10 Website Best Practices Every Radio Content Creator Should Know

When I first started uploading content to my station’s website long ago, I did what most of us do—I winged it. No one ever sat me down to explain how a website actually works behind the scenes or why certain things matter more than others. I figured if I could type it up and hit “publish,” I was doing my job. But over time, I learned that what I didn’t know was hurting our station’s online performance.

Website Best Practices You Should Know

So, if you’re a news person, on-air talent, or anyone who touches your station’s website, this one’s for you. Here are some website best practices I wish someone had told me sooner:

1. Always Optimize Images Before Uploading

Uploading raw images straight from your phone or a press release might seem fine, but those files are often massive. Oversized images can drastically slow down your website’s load time, especially on mobile devices—hurting both user experience and SEO.

Best Practice: Resize your images to the actual dimensions they’ll appear on the site (e.g., 800px wide for a featured image) and compress them with tools like TinyPNG or CloudConvert.

2. File Names and Alt Text Matter

I used to upload files called IMG_4873.jpg, thinking it didn’t matter. Turns out, search engines rely on filenames and alt text to understand images. These small details can help your content show up in Google image searches.

Best Practice: Rename files with relevant keywords (e.g., city-council-meeting-2025.jpg) and always add alt text describing the image.

3. Avoid Copy-Pasting from Word or Email

When you paste content from Microsoft Word, email or another website, it often carries hidden formatting that can break your site’s layout or introduce weird spacing issues.

Best Practice: First paste into a plain text editor (like Notepad), then copy it into your website editor. Or use the “Paste as Text” feature if your CMS offers it.

4. Don’t Overuse Bold, Italics, or ALL CAPS

Sure, you want your article to stand out—but the website isn’t a promo card. Over-formatting looks unprofessional and can be hard to read on mobile devices.

Best Practice: Use bold and italics sparingly to emphasize key points. Save ALL CAPS for acronyms, not headlines or entire sentences.

5. Write with Mobile Readers in Mind

Most radio station websites get most of their traffic from mobile devices. Long paragraphs, big images, or complex layouts make for a frustrating mobile experience.

Best Practice: Keep paragraphs short (1–3 sentences), break up content with subheadings, and preview your post on a phone before publishing.

6. Use Internal Links to Keep People on the Site

One of the biggest missed opportunities is failing to link to other content on your site. Got a story about a high school game? Link to the team page or sports schedule.

Best Practice: Add 1–2 internal links in every post to boost pageviews and help listeners discover more of your content.

7. Be Mindful of Legal Image Use

Grabbing an image from Google can put your station at legal risk. Just because it’s online doesn’t mean it’s free to use.

Best Practice: Use your own images, stock photo services, or AI-generated options that come with proper licensing.

8. Add Tags and Categories Thoughtfully

Tags and categories help organize your content and improve searchability. But too many—or too few—can hurt more than help.

Best Practice: Stick to 1–2 categories and 3–5 relevant tags per post. Think like a listener: “How would someone search for this content?”

9. Write to Be Found in Search

Radio folks have always been great storytellers, but writing for the web is different. If your post is titled “Big Game Tonight!” and doesn’t mention the teams, date, or location until paragraph three, no one’s going to find it in a Google search.

Best Practice: Be specific. Use keywords and phrases people might actually search for—like team names, event locations, or full names in obituaries. Make sure those keywords show up in your headline, first paragraph, and URL.

10. Don’t Write to Check a Box – Write to Impact Someone

We’ve all been there—posting content just to say we did. But if you’re only writing to fill a space or meet a quota, your audience will notice. And they’ll stop caring.

Best Practice: Take a moment to ask yourself, “Who needs this information—and why should they care?” Write like you’re talking to one listener. Inform them. Inspire them. Give them something worth sharing. That’s how you build loyalty and trust online.

Final Word

I know you’re juggling a dozen things—breaking news, last-minute liners, show prep, and probably a dozen unread emails. But these best practices aren’t just extra steps—they’re essential. Taking a few extra minutes to do them right will make your content stronger, your site faster, and your station’s digital presence more professional. No one may have taught you this stuff, but now you know—and your website will be better for it.