll have a live Google map to your place of business. If you're a sports-themed restaurant you'll have live feeds from area pro teams. Get the picture?

Or, let's imagine you own a business training service company. You'd have your 5 pages of company history, services and contacts. You'd then add testimonials, expanded service list, and case studies about clients you've helped. You will include short teaser overviews of each of your key capabilities. You'll have a video intro from your owner introducing your company. You'll have a slide show from a recent seminar. You'll have a calendar of upcoming seminar and training events.