I haven't written about website content for a while, so it's time to circle back to it.
As you know, there are a lot of factors that go into making a great website. There are technical things like website speed, DNS, SSL and so forth as well as design considerations like responsive design, calls to action, colors, fonts, images and so on. You definitely need a team of experts help you. But let's say that you are working with Webstix and all of that has already been taken care of - you have a great website that's technically working well and the design is great and has been A/B tested... now what?
Now you need to work on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In the meantime, before SEO takes effect, you may use PPC (Pay Per Click). Social media also plays a part because that's where your audience may be. There's also offline marketing like radio, TV, billboards and print. In general, it's easiest and cheapest to get people to your website when they're already online - although since everyone pretty much has a powerful computer in their pocket (their smartphone), everyone is practically online all the time... what a world we live in!
To get traffic to your website, you need to be in front of your audience. It's just that simple. Maybe that is radio or TV - we're not against that at all and have many clients who use that media. Typically, though, you want to be at the top of search results.
To review, a blog is just a tool. You can call it whatever you want: "News" or "Updates" or whatever. The blogging tool in your website helps you quickly go in, post and get out and move on with your day. The new article appears in the right places and moves other articles down into the archive. Blogging tools help you focus on your content.
If you don't have a blog or CMS (Content Management System) set up, then that's the first thing to do - please contact us if this is you.
OK, now we're getting down to it. This is the big question.
The answer is that what you write about is going to vary. What you need to absolutely keep in mind is the user - your website visitors. Serve them. Give them what they want. Follow this rule and you can't go wrong.
You really want to write about what people are searching for. That's how you show up well in searches. You figure this out by doing keyword research. We can help with that part if you like. You want to put up good content with keywords that you can rank for easily. The good news is that there are always some keywords out there that you can rank for - believe that.
This is the scary part for many people. I used to be terrible at writing and I used to not like it. Now, it's pretty easy and that's because I've done it a lot. You can get there, too, but if this isn't you now, then you may want to consider hiring writers. There are lots of good websites out there for hiring writers but the quality will vary. A better alternative is to find someone at your company that likes to write or else hire someone you know. We have some copywriters available as well.
There are other ways to get content as well. Here's an article I ran across recently:
Got a Boring Company Blog? Here’s How to Fix It (searchenginewatch.com)
In the article, he explains some good, easy ways to get content. They include doing interviews, telling a story, using visual data and some other ideas.
And here are some more articles here that you might like:
It's all there - I've written a lot about content and it's all still true. Only use a keyword phrase about 2 times in your article - at the start and at the end. Do NOT over-optimize pages with keyword targeted URLs and titles... this is kind of a new thing with SEO and really forces you to produce even better content - remember, the user/website visitor is your focus.
With a good keyword strategy in hand and awesome content, you cannot go wrong if you have everything else in place. Remember to promote your articles via social media. You want your content under your domain - not typically over on Facebook. The titles of articles need to be compelling - that means make people want to click on the link. Give them a good reason.
Beyond this, make sure you've built the basic links to your website. This means accounts at social/Web 2.0 websites. You need those profiles that point your company name to your website. Never build any links until you have this in place. We can certainly help you with this - just contact us and let you know.
If all of this sounds scary and like something you don't want to do, then we're here to help. We don't keep any secrets and we tell our clients what to do. A good number of them realize that it's not work they want to do or have time to do and they have us do it. It's like changing your own oil - if you have a good place to do it and all the tools and the time, you can easily do it but most of us take our car in somewhere, right?
We're experts and we can do this easily. Webstix exists because we have clients that need help. We realize this and strive to serve them. We continually give out advice and try to come up with ideas and services for our clients where they see a return on their investment. Some websites are easier than others to improve, but they all can improve as long as you know what to do.
-Tony
