Stop Making These Common Web Content Mistakes

by Jason Unger, Founder

Insights / Content / Stop Making These Common Web Content Mistakes

It’s been awhile since we’ve shared some common mistakes you want to avoid. For previous entries in this series, see digital marketing mistakes, graphic design mistakes, typography mistakes, blogging mistakes, and WordPress mistakes.

Creating your web content correctly is one of the most important things you can do to further achieve your mission.

Your entire digital marketing strategy revolves around properly written and formatted content. That’s why we talk so much about good-looking content, compelling content, and usable content.

If your website users can’t comprehend and digest your content, they won’t know how to achieve their goals.

If search engines can’t understand your content, they won’t be able to direct people to your site.

Here are common web content mistakes you should avoid.

Don’t: Misuse Header Tags

You’d think this would be an easy one, but we’ve seen at all. Here are the rules to follow:

There should be one h1 tag on your page. This is almost always the title of the page, which you should never remove. Do not add additional h1 headers to your page.

Add h2 sub-headers to break up your content into obvious section headings. They should make sense out of context.

Within each h2 section, add h3 tags as needed to further clarify or group your content.

A properly formatted page with headers and sub-headers looks something like this:

• h1: Page Title
  • h2: First Section
    • h3: Sub-section #1
    • h3: Sub-section #2
    • h3: Sub-section #3
  • h2: Second Section
  • h2: Third Section

Header tags should be scannable and easily identifiable; the h1 tag is the largest, then the h2, h3, etc. The purpose of a header tag is to group content together, but more importantly, to help the user scan the page and easily find what’s relevant to them.

If your content really needs it, add h4 and h5 tags grouped beneath your h3 tags. Usually, if your content would benefit from h4 and h5 tags, it’s too long for the web.

Make sure your header tags do that effectively.

Don’t: Ignore Accessibility Issues

Accessibility is foundational to your website’s success, and it’s easier than ever to ensure that your site is following current accessibility best practices.

While there are a number of design-related accessibility requirements for your content (large enough font sizes, proper color contrast ratio, readable fonts, etc.), there are still important factors to consider when creating the actual content.

If you’re creating graphics for your content, don’t include large amounts of text in images. Any content that is important to your user has to be live text that’s readable by screen readers – not embedded in images. Even if you’re adding ALT text to your images, it’s not suitable – long, descriptive content needs to be live text.

Speaking of, include ALT text in your decorative images. If you’ve got a hero image or a photo inserted in your content, make sure to add ALT text so folks with screen readers know what’s on the page – even if it’s only decorative.

We’ve already talked it, but proper use of headers and sub-headers is crucial for accessibility as well. It helps users with screen readers understand how the content is broken up into sections.

Don’t: Make Your Content Look Overwhelming to Read

As you’re writing your content, always think about how it looks to your reader.

It’s not just about the usefulness of the content or your ability to write for both users and search engines – it’s also about how likely people are able to find what they’re looking for.

We’ve talked about it over and over again. People don’t read online – they scan.

If your content looks overwhelming, they’ll go somewhere else to try and find what they need.

• Simplify your content with layouts that make sense.
• Use bullet points to break up items into lists.
• If your content is really long, add a table of contents with anchor links.

Keep your paragraphs to 4 lines or shorter, and don’t hide the crucial information from your reader.

Stick to these web content best practices, and you’ll be on your way to success. Have questions or need help? Reach out and let’s chat.