Content Tips For The WordPress Page And Post Content Area

WordPress began as a blogging platform and quickly expanded into a content management system that powers 22% of the entire internet.

In fact, according to Matt Mullenweg in his State of The Word 2013 address, 69% of those whom use WordPress use is only as a content management system for their website, not as a blog.

The primary content region on a WordPress site is referred to as the content area. It can contain all different types of content, from text and images, to video and audio. The content area is where the primary web page content or blog post content that you write is added and formatted.

NOTE: Even though content can also be put in a sidebar or in a footer, content in those areas are put into widgets, so they have different names such as, sidebar widget area, footer Widget area, Home page widget area, after-post widget area, etc.

How Much Content You Need

While you don’t need to write a novel or even an essay, you do need to consider that content is the main tool used by search engines to scan and index your site.

The more content you have on a page, the more “food” you’re giving the search engines — and the more you feed them, the happier they are. Think of it like this: It’s hard to tell if you really like a new food if you only get one teeny-tiny bite, but with a whole meal, you’ll know for sure if it good and if you’ll order it or make it again.

Too Little Website Content:

• Pages with only a tiny amount of content won’t do much to help your site get indexed or improve your rankings, because it won’t be viewed by the search engines as very valuable.
• Publishing a page with nothing more than “Coming Soon” on it hurts you more than it helps you. Search engines simply see a blank page, and visitors are savvy enough to know that you just didn’t get the content done.
• Separating content into lots of short pages with very little content, makes visitors work too hard (click to much) to find and consume your content — trust me, people would rather scroll than click.
• If your website content is thin and sparse, it can be very difficult for your designer to create something amazing with your site because you’re not giving them much to work with.

Too Much Website Content:

• Too much content can be overwhelming if not designed and formatted for ease of consumption — if you content looks and feels like a college paper or essay, changes are no one will read it.
• Never try to bulk up thin content with fluff, it’s better to create too much content and then edit it down to be succinct and clear. Just keep asking yourself, “If I delete this, is my message still clear?”
• If you have a lot of content, you’re designer will have more to work with and more opportunities to actually design your content
• Too much content, especially on conversion-oriented pages can distract potential buyers and overwhelm them. In these cases, your designer, developer, or website consultant may recommend moving some of your content to your blog or an FAQ page.

Website Content Tips

It is very difficult for people to read long paragraphs of text online, especially when it’s one paragraph after another!

When writing your website content, consider:

• Breaking long pages up into small sections with visual dividers or a change in formatting
• Writing your content in short paragraphs of no more than three sentences
• Including colorful or bold headlines and sub headlines to break up the text
• Using bulleted lists or numbered lists to create easily scannable content sections
• Investing in quality imagery and finding just the right images (from Shutterstock.com)
• Adding feature boxes or pull quote styles for special content
• Creating an infographic or visual chart to communicate your message

What About You?

Do you have any tips on formatting WordPress page content and designing blog post content? Do you have a favorite go-to content design strategy? Have these tips helped you improve your content formatting? We’d love to hear form you!