Too many websites try to say everything to everyone. This is a bad idea. For the best marketing results, your website should dive into a single, specific topic in depth rather than trying to communicate across a wide variety of subjects. You'll get more love from your customers and from search engines like Google.
There are at least 5 reasons why a website that covers a specific topic in great detail is almost always superior to a website that covers multiple topics more generally.
1. Branding – Your company needs a single, clear purpose.
A website with no clear focus is almost always a symptom of a deeper identity crisis or branding problem at the heart of the company. Building a strong brand is about taking a specific position in your marketplace, defining your business identity, and sticking to it. Your website should state who you are and what you do as specifically and simply as possible. Don't just be a “solutions provider.” Don't just be an “online store.” Your business should fill a tangible, concrete role and provide a clear and powerful value proposition. You must be specific to build a strong brand.
2. Targeting – Speak to a single audience.
The best websites are fine-tuned to speak to their visitors' interests, needs, and goals. Who is your audience? You might be tempted to keep the focus and content of your website as general as possible to try to appeal to everyone, but this is usually a mistake. It's very unlikely that “everyone” qualifies as your best customer. Good marketing starts with defining and understanding a target market with a need you can fill, and a good website will clearly and specifically communicate what its intended audience needs to hear.
It's no secret that a large corporation that manufactures industrial components needs to speak to a different target market than a surf shop selling beach apparel. A surf shop that communicates in an overly business-like way probably won't reach its target demographic effectively, while an industrial manufacturing company that communicates like a surf shop may confuse or alienate its visitors. Your website content should be specific to your target audience.
3. Expertise – Establish authority in your industry.
This is similar to branding, but it warrants discussion in its own right. For service businesses in particular, demonstrating to potential customers that your team has the expertise to effectively provide the services you offer is a major part of gaining clients. Crafting specific, detailed content for your website can help establish your position as the “experts” in your industry.
4. Conversion – Tell your customers exactly what you want them to do.
The goal of any website is to prompt the visitor to take action. The call to action and the conversion process need to be clear and simple, and more importantly, they need to be the focal point of the site. This is true for any business website. The best websites tell visitors exactly what to do as specifically as possible. A site with no obvious call to action—or multiple, competing ones—will suffer a lower conversion rate than a site with a single, clear, specific call-to-action.
To obtain the highest conversion rate, make your site content as specific as possible.
5. SEO – Rank higher in search engines for the keywords that matter.
Search engines, like Google, exist to help their users find the best information available for any search query. When Google chooses which sites to rank on the first page of search results for a specific keyword, they rely on a variety of signals, also called ranking factors, to determine which sites are the most relevant, authoritative, and useful to the user. As a result, with all other factors being equal, a website that addresses one specific topic in detail will almost always rank better for a given keyword than a website that tries to address multiple topics more generally. To set your website up for success in search engines, be specific and detailed.
