SEO experts and internet marketing professionals know that the key to online business success is great content on your website. Your website is the first, and maybe the only, chance to make an impression on potential customers, so it has to have great content. Having a good-looking site is not enough. It needs to be organized well, it needs to be easy to read, and it has to contain relevant information. Most of all, it has to be compatible with the attention spans of internet surfers who tend to skim content rather than reading every word. As you are creating content for your website, keep these 5 keys in mind:

1. Concise Writing. One of the greatest temptations of content creation is to include every single detail about your company. This is a natural tendency given your own excitement and passion about your business. But put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer and think about what information you would like to glean from a business website, particularly how your product or service can help your customer solve a particular challenge or problem. And after you have finished writing, cut your word count in half!

2. Clean Layout. SEO professionals know that a potential customer reads only 20% of a website's content. Reach out and grab your website visitor by using catchy headings, writing in short paragraphs, using bullets to make your points, and bolding important words and phrases. Your headings should guide your visitors to your page s content so that they can easily find whatever they are looking for. Bullet points draw a reader s eye to short, easy-to-digest content that gives them pertinent information.

3. Keywords. Before you begin writing your content, research your keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases that web users type into search engines to find webpages related to the topics they are looking for. If you use the keywords on your webpage that your potential customers are typing into search engines, then your webpage will show up in the search engine results.

4. Easy-to-Read Language. One of the greatest pitfalls of content creation is using lingo only familiar to people within your niche. Have someone who knows nothing at all about your business read your content before you publish to make sure that the average reader will understand it. Avoid technical language at all costs.

5. Quality Content. Visitors to your website are looking for relevant, helpful, high-quality content. They are visiting because they have a problem to solve or a challenge to overcome, so make sure that your content delivers a solution. Remember that great content is not content that you find compelling, but content that your visitors find compelling. Start by writing an article that solves a problem that a potential customer might have. Then consider turning that article into an ebook that potential customers might be willing to download. You may consider starting a blog to share your ideas. Invite your friends and family to comment at the beginning until you get a larger following. Then consistently join in the conversation that takes place on your blog.
Above all, make sure that your content is free to your potential customers. If you start asking your visitors to leave their email addresses and other contact information, they are going to leave as quickly as they arrived.

The days of low-quality websites are behind us. If you want to be competitive then you have to have a website that not only looks good, but offers relevant information to visitors. If your website does not have the answers that potential customers are looking for, they can quickly find the information they need somewhere else. Keep their attention on your website by following the above guidelines and you will find that your visitors keep coming back and eventually turn into loyal customers.