23 Jan How to Streamline Website Content Without Losing Your Brand

If you want to streamline website content without watering down your company’s brand, think like a website visitor. When you go to a new website, you want to quickly confirm that yes, this company can help me. The more focused your web content is, the faster they’ll get their answer.

How to streamline website content without losing your brand

A lot of times, new clients of ours get nervous when we start talking about deleting pages, moving content around, etc. They’re really afraid we’re going to strip out their tone of voice, word choices, etc.

That’s not what streamlining content is all about. Your goal is to remove information that is not immediately useful and combine pages where possible. The less people have to read and the fewer pages they need to click on, the better for you.

Start by removing these two types of content

Start with the easy stuff first. Remove all content that no longer supports the growth of your company.

If you don’t – or don’t want to – offer a product, service or package anymore, delete it. If there are pages on your website that no one visits, delete them (your web developer or SEO person can tell you this).

Then look for ways to combine content

Now comes the hard part – combining content. There are a lot of ways to go about this. Here are five common ways my team combines content:

1. Move all services for one client category (like commercial or residential, individual or team, retail or hospitality) onto one page
2. Move calls-to-action (like “schedule an appointment/demo/consultation”) and pricing to the appropriate service or product page
3. Add your “why us” and “our story” content to your “about” page
4. Gather all team bios on one page

Now, turn your messaging around so you lead with benefits

Your prospects care about what you can do for them (aka, benefits), not necessarily how you do it (aka, features).

Think about buying a dishwasher. You want one that will wash caked-on food off your dishes, is energy-efficient and doesn’t make a peep when running. Those are benefits to you. The technical features that deliver these benefits? They don’t matter.

A brief explanation of features might be helpful for prospects later on, but it’s not going to drive their decision. If there are a few features people ask about, keep them on your website. Move the rest to a spec sheet that people can download (or that you can share with them if they ask).

Next, repurpose “value-add” content

I think of “value-add” content this way: it might support decision-making but doesn’t need to be prominent on your website.

This is typically content that is educational in nature and only needs a brief explanation on your website. The in-depth explanation is better in a blog post or white paper. Here are some examples:

• Why life purpose coaching
• Why choose managed IT services
• What is functional medicine

Finally, rethink resources

While it’s great to show you are an expert and plugged into your industry, think about how helpful your resources page is to your company. Are you giving them the opportunity to leave your site? They might never come back.

One interior design blogger I used to follow had a list of – I swear to god – at least 30 other design bloggers on her website, complete with links to their blogs. I never understood why she did this. It’s hard enough to attract people to a website. Don’t encourage them to leave.

Unless you are offering valuable downloadable content – ebooks, guides, templates, how to instructions, etc. – you are probably better off without a resources page.

Start with these tips as you streamline website content. Ping us if you get stuck.

Image by Burst via Pexels 

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