Ccontent. You need it. You know you need it. It’s the lifeblood of your website, your business. Without it, your traffic dies, your conversions die, your business dies. Yet, most business marketers struggle with the type of content that will best feed their website visitors, keep them coming back for more, and convert those visitors into customers.

Last week, we talked about 14 types of authority content. Website content was one of those. If you want to read that post and come back, I’ll wait.

So …

When it comes to website content, there are different kinds of content and they all serve a different purpose. It helps to have an understanding of all the types of content you can publish on your website and what that content can do for you. There are, of course, other places to publish content. You can publish on other people’s websites or blogs, social media, in forums, etc. Today, however, we’re just talking about content you publish on your own website. This is not an exhaustive list, but it should give you some idea about the types of content available to you.

Without further ado, I give you 20 types of website content to help climb to the top of your niche.

20 Types of Website Content

This list is in no way intended to show that these are in any order of importance. There is no taxonomy of content. The right content is that content that is placed in front of the right customer at the right time and speaks the right message which leads to the right action (hopefully, to do business with you, but it could be to download your free report, sign up for your newsletter, or click another link to another piece of content). This list is to simply say that these are some of the types of content you can use to help you reach a measurable goal.

1. Static Content

Static content is simply content that you publish and leave for your audience to discover. It doesn’t change. Its opposite is dynamic content, which is content that changes over time. Blogs are dynamic. Videos are dynamic. Static content are those pages on your website that describe your products or services. You publish and leave them. Quite simple, really.

2. Landing Pages

Landing pages are a type of static content that might have dynamic elements. For instance, your landing page may consist of a video. It might even be nothing but a video. But you aren’t likely to change the content of the page, and you might publish some textual content that is designed to draw people in and get them to take some action. For now, just know that landing pages are static content that are narrowly focused on a single call to action that you want your visitor to take and all the content on that page is geared toward moving your visitor to take that action.

3. Blog Content

Blog content is a little more difficult. A blog home page is a dynamic page. It changes every time you publish a new blog post. It can be on your website or your blog can have its own website. Either way, the main page, or home page, of the blog is a dynamic page. Check out my Thoughts on Digital Publishing and you’ll see several blog posts on that page. Scroll down to see each page. If you click on any particular blog post title, you’ll navigate to a single blog post. Blog posts are generally static, however, you may want to, from time to time, revisit certain blog posts and revise them. That’s perfectly acceptable. Maybe the information needs to be updated, or maybe you’ve changed your opinion on some things, or maybe you want to add new graphics or enhance the SEO (search engine optimization). Blog content at its best is both static and dynamic.

4. Photos

Photos are content that enhances content. Rarely will you create a web page with nothing but a photo. You might have a photo gallery, especially if you are a photographer or artist and you are displaying your work. However, if you do, then you should enhance your photos with textual content. Photos make great content, but they are usually more effective and powerful when used in conjunction with textual content.

5. Videos

Unlike photos, videos can often be the main piece of content on a page. You can use videos to entertain, educate, inform, or a combination of the three. You can host them on your own server, but I recommend using embedded videos. YouTube is a great source for finding videos to embed on your website, your blog, or wherever you publish content. Here’s an example of an embedded video.

6. Images

Not all images are photos. Some are cartoons or created graphics (formats include gif, png, and jpg). Animated gifs are popular and often bring a lighthearted flare to a serious topic.

7. About Content

Every website should have an About page. This is static content that tells your visitors about you and why they should do business with you. If you are a sole proprietor or freelancer, like I am, an About page should detail your experiences and backgrounds to show your potential customers what you can do for them. If your website represents a company, your About page should detail the company’s history and expertise, but you might also include information about your company’s leadership. Check out my About page, for example.

8. FAQs

FAQ is an acronym that stands for Frequently Asked Questions. If your product or service is complex, I recommend an FAQ page. Take your most frequently asked questions and turn them into a page where you provide answers to those questions. One of my clients, Sharestates, has a great FAQ page. See how they split it up into FAQ for sponsors and investors? That’s talking to your audience.

9. Infographics

An infographic and an informational graphic. A couple of years ago, they were all the rage. The buzz has dimmed down some since then, thank the Almighty. But they can still be effective if done well. Check out these 25 effective infographics.

10. Polls

Want to know what your visitors think about something? Take a poll. Or you can call it a survey. A great place to find tools to help you manage effective polls is SurveyMonkey (no, this is not an affiliate link).

11. Slideshows

Who doesn’t like a good slideshow? The world lives and breathes by PowerPoint. Right? As a former officer in the U.S. Army, I can attest to the fact that the U.S. military could not win wars without this incredible tool. It’s killer! Get it?Okay, jokes aside, slideshows can be effective and fun. Your content will take on an entirely different dimension. And the best thing about slideshows is that you can create them online and embed them right into your web pages and blog posts, like this:

 

SlideShare is the premier place online to find slideshows on topics related to your niche, and to create your own slideshows.

12. Lists and Listicles

Everyone likes a good list. You’ve seen the titles: “14 Types of Authority Content“, “9 Successful Techniques for Making Money from Podcasting,” and “23 World Class Marketers Share Their Best Marketing Tips For 2020.” A listicle is a list that reads like an article, like this blog post you are reading right now.

13. Podcasts

Speaking of podcasting, podcasts are audio recordings you can upload to your website or embed on your website. Just like this one:

14. Interviews

Interviews make great blog posts. Find a celebrity in your niche and request an interview. You can publish the interview as content on your blog or publish it as a static web page on your website. Interviews can be long or short, but they’re great content because they give your audience a different perspective on your topic from an expert.

15. Case studies

Case studies also make great content for websites and blogs. They are like interviews, but they are typically written in a narrative format. To see the difference, here’s an example of an interview and here’s a collection of author case studies.

16. Press Releases

Not every website needs to publish press releases, but if you have a PR department and you send out a lot of releases, especially if those releases routinely result in earned media, then you can publish your press releases on your own website. You could even have your own media or press section on your website, a way for media personalities to learn more about your company and contact the person responsible for your PR.

17. Newsjacking

If you were around during the Superbowl in 2013, then you likely remember Oreo’s famous meme “You can Still Dunk in the Dark.” That’s a great example of newsjacking, where you take a bit of breaking news and turn it into publicity for your brand. The Content Marketing Institute has several more examples of great newsjacking. You can do it too.

18. User-Generated Content (UGC)

It’s not easy to get users to contribute to your website. The most popular and successful ways that have worked in the past is to build a community around a blog where the publisher, or blog author, encourages comments on the blog posts and forums. People love forums. People thrive on community.

19. How-to Guides

Comprehensive guides to anything are great ways to attract attention online. They take a lot of work, but if you can build a successful how-to guide for your niche and do it better than anyone else, then you’ll have a valuable piece of static content for years to come. If you want to see what a comprehensive guide to consumer psychology looks like, check out Quicksprout’s “The Complete Guide to Understanding Consumer Psychology“. Nobody does how-to guides better than Neil Patel.

20. Book or Product Reviews

Finally, an easy piece of content to produce is a book or product review. You might have to buy the product you want to review, but some marketers have managed to receive a regular stream of product gifts from companies hoping to get reviewed simply because they carry a lot of influence. The main thing is that your review help your customers or website visitors. And I’m not talking about reviews for the sole purpose of earning income from affiliate links. I’m talking about honest heartfelt reviews that don’t compensate you for writing them other than the satisfaction of knowing you are helping people. What comes around goes around.

As stated earlier, this is not an exhaustive list of types of website content, but this is a good place to start. Incorporate as many of these as you can into your content marketing strategy.

Are you ready to boost your authority? Looking for ways to expand your reach and deliver the best content for your niche audience? Download my free report, “14 Types of Authority Content“. Learn the seven types of content that will keep your audience coming back for more and instantly make you an authority they can rely on.