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The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for Content Appearance

September 9, 2008 Comments (6)

Stoney deGeyter

Stoney deGeyter

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This is a continuation of a series of website marketing checklists. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

What this is about: This list covers aspects of how content appears on the website, focusing on the visual aspects of the content rather than the words.

Why this is important: Great content can get lost if it's not easy to read thrown into an otherwise cluttered page. Ensuring that your content fits visually into the site is just as important as having good content to begin with. If you want the sales message to get across, your visitors will need to read it.

What to look for:

  • Short paragraphs: Keep paragraphs relatively short. No more than seven lines each.
  • Uses sub-headings: Break content up using headings and sub-headings as warranted.
  • Uses bulleted lists: Use bulleted lists wherever possible to break up monotony of the text.
  • Calls to action on all pages: Make sure each page has a distinct call to action, both visually and textually. These can be littered throughout the content.
  • Good contrast: Make sure content can easily be read, contrasting well with the background color or image used. Keep images in content unobtrusive.
  • No overly small text for body: Font size should not be too small. No less than 10pt but bigger is better.
  • No overly small text for headings: Headings and sub-heads should be visually bigger than the rest of the body content.
  • Skimmable and scannable: Text should be very easy to skim read and scan for important/interesting bits of information.
  • Keep link options in close proximity: If you link to something referenced in the copy, keep the link in very close proximity to the reference.

Did I miss anything? Add to this list with your comments below.


Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.

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Comments (6)

The only thing I'd add is some general rules about image placement and tagging.

Posted by: Shauna on September 9, 2008

Forget Reversed Backgrounds - white type on a black background, (or any dark backgound) is hard to read and should be used sparingly, only with large-fonted type.

Posted by: Fairchild on September 9, 2008

Another solid list. It is amazing to me how many website (big and small) simple ignore this.

Posted by: Jaan Kanellis on September 9, 2008

Google 'judge's' how good a page is by the number and more importantly the quality of links that point to it. You can have the worst content in the world, but if the page is fairly well optimised and you have some great links then you'll also be ranking highly. Google doesn't value 'content' it values links.

Having a great site is going to increase your chances of long term success as it'll generally increase in popularity and natural link generation over time, but developing and implementing a good long term link development strategy is also just as important and ignored by far too many people.

Posted by: Adam Web Hosting Solutions on October 11, 2008

Adam, your comment assumes that Google is the only audience for a website. This series of articles isn't about SEO so much as it's about good website marketing. But to refute your point, good content is essential to achieving and maintaining good rankings. If the visitors leave because the content sucks, you can believe that Google will start taking note.

Posted by: Stoney deGeyter on October 13, 2008

I just want to say that I have gained allot of solid knowledge from your article. Thank you much.

Posted by: John Hinds on October 18, 2008

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Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.

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Search Engine Guide > Stoney deGeyter > The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for Content Appearance

Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.

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