There are a whole host of tools at your disposal when it comes to promoting your website, improving conversion rates and enhancing your SEO. Speak to your digital marketing specialist, and you will be bombarded with a list of statistics from Google Analytics on the latest keyword analysis, bounce rates and how you should fine tune your PPC strategy.
These are worthy endeavors, but if you have not got the right content on your website, it is like putting the most expensive tires on your Chevy Caprice and expecting it to win the Indy 500.
Fill your website with fresh, engaging content that your target audience wants to see, and you are half way towards success. Let’s look at how to go about it.
What to say
Blithely deciding to create fresh engaging content is all well and good, but it is sometimes easier said than done. It is helpful to think about your content from two angles: Firstly, what is on your main pages and secondly, topics for your regular articles and blog posts. We will examine each of these in turn.
Landing pages
When creating content for your landing pages, it is important to wear your marketing intelligence hat and think from the visitor’s perspective. What will bring people to your website? In the majority of cases, they will arrive because your site popped up on their Google search results page. The second thing to ask yourself is what query they typed that brought your site up into the results?
Assuming your SEO strategy is more or less on-beam, they were asking a question or searching for a product or service that is related to your organization. That is fantastic news – the challenge is to produce content that will convince them that you can answer their question or meet their need better than anyone else.
Blogs
When it comes to your blog posts, you need to think a little more broadly. Sometimes visitors will arrive there directly from a Google search, but more likely, they will be on your site already, and your landing page was so interesting and engaging that they decided to stay around and find out what else you should say.
This is sounding better and better from a conversions perspective, so don’t blow it now. Your blog needs to demonstrate that you are an authority in your industry sector and that you have something unique, interesting and relevant to say on the topics that matter.
This is great for cultivating a loyal customer base and improving your brand reputation. And remember, the Google bots are very serious about authority, too, so it will have the added benefit of enhancing your SEO.
How to say it
When visitors click your website from the list that turns up on the results page, you have approximately two seconds to convince them that they have come to the right place. This means that it is not just what you say that matters, but also how you say it.
When greeted with a page full of text, most people will hit the back button and go elsewhere – and even if you have produced the most interesting and engaging content ever seen on the internet, all it means is they will never know what they missed.
Think hard about how you will put your message across to draw people in. A well-designed site is vitally important, and companies such as Dreamstime can provide some stunning visuals to really capture the imagination and reduce those dreaded bounce rates.
It is also worth thinking a little outside the box when you create your content. Blog posts are fine, but let’s be honest, everyone loves a movie while only a few people read the book – consider video content to really bring your site to life and stand out from the crowd.
Leveraging content
With all that amazing content so beautifully presented, the final step is to make sure it gets out to as wide an audience as possible. This is where social media needs to be your new best friend. Around 30 percent of the global population uses one social media platform or another, and about two billion are on Facebook alone.
Manage your social media channels effectively and get everyone talking about your brand. This is another reason why videos are such a great medium, as there is a far greater propensity for them to be shared and retweeted than there is with text-based articles.