Your economic development website is one of your most valuable tools for reaching key audiences, including site selectors, corporate executives, small business owners, and local stakeholders. But with limited space and readers’ attention spans, it’s essential to focus your content where it matters most. Here’s a guide to help you refine your website’s content, ensuring it serves your primary audiences effectively, stays streamlined, and keeps unnecessary information at bay.
1. Does This Serve My Primary Audience?
Economic development websites often cater to two main types of audiences:
- Primary: Site selectors, C-suite executives, corporate real estate agents, existing employers, and small business owners.
- Secondary: Local leaders and community members.
Given your website’s limited space, consider the importance of each page’s content. If a piece of information doesn’t align with the needs of your target audiences, it might be best left out.
Use a “Venn diagram” approach to content: include material that’s relevant to either the primary audience or both your primary and secondary audiences, but avoid content that solely addresses secondary stakeholders.
2. Does This Need to Be Its Own Page?
As Coco Chanel once said, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” The same principle applies to your website—remove anything unnecessary. Websites often start small but can, over time, fall victim to “scope creep,” growing from 20 pages to 40 or more as new content is added. However, more pages don’t necessarily mean more value.
To combat this, ask yourself if this new information needs to be on its own page? More often than not, there’s already a relevant page on your website where this information can be placed. For instance, if you already have a page outlining business incentives, it may also be the perfect spot to include information on loans and grants rather than creating a new page.
By combining related information, you create a cleaner, more intuitive site that delivers value without overwhelming visitors.
3. How Much Detail Do I Really Need?
One of the biggest pitfalls on economic development websites is excessive detail. While it’s tempting to provide comprehensive information, remember that details can often be saved for direct conversations or follow-up materials.
Here are two examples where brevity is key:
- Incentives, Grants, and Loans: Rather than detailing the entire structure of a grant program, provide a simple summary. Detailed discussions can happen during negotiations or through one-on-one calls. A sentence or two that captures the essence will suffice.
- Your Organization’s History: People visiting your website to learn about your economic development initiatives or quality of life do not care when or why your organization was founded. You need to focus on things that will move the needle with your audience. Two dudes having a meeting in 1947 isn’t one of those things.
Keeping it brief helps visitors quickly understand what you offer without getting bogged down in specifics that may not matter to them.
4. Can It Be a Link?
Sometimes, less is more. If information is already available elsewhere—especially on other trusted sites—consider linking rather than duplicating. This strategy, much like “this meeting could’ve been an email,” ensures your website remains efficient and focused.
Here are a few cases where linking is effective:
- State Incentives: Rather than creating a page that details state-level incentives, link to the relevant state website page. Visitors will appreciate direct access to the source.
- Education and Small Business Programs: If there are established pages with up-to-date information on education or small business programs, link to them instead of recreating the content. This approach not only keeps your site streamlined but also reduces the need for constant updates.
Working smarter, not harder, frees up resources to enhance the content that truly matters.
Conclusion
A well-organized economic development website serves as a powerful tool for attracting and engaging your primary audience. By focusing on relevant content, avoiding unnecessary pages, limiting excessive details, and leveraging links when possible, you can create a website that is both informative and efficient. This approach not only meets the needs of site selectors, executives, and corporate real estate agents but also ensures a streamlined experience that reflects well on your community.
