Digital Content Strategy Guide: Part 4 – Types of Pages

Types of Pages

You can present your content in a range of different formats. Not only does this create variety, it also allows you to select the right format for each piece of content. Some types of content will be best suited to blog posts, others to web pages, and others to an FAQ. Picking the right type of page for your content is important in ensuring that your reader gets the information they are looking for.

Here are five types of pages, what kinds of things you could put on them, and what they are useful for.

City specific pages

In order to expand your business and capture traffic from other geographical locations, you need to be targeting local keywords. If you offer the same service in a variety of different towns in New Jersey, such as Newark, Hamilton, and Edison, you want to be providing relevant information to people searching for each of those cities. People looking for a particular service in Newark want to find information that is relevant to them. Having specific pages for each state, city, or town allows you to give the visitor better targeted information, as well as ranking for lots more keywords. Think about including:

• References to relevant local news stories
• Facts and statistics that back up your messages
• Information about pertinent local areas, such as the district that might need your services in particular
• The history of the area

About pages

This is where you put all that great information about your company. You shouldn’t be trying to sell your services – just yourself as a business. Think of it like a dating profile; you want to tell people what makes you interesting, and why they should give you a shot. An About page is the place where your site visitors can get to know you. Add information on:

• Who founded the company, and why?
• What the company does that makes them different
• Who are the people running the company?
• What are your goals for the future?

Blog posts

Blog posts allow you to keep updating your site with regular content. This is great for SEO, building your reputation as an expert in the field, and giving site visitors a reason to come back. Provide useful information – not sales patter on your business and services – and you could soon be collecting information on potential customers, such as email addresses. Try to use your blog to:

• Educate people – for example with a ‘How to’ article
• Start a debate – question a commonly held piece of knowledge or debunk a myth
• Get customer feedback – write about your feelings on your industry, then encourage readers to comment with their own opinions
• Share relevant news – your blog readers will like it if you keep them up to date with interesting developments

FAQs

Part of the job of website content is to answer questions. Questions that are left unanswered will drive people to abandon your site. An FAQ is an easy way to group all of those obvious questions into one place. It is useful if the answers are too small or simple to dedicate an entire page to each one. Use your FAQ answers to lead people back to other pages on your website, so they can learn even more. Common questions might include:

• How do you charge for your services?
• Can you do X?
• Why should I choose you?
• What is the process after I hire you?

Educational articles

Similar to FAQ’s and blog posts, educational articles provide great value to site visitors. Entire websites such as Wisegeek are in existence simply to answer people’s many questions. If there is something that many people don’t understand about your services or industry, write some educational articles to cover the basics. If they are informative, they can get you a lot of traffic and social media shares. Educational articles an internet marketer might write are:

• How do I set up a blog?
• Is print advertising still worthwhile?
• How can I get local news coverage for my event?
• Do I need to be on social media?

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