From social media stories, YouTube videos, podcasts, all the way to those lengthy, informative articles you publish on a monthly basis, every single piece of content that comes out of your strategy has the power to bring you more visibility or keep your brand invisible. It’s no coincidence content earned its royal reputation, so every single brand that wants to truly make a difference and build up its reputation to stand the test of time focuses on delivering the kind of content that not only appeals to search engines but actually gets visitors to your site. Some brands, however, still wonder where that sweet spot lies.
Truth be told, trends can change and consequently shift the content tides, too. But certain rules of thumb remain relevant no matter the era and no matter the industry you come from. Your brand will benefit from those bits of content wisdom, so add them to your marketing strategy if you’re looking to boost your website traffic with the help of stellar content. Here are a few key tips to keep in mind.
Do your homework regularly
What does your audience enjoy the most? What kind of content has earned you the most website visits so far, the best click-through rates, the best conversion rates? Where does your audience share your content? Where do your competitors post their most successful pieces? What kind of content do they focus on – images, infographics, blogs, videos? These and many other questions are essential to any thorough research effort on your part, or at least they should be. The extent to which you’re willing to learn is the potential of your actual reach because the interests of your audience and the success accomplished by your competitors are two of the most relevant factors to keep in mind.
While most brands do their research once, at the beginning of their campaigns, most fail to go back to the drawing board regularly and tweak the numbers based on changing trends and user preferences. Be one of those brands and go the extra mile. Conduct ongoing analysis and research to support all of your content output, and you’ll be able to produce the kind of pieces your audience will enjoy.
Give your content a visual edge
Did you know that brands that use infographics can help grow traffic 12% faster than those who don’t? The very same research, nicely summed into an infographic by the way, shows that these brilliant formats are 30 times more likely to be read than their text-only counterparts. We are very visual by nature, so brands need to use this quality of ours and appeal to our senses when delivering relevant content. When you want something to capture your reader’s attention, get them to click on a link and read more, and educate them, you should aim for something that combines informational text with descriptive visuals.
When brands don’t have the capacity to do that on their own, they can collaborate with professionals such as Infostarters whose expertise focuses precisely on delivering visually appealing content that your audience will gladly consume. Diversifying your content with visuals is a powerful way to communicate your values, educate your readers, and ultimately drive more traffic to your pages.
Make your content valuable
Creating content for the sake of sticking to a schedule is pointless when you’re not giving your audience something of relevance to consume. While content used to be predominantly promotional, your audience today needs to get actionable tips, valuable advice, and information, and freebies in the form of content (think: e-books, brochures, coupons), that will inspire them to come back to your site for more. The same applies to the content that’s just meant to entertain, that alone gives your content a purpose.
When you decide on the volume and frequency of your content needs based on what your audience prefers and responds to, you can determine what kind of value you will provide. Anything from evoking an emotion, getting them to sign a petition, donate to a cause, all the way to actually applying a piece of advice makes your content valuable.
Optimize your content
Simply put, keywords matter. When you want to get ahead in a densely-populated industry brimming with other brands to compete with, your content needs to scream relevance. For search engines to even consider to put your content towards the top of the results page, you need to optimize it in accordance with the most relevant parameters for your industry. From the length of your articles, the quality of your images, the headings, titles, meta-data, all the way to adding quality links that lead to authority sites (as well as your own), many SEO factors can make or break your entire content output.
This should make its way to your research phase and allow you to keep your content data-driven and search-engine-optimized. Continuously refresh your existing content to match current trends and requirements, because algorithms change, and you need to avoid penalties if you want better traffic.
To sum up
Shareable content doesn’t mean following one and the same cocktail recipe for years on end. It means learning what your audience prefers and what search engines approve of, adapting to new trends, and leading the way in delivering value. Start driving more traffic to your website by creating content to fit these essential parameters, and you’ll have your basis for further creativity to skyrocket your brand presence.