Content is the meat of your website. For most business websites, your visitors are not spending time on your website for its flashy façade — they want to learn something.

Further, content is what search engines rely upon to determine for which keywords your website should rank, and content is what will make someone appreciate what you have to say so much they will recommend your website to their associates (by email, instant message, a link from their website, or a mention on their blog.)

If your website seems to be all bun and no hotdog, start writing some meanginful content for your website today.

When writing content for your website, consider what your visitor might be interested in doing next, and consider what you want them to do. Find a happy middle ground, and link to that place.

This is a call-to-action, and most business websites forget to include them.

Examples include “learn more about how we can reduce costs in your business”, “email us for a free consultation” and “comment on this suggestion now“.

Ever find yourself answering the same email over (and over?)

Your reply is an ideal candidate for your website’s Frequently Asked Questions page. After a year, you will have developed an impressive suite of answers, and your visitors will appreciate the information you have provided them with. Be sure to add calls-to-actions to your FAQ pages so that you don’t entirely lose the benefit of that person contacting you.

Your FAQ will also become part of your training kit for new employees to become up-to-speed in your business.

Search engines list web pages that include the keywords for which a visitor has searched.

To ensure your website contains pages that search engines love to display to their visitors, be sure to include words and phrases that your potential customers are likely to type into a search engine. You don’t really need to repeat them endlessly, or hide them, or put them in special tags — but it does help if each page focuses on a certain theme or core idea.

If you’re unsure about your customers’ lingo, flick through some of the initial emails that prospective customers have sent you, and common trends will jump out.

Poor spelling harms your business’ image and gives potential customers the impression you lack attention to detail.

On your website, it goes a step further: bad spelling sticks out its leg and trips up your eyes. Even if your visitor couldn’t care less about your ability to spell, when you are trying to hold their interest in such an evanescent medium, jarring their thoughts with a misplaced apostrophe or a muddled ‘there’/'their’ is a certain way to lose that connection.