One of the purposes of a website is to communicate a message, therefore it is crucial for your website to have content for visitors to read.  A website without content is useless, but creating the content isn’t always easy – it takes some work.   One of the most difficult, time consuming, pain-staking aspects of creating a brand new website for a business is getting content from the business owner.

Most businesses want to leave it up to their web developer to create content for them, however it’s impossible for a web developer to know exactly what to write for their clients.  It’s up to the business owner to create his/her own content.  The problem is that many business owners don’t know where to start.

Whether you are a business owner trying to figure out what to say, or a web developer trying to get content from your client, an encouraging snippet of truth to know is this: business owners know more than they think the do – it’s just a matter of asking the right questions.

Here is a list of 10 questions that I have found helpful to ask my clients who are struggling to come up with content for their website:

1. Do you have a mission statement for your company?  If not, what would you say the mission of your company is (what do you seek to do, and for who)?
2. What is a one or two line sentence that sums up what you do?
3. Why did you get into the business?  (What was your motivation for starting your business?)
4. Do you have any special skills/services/products that aren’t common for your industry?
5. What do you try to do differently than your competitor down the street?
6. What would you say is your biggest selling point?
7. What would you want a person who is just hearing about your business for the first time to know about your company? (if you were talking with someone about your company, what would you tell them in order to impress them)
8. What do you want your customers to feel after they’ve done business with you?
9. What are some positive things that people have said about your business? (this could end up being your testimonial section)
10. What are the 10 questions that you’ve answered 100 times about your industry?  (This will most likely be your FAQ’s content)

By the time you are finished answering the above questions, it’s likely that you would have already come up with more content than you need to at least get your site started, and you can build from there.  If you still don’t want to write your own content, don’t know how, or simply don’t have the time, don’t worry – Butler has you covered!