One of the things we often hear from people looking for marketing support is ‘our website has become diluted as we’ve grown organically – what can we do to fix it?’. Although the significant growth is a great achievement, it often results in another growth – in website content! It might be that you’re adding new blog posts, services pages, case studies and resources which should all have a distinct purpose. But it’s when that content becomes disorganised and overwhelming, it can have a negative impact. That’s why in this post, we’re exploring how much content is too much and what you can do to improve it!
How to know when there’s ‘too much’ website content
Unfortunately, there is no ‘perfect’ amount of website content. It can depend on industry, organisation size, customer requirements and the quality of the content itself. For example, some businesses may benefit from a small number of impactful pages that demonstrates exactly what they offer. Tom is a great example of this – all the information you require is on the first page! Whereas a large corporation may require a much bigger website, with a large number of resources. Take a look at Deloitte UK, their homepage is relatively short and impactful, yet hover over the navigation menu and discover the extent of the resources available. Yet you don’t feel overwhelmed!
This demonstrates that as long as the content is well-organised and has a clear purpose, there is no such thing as ‘too much content’.
The dangers of website content dilution
Have you ever been in a supermarket and are looking for something specific yet can’t find it? You notice that there is no staff around to help you and you spend time walking up and down the aisle looking for the product, all while the frustration is growing. It often leads to one outcome – leaving, feeling frustrated, annoyed and emptyhanded! And the chances are, you won’t be back. This is similar to your website content. Except you don’t have the luxury of people hanging around and looking. It’s said that the average time spent on a page, across industries, is 53 seconds. Therefore, if your homepage (or any page for that matter) is a confusing jungle of content and has no clear value proposition, those seconds will be wasted. As a result of this poor user experience (UX) you’ll have a higher bounce rate.
Steps to ensuring your website content has a purpose
Creating content for the sake of content will almost always result in website dilution. Every piece of content you create should add value to the visitor and ensure you have the answers they’re searching for. Here are our tips for ensuring your website content has a purpose:
Step 1: What are you hoping to achieve with your website content?
What are the main goals of your website? Take a step back and really think about this as this will be the criteria that you judge your website pages against. Do you want to generate leads? Is the purpose to educate visitors? Or are you trying to build brand awareness? Try to define the purpose of your website as clear as you can, as this will make it easier to understand what’s working and what isn’t in step 2…
Step 2: Undertake a website audit
Now that you’ve written down the purpose of your website, take a look at each page and decide whether it directly contributes to this objective. You should also take a look at your website’s overall performance. Tools like Google Analytics will provide information on which pages are getting traffic and where your visitors are leaving. If a page isn’t performing, ask yourself why it might be. Does it have the right keywords? Is there too much information? Does it provide value? Is there a CTA that is aligned with your goals? At this stage you’re simply creating a list of pages that is not achieving the purpose of the website.
Step 3: Improve or remove
Based on your website audit and set goals, it’s time to create the next steps for the pages that aren’t performing as you’d hoped. We like to call this stage ‘improve or remove’, as those are the only two options we’d suggest for improving your website. For example, if you’ve identified a blog isn’t serving a purpose, could you make it more relevant? Ensure the copy is impactful and contains key search terms to help get it in front of your target audience. You should also try to group blogs together under specific content pillars to help visitors find exactly what they’re looking for. Have you noticed a service page has far too much information? Try to remove any information that isn’t relevant. If you’ve found the content gets side-tracked, try linking to a new page that is specifically about that topic.
If you find that some content is not providing any purpose, don’t be afraid to remove it. This is sometimes the best way to ensure the only pages that are live are helping you achieve your goals.
Improving the navigation menu
Another thing you can take a look at during step 3 is the navigation menu on your website. As previously mentioned, you don’t want to overwhelm visitors. It’s recommended to only have 4 to 7 items to prevent the navigation menu from looking too busy and confusing. That being said, many people still believe 7 items is too much – after all, a human’s short-term memory can only usually hold 7 items. Therefore, it’s understandable that a cluttered navigation bar can be overwhelming and result in visitors leaving!
You might want to go right back to the sitemap to see how you can make the user experience as effective and simple as possible. This will also help with understanding what pages you can group together and how visitors can locate it easier!
Step 4: Implement and monitor
Now that you have a plan in place for ‘improving or removing’ your webpages, create a timeline and set deadlines for the updates. This will hold you or your team accountable and will help it to feel less of a big job.
It’s important to continue to monitor the website analytics to ensure the changes are having the right impact. If you notice a page isn’t performing as well as you’d have hoped, take a holistic view of the page (design, analytics, content), and create some suggestions for improvements. For example, if you notice the bounce rate increases, take a look at the quality of the new content and make sure you’re providing information that aligns with the visitor’s search intent. Alternatively, there are many great resources out there that will provide suggestions for an increased bounce rate, such as this blog from ‘SEO Site Checkup’.
By following these steps, you can make sure all the content on your website is purposeful and helping you to achieve your goals. By providing a clear and well-structured user experience, it will help you to make your website more impactful and in turn, convert more visitors into leads
