Content Is The Foundation
Content is the foundation of all your marketing efforts online. Whether you are running a blog or a business website, content is king. Without compelling content that answers a question or solves a problem for your visitors, they will simply go elsewhere. You only have a few seconds to capture the attention and pique the interest of your website visitor. How do you do that? With content that interests, challenges or inspires your audience. Content is the foundation for building your site and marketing efforts.
When you are just starting out with your site it’s tempting to dump a bunch of content on your site. Then you focus most of your time driving traffic to your website by marketing. Far too many website owners fail to realize that the driving force behind creating powerful traffic funnels that consist of repeat visitors relies exclusively on the quality of the content you offer. If you focus on building pages that feature informative, in-demand, relevant and targeted content, your site will be stronger for it. Killer content will empower your traffic building campaigns and ensure that once you have sent a visitor to your website they will connect with your content. If a website visitor connects with your content they will return to your website when they need the information again on a product or service you provide.
You want your website visitor’s to be so impressed by the content on your site that they bookmark your website so that they can return to it again and again. You have to get their attention quickly and on the first visit. You may never get a second chance. You know the saying, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”. That saying is very true where your website is concerned.
What type of content do you need on your site? The kind of content that solves a problem or entertains your visitors. Consider your target audience and what they are most interested in, worried about, or passionate about. Content that is designed to fulfill a need, answer a question, solve a problem or entertain is always successful. And if you explore many established websites in your market you’ll find that their content always falls within one (or both) of these two categories: Educational or Entertaining. When you focus on creating content that falls into one of these categories, you’ll end up with material that is “sticky”. This means that your readers will respond to your content and return to your website because it speaks directly to them, is engaging, and on target.
You’ll also want to make sure that your content is evergreen. What I mean by this is that your content will continue to be relevant for months, or years to come, rather than just useful or informative for a short amount of time. While it’s smart to use current, buzz worthy news (that may be based on time-sensitive events) to drive in traffic, make sure that the majority of your content is evergreen.
Pro Tip: Search websites like Quora.com for commonly asked questions in your niche and create blog posts that answer those burning questions! This is also a great way to come up with headlines for your articles and blog posts. Your content also needs to be shareable. You want visitors to link to your content, share it on social media, or forward it to their friends. Consider integrating infographics or video into your content, so it stands out. Anything you can do to be different that will capture attention quickly is important.
You’ll also want to post updates to your site frequently. The major search engines love fresh content so the more often you update your website, the better. Aim for 1,000 words or more when creating blog posts. The search engines prefer longer content. 2-2500 words are even better.
Keywords are also a fundamental component of an effective search engine optimization strategy. SEO has gotten a bad rap over the years because of bloggers stuffing keywords into their content. If keywords are used correctly they become incredibly effective at helping your site rank higher in the search engines. This means maximum exposure for your site and your content. Your content is the foundation of all your marketing efforts.
