Every business owner strategies about how to get their product, blog, or online service to potential clients and customers. When the web is your platform, words and images are your tools for bringing in buyers. How do you make sure your website is getting unique, engaging content? How do you balance a tight start-up budget with needing to purchase content? Here are a few things to think about when getting started.

What Sells?

It’s all about that SEO, right? Wrong. SEO optimizes your website for search engine results, and it’s certainly important. It doesn’t keep readers reading, and it doesn’t earn you subscribers. Only great content does those things. Skip right past any content-producing website that doesn’t pay its writers well. Those writers are looking to produce quantity, not quality, and your readers will notice. Instead, look for content sites that pay writers well and allow them some creative freedom. Seek out bloggers and writers who resonate with you and your business. Hire freelancers who write with passion about what they know.

It’s not about you

Remember, your website is for your clients and customers. While many people out there will advise that you treat your website like a marketing tool for exposure, don’t lose sight of the experience. Your website is your business or an extension of your business. Guests of your site should feel as if they walked into your retail location. Treat your website as if it is a physical building, and provide visitors with a smooth experience. Web sites produced with that aspect in mind don’t become overly promotional, pitchy, or annoying. It will also raise the bar for content quality.

Small Pieces

You’ve dished out some decent cash for great content, and now you need descriptions, promotional blurbs, and reviews. A killer headline and an outstanding image will bring in the traffic. It’s always better for someone with a familiar grasp of the content, service, or product provided to write promotional pieces. It will give a personal edge over websites that hire out and get generic sounding product descriptions. Your target audience is a world of internet users, who are all too familiar with pitchy slogans and cliché sales gimmicks. Think ’boutique and unique,’ avoid potential customers labeling your ad as generic. If your website is your retail store, your online ads are its reader board.

Successful entrepreneurs from Oprah to Mark Zuckerberg didn’t let anything compromise their creative control or quality when it came to their business. Rich, original content, striking images, great headlines, and a holistic vision of what your business represents will come together in harmony. People will click on your ads, enter your website and they’ll stick around.