Speed vs Content

It’s a predicament a lot of marketers find themselves in – what do you value the most? Website speed or website content. Both have a direct impact on how well your website performs and ultimately, converts.

It doesn’t matter what your business is, you have an overarching goal, whether it is sales, exposure, engagement, phone calls or footfall. You’ll be able to work with your website to track your conversions, but to fully understand your website, you need to work out what gets your customer in front of you. Are they referral visitors? Do they fall nicely into an intent campaign you are running? Have they seen your Facebook page and wanted to know more? All easy things to track and report on.

However, when it comes to SEO, there are a few factors you’ll need to think about. Two things our digital marketing team are always asked about is “website speed vs website content”.

Firstly, we totally understand that a well-rounded website needs great content, a fantastic design, clear call to actions, responsive design and also delivery in a speedy manner. Not only do users like all of these elements, but so do our friends at Google.

However, where should your time be spent?

At Hush, we have always been keen believers that “content is king”. Implement a core content plan and strategy, and you’ll reap the rewards further down the line. Don’t, and all you’ve got is a really nice website with no visitors.

Let’s put it in a way everyone can understand 🙂

If you take the engine out of a fast car and strap it to a bare chassis with four wheels and hit the accelerator, it will be FAST! However, you’ll drive in a straight line, without any control or braking. You might win a drag race, but as soon as a turn comes up, you’ll be wishing for some added extras!

Now take the same engine and add everything else to the car that you’ll need to win the race, modestly. Yes, all the added parts might slow you down a few seconds, but who’s counting? Winning by ten seconds or two seconds is still winning. At least winning by two seconds, you’ll do so in a safe manner, and the car can be utilised again and again.

Apply the same thought to your website. Strip away beautiful design elements, video banners, app integrations and images, and you’re left with a website that’s fast but isn’t popular. Add all the nice design elements to the site, and you might see a drop in speed, but you’ll have a website that people want to visit over and over.

At Hush, we like to work with a wide range of clients. Some clients have come to us with their current website, and we’ve worked with them to improve their rankings and traffic. Yes, their sites could do with a little TLC, but at the core of it all, content comes out on top.

Even with a website that is 5 years old, our team of digital gurus have worked their magic with a full content plan and have the results to prove how much content still rules the roost. Remember that car we discussed earlier? Well, look at content like fuel. Without it, eventually, your website will start to drop in the rankings, which will lead to a drop in traffic and conversions.

What we are trying to say it that your website needs a good mixture of great content to fuel it and a well designed, functional website to host the content. The two elements can’t really work on their own, so having a happy medium is always an excellent point to get to.

At Hush, we’ll try to work with any website regardless of age. If it is something we can help with, we will. So if you’re looking for organic ranking increase, more traffic or better visibility online, give us a call.