The Myth of Perfect Content

Many websites try to create perfect brochure content for their markets and prospects. Then they optimize those pages for SEO. After all, you want people to land on the perfect page when they arrive from a search engine query result, right?

If only life were so Type-A. Except in this case the A stands for atypical. Search results are rarely neat and tidy. Many times people click on results that look hopeful, not ones that look correct. If yours is the best result, even if it’s not perfect, people will click. Search engine programmers know this too. At night they dream of getting funded for creating the mythical database of intentions.

People do not need to arrive on the correct content right off the bat. Anyone who comes to your homepage isn’t in the right place anyway. What people need is to believe they are in the right place and will find the information, product or service that they want. As long as they think they will make progress by clicking on a link or querying a search box they will stay on your website.

This is good news, because it’s far easier to create a bigger landing pad than a perfect one. You do it by continuously adding new content and by targeting the long tail of search.

There are lots of different types of content:

1. Index/Introduction
2. Brochure pages
   • Product lists
   • Product descriptions
   • Sales copy
   • Reviews
   • Testimonials
3. FAQ
4. Downloads/scripts/tools
5. Navigation/Site Map
6. About
   • Company Info
   • Leadership info
   • Investor info
   • Contact Information
7. Press Room
   • Press Releases
   • Speaking schedule
   • Company mentions in publications and major websites
   • Company logos
8. Blog
9. Monthly Newsletter
10. Podcast (with transcripts)
11. PPT Decks
12. How to / training pages
13. Resource Directories
14. Videos (with transcripts)
15. White papers

That’s 28 different types of content. Can you name more?