Websites are built on content, but while the words that make up content are important, how that content is organized is just as crucial to the success of a website. Here are some tips for how to organize your content.

Make Your Content Skimmable

The truth of the matter is that people rarely read all the content on a given webpage. We have been trained to skim websites in order to find the information most important to us, so it’s important that when organizing content for a church website, churches make it skimmable.

This partly relates to how content is written. On average, the internet reads at a middle school level, so using complex sentence structures can make content difficult for users to skim. When drafting content for your church website, make sure sentences are simple and word choices are clear.

However, being skimmable is more than just how the content is written. It’s also related to how content is presented visually. The most important things people need to know on a webpage should stand out from a design standpoint so that when they’re skimming, they pay attention to the most important points. These points should smoothly guide them through the content.

Be Intentional with Headings

One way to create a clear visual hierarchy that prioritizes the most important pieces of content is to use headings. Headings separate content into clearly defined sections. They also give users a sense of what the content in that section is going to be about. An ideal heading is no longer than four to eight words, or around 70 characters. It can be a complete sentence, but the most high-level headings don’t need to be.

When writing content, keep headings in mind. Instead of having a webpage that is a large chunk of text, break it up into digestible sections separated by headings that explain what each section does. That way, since we know users are likely going to skim the page, the headings will guide them so that they still understand the main points of what you want them to get out of a webpage.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Benefits

Headings are an important SEO tool. Search engines like Google use headings to index webpages and understand what they’re about. This means that when you add headings to a webpage, you’re increasing your chances of showing up as a result when people search for topics related to your content.

This means that it’s important to use SEO keywords in your headings. Keywords are specific words or phrases that a user enters into a search engine when looking for information, products or services. Search engines scan web pages for keywords to determine what will show up as the result of their search. Using keywords in your headings lets Google know what the most important keywords are for your webpage.

You can learn more about SEO keywords and how to find them on our blog.

Church websites built through UCC Everywhere (UCCE) have built-in design parameters for paragraphs and headings, so it’s easy and intuitive to organize content. For a monthly or annual subscription fee, UCC churches participating in UCCE get their own site along with other digital marketing tools and support to make sure their message is reaching faith-seekers in their community via the appropriate virtual channels.