One of the largest issues that many website owners have is in producing great content on a regular basis for your website. Content is king – it gives people a reason to visit your website, allows your website to be found more often online and also allows you to reach out and bring people back time and time again.
I am born & raised in Suffolk, in a small sleepy village of around 2000 people called Ixworth. I left at the age of 18 thinking quite rightly that boy/man needed to explore – which he did. My parents stayed local and thus I have been able to continue my affinity with the village over nearly four decades.
Last year we set up a website – www.ixworthvillage.co.uk – to try and support the village online and with the lofty aim of helping the community interact more online. If you had looked online a couple of years ago you would have found nothing but bland websites manufactured by nationals looking to make themselves feel more local. We wanted to think different.
So we built the website and reached out to a few parts of the community. First the Parish Council started talking with us and we offered to publish their content online (monthly meetings etc) – easy content that was produced monthly by the village council for the community and available to read in the library. This was the start and from there we have been approached by various entities in the village with something to say but no way to say it.
I am writing this because of two pieces I received today from “The History Group” in Ixworth – which have made me reflect on the content we produce for our business websites, and ask questions about how we can improve.
The articles are laid out below and well worth a read as great pieces of well-researched local history. For me they stand out as the guy who sent them to us had written them a time ago and spent a long time researching them. The detail, images and quality of writing are perfect – and they are perfectly relevant to the audience of www.ixworthvillage.co.uk.
I feel privileged that he wanted these published on our website and now want to know what other great content has been buried in the community. This stuff should be read and celebrated by the village – it will have the affect of drawing the community together, educating children, allowing the elder to reminsce ……
If we can get anywhere near this quality of content on our business websites then we have made a start in learning how to publish online.
With compliments to Mike Dean of the History Group of Ixworth.
