Less is more. Quality over quantity.
We’ve read these phrases. We’ve put them into action. They are very easy to understand and believe in. But sometimes they can be used as a crutch. Sometimes we can use them as an excuse to not do more of something even if it will be net beneficial for us.
Reading books could be one example. You could certainly focus on quality over quantity. Look at a few bestseller lists and read just the consensus number one favorite. That’s a great approach. You can consume some great content that way.
But you also miss out on a lot of great books. And even some good ones that are still entertaining and educational.
Or consider exercise. You can do one perfect push up each day. That’s better than nothing and it’s probably better than 5 mediocre push ups. But what about doing 100 pushups a day? Some that are perfect. More that are pretty good. And probably some poor ones.
Sometimes more is better. For most business websites, more content is better. Here are just a few of the reasons why.
1. Answer More Sales Questions
I like to think of a website as an online salesperson. Certainly selling in person, on the phone and via a website have differences. But they likely follow the same basic sales funnel for any particular business. The business is selling a product. There is a sales cycle that evolves. Creating a website that takes a prospect through that cycle is going to lead to success.
Part of that cycle is answering common prospect questions.
How much does it cost?
How exactly will it help me?
Who else has used this?
More content can help prospects with the questions they have. It can better help them determine if they want or need your product and help them at least get a fair understanding of if the purchase will work out after the fact.
The more questions that go unanswered, the more likely it is that your prospects leave without purchasing.
2. Answer More Non-Sales Questions
People are only in “Buy Mode” for any particular product or service about 3% of the time. That obviously varies by product and person, but the point is that we’re rarely thinking about buying something. Even if we really love orange juice, how much of our time are we really actually purchasing it?
Is your website only for the 3% of the time that your target customers are in buying mode? You certainly want the main pages of your website to focus on that sales cycle. But why not focus at least a little on the other 97% of the time? Work to get your prospects familiar with your company so that when they are in buy mode they think of you and come back?
That’s where more non-sales content can help. A regular blog can provide this. You can answer questions your customers are asking when they’re not in buy mode. You can do the same with video or even with a podcast.
3. Answers Google’s Questions
More content can help with search engine rankings. More content can help Google figure out what you do and who you can help. They typically have the same questions as your customers, but they’re also trying to figure out if you’re a good source of what you sell and a good source of information you provide.
Consider what Google wants, to provide their users with answers to their questions. Try to help Google do that. Answer questions. Provide a good design that makes it easy to understand your content.
The more you do this along with other aspects of general good business, the more likely you are to see more and high search engine rankings.
4. More Content You Own That You Can Repurpose
Any content you share on a site that you don’t own is content you don’t own. And that can be fine. A social media site, for example, has a large number of people. And you have the opportunity to earn the attention of those people by putting content on the platform. It’s kind of a win for all three parties. The people get content. The platform gets to keep people on their platform. And you get attention for your business that can lead to sales.
But it’s also good to build content on your own website. This way you own it. You can build your own little platform where people come to you via different ways to get the content. You get more control and more of the focus when they’re on your site.
And there’s no reason you can’t publish content on your site, such as a blog post, and repurpose all or some of that content on the social sites.
5. Odds For More “”Hits”” With Rankings
I love looking at the songwriting profession and comparing it to other content professions. Most successful songwriters have written thousands of songs. Dolly Parton has commented that she’s written 5,000+ songs in order to get 5 big hits.
Her point and the point for anyone creating “more” content is that we really don’t know what will be a hit. You just have to put in the work.
That’s true for your website as much as it is for songwriting. More blog posts. More videos. More podcasts. It leads to better odds of learning what works and just getting more out there when you really don’t know what will hit.
Conclusion
More is not always better when it comes to a website. You don’t want to provide more information that someone needs. Especially if they are ready to buy. So it’s a balance. But generally there are some great reasons to add more content to your business website. And based on all the ones I’ve looked at over the years, most could use a little more.