What is a Website Content Template, and Why is it Important?
A website content template adds structure to content creation so all content team members are on the same page. This includes your subject matter experts, content writers, content strategists, guest contributors editors, etc.
Content creation teams need a website content template that spells out your content creation style and helps them present it in a uniform format.
Here are the top reasons why a website content template is important:
- Helps your team create optimized web page content that matches all the essential parameters needed for rankings on SERPs.
- Increases your production speed and the ability to produce content on time by ensuring that your team remains consistent in the way they create content.
- Makes it easy for writers to move content back and forth during editing and review.
- Provides clarity so developers have an easy time including content on your web page
Our website content template includes everything you need to help you optimize content for your webpage.
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Types of Website Content Templates
You can use a website content template for various reasons. These include writing content, strategic planning, and editing.
As such, your website content templates can be divided into the following categories:
Website Content Outline Template
This includes an outline of elements that you’ll need to include on every page to ensure both content quality and SEO.
What you include in this outline will depend on the type of content you produce as well as your subject of discussion. Here are some of the items you can include here.
- Meta description
- Headline
- Headers and subheaders
- Paragraph descriptions
- Bullet points
This section is mostly relevant for your writers and helps them save time. With an outline, they’ll have a blueprint of what the articles should look like which provides direction. All they’ll need to do is fill your outline out with content.
Website Content Planning Template
This template helps you plan for what to include on your whole website, unlike the content outline that focuses on a single page. This is mostly important for developers who are responsible for designing your website.
It helps with structuring your website as well as your website content. This template includes the details of the kind of pages that will be present on the website. It usually includes:
- Home page
- Contact
- Services
- Blog
- Products page
This also depends on your business and you can include other pages that are relevant to your users.
Website Content Template
This website content template type helps you to draft, edit, and review content to ensure there are no content gaps. These include:
- Headline and title tags
- Meta description
- External and internal links
- Keywords
- CTAs
Like the rest of the templates, you can add any other important items relevant to your business.
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What is Included in This Website Content Template
Here’s a list of all the elements you’ll find in our free website content template.
Headline
Your headline could be the reason your audience chooses to read or ignore your content. It’s located at the top of your page and is the first thing that your readers will see. So it’s important to craft a compelling one that will get them engaged.
Optimizing your headline can help improve your click-through rates and boost your search engine rankings. Make sure it’s brief, to the point, and tells the readers what to expect from the page.
Here are a few SEO headline best practices to include in your website content template:
- Always make sure to include the main keyword in it
- Keep it short, to about 55 to 60 characters
- Test it out with your audience before publishing, if possible.
Page URL
A well-written page URL makes it easy for your search engine to understand the destination of your page. It also helps your audience know what your page is about which improves their user experience.
It’s important to use a page URL that matches your content topic. This is recommended for search engines and can somewhat improve your organic search rankings. Some page URL best practices include:
- Keep it short and to the point.
- Use your primary keywords.
- Use 301s to redirect the old URL to a new URL.
- Don't use stop words especially if you need to shorten your URL and it doesn’t change the context.
Image viaGoogle
Title Tag
This refers to the HTML element for the title of a web page. They’re also referred to as meta titles or meta title tags. A title tag makes your headline clickable on SERPS as shown below, and is important for organic ranking and user experience.
Image via Google
Make sure your title tag accurately represents the content on your web page as this is how search engines will know what your page is about. Also, keep it brief so your browser can display it properly.
Here are a few best practices for writing title tags.
- Keep your title tag between 50 and 60 characters
- Put your primary keywords first
- Avoid using all caps when writing title tags
Meta Description
A meta description serves the same purpose as your headline as it further helps users click on your content. It provides a quick summary of your web page, so your users can decide whether or not the content is relevant to them.
Your meta description tag will be displayed on search engine results as part of the search snippet right below your headline. Therefore, it is important to make sure that your meta description provides value to readers.
Some meta-description best practices to include in your website content template are:
- Keep it between 155 and 160 characters, as Google will truncate it if it’s longer
- Include your primary keyword
- Make it actionable and include a CTA
Primary Keyword
This refers to the main words or phrases you’ll target on your webpage. Your main keyword will be in line with your topic of discussion and will help tell your search engines what your page is about.
When users type out that phrase on the search engine, you want your content to be the thing that comes up. Therefore, conducting thorough keyword research is relevant if you’re looking to rank on Google.
Some places to include your primary keywords for the best SEO results include:
- In your headline and subheadings
- The first few sentences of your content
- Naturally, throughout your content
Content-Type
Your content type will determine what you include in the body of your text. For instance, it could be a blog post style, landing page, product description, FAQ page, etc. Depending on your content type, you’ll need to divide your text into smaller sections for readability.
Be sure to keep your content error-free. You can run it through grammar tools and text editors to help you catch some mistakes. Here are some best practices for writing content on your page that you can share with your writers:
- Keep your paragraphs short, ideally three sentences maximum
- Break up your text using bullet points and subheadings
- Keep your sentences under 25 words
Secondary Keyword
A secondary keyword refers to phrases that aren’t as popular but are great variations of your primary keyword. It could include synonyms to what users search for the most when looking for a certain topic online.
For instance, you can have your primary keyword be “best food for weight loss”. The secondary keywords could be “best fruits for weight loss” or “best meals for weight loss”. You target secondary keywords together with your primary keyword.
Here’s why it’s important to use secondary keywords:
- They help add context to your searches
- They draw more consumers when used alongside primary keywords
- Help narrow down your traffic and help your rankings
CTA
Call-to-action buttons make your web pages effective by redirecting readers to resources, products, services, and so on. As such, they need to be placed strategically on your web page to make it easy to identify and click.
Though brief, the text on your CTA needs to tell your audience what to expect when they click the button. For instance, signing up for software, buying a product, etc. They give your audience the final nudge to take action.
Here are some CTA best practices to include in your website content template.
- Make compelling CTA copy
- Place them logically where your audience can spot them easily
- Fill your CTA buttons with a different color to make them stand out
Images
Images help you communicate your message better and bring life to your content. You can have as many or as few images as you want based on the content you’re creating. These could include simple illustrative graphics, stock images, or screenshots.
You want to use images strategically throughout your text for maximum impact. In your website content writing template, you can include image instructions for your writing team to encourage uniformity.
These could be as follows:
- A specification for your image size or dimensions
- Including all your images in a cloud folder for easy access
- Ensuring all images have an Alt title tag for SEO optimization
Videos
Just like images, videos can bring your content to life if used strategically. They can greatly improve engagement on your web pages. This helps with your page’s ranking and improves your overall user experience.
You can use videos sparingly to illustrate, educate, market, or summarize content on your web page. This way, users can end up spending a bit more time on your page than they would just reading text.
Here are a few best practices for adding videos to your page:
- Focus on the quality of your video
- Keep your videos shorter if possible for maximum engagement
- Pick a catchy thumbnail to attract more attention
A Writer’s Checklist
This section includes a checklist to help writers make sure they include all the important details in their content. The elements of a website's content template can be hard to keep track of, especially for writers.
So creating a simpler checklist to check off at the end of each content piece can help both writers and reviewers check off important details. Our writer’s checklist template includes items such as:
- Checking if the primary keyword density is met
- If there’s a clear call to action
- Is the headline or page title catchy? etc.
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FAQ
Q1. What is a website content template?
A. A website content template is a document that contains content creation elements and instructions to provide a consistent structure for writing teams and developers.
It makes content creation simpler and quicker. This is especially useful for large projects that require bulk content creation within strict timelines.
Q2. Why should you have a website content template?
A. Website content templates are important for the following reasons:
- They help you structure and organize content on your page
- They make sure you don’t miss anything when creating content
- They make sure all your team members are on the same page about what to include in your content.
Q3. How do I create my own website content?
A. Here’s a brief outline of the process you can follow to create content using our free template:
- Define the purpose of your website
- Research your topics and keywords
- Create a catchy headline and add a meta description
- Craft your website content
- Add images and or videos
- Review your work for any possible errors
Q4. How do I plan content for my website?
A. First, you’ll need to define and understand the purpose of your website before planning for content. This includes knowing your target audiences, understanding their needs, and defining their requirements.
Then you can use a website content template to help you flesh out the items you’ll need to include in your webpage copy as well as your on-page SEO elements. This will all depend on your audience, their needs, and the tone you set for your brand.
Q5. What is an example of content on a website?
A. Website content includes any written, graphic, audio, or video content on web pages. This includes blog posts, landing pages, videos, podcasts, infographics, and any other content uploaded on a website.
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