The basics of content marketing for your website
All the successful businesses that you know today use content marketing. Strange, isn’t it?
You probably think that all the big names in the industry are (or at least should be) already ahead of you when it comes to digital marketing. But this is not true. It may seem like they already have everything figured out but if you look closely you will realize that even their most popular campaigns or adverts were something new for them too once upon a time. Some of them turned down their idea and some tried to pull it off. Those who gave it a shot got enough results to further expand on that concept and eventually build entire companies around it. The point here is that these giants still don’t stop experimenting with new things.
Do you think that they are successful because they have all the answers? No, it’s only because they are not lazy enough to ask questions. Nor are they willing to stop at one failed attempt. They’ve got a lot of energy and believe in themselves enough to know that they’ll succeed sooner rather than later.
The best students do not try to memorize everything their teachers taught them but rather learn how to look for answers on their own by asking more questions – Jim Rohn
If you’re trying to create content your prospects want without success then maybe instead of thinking about what topics or angles you can cover next you should focus on why people aren’t engaging with your existing content. Why is it that despite all efforts some articles are not good enough to get shared? Did you know that it is possible for one individual to send over 100,000 visitors to your site just because they love the content you published?
There are 3 main reasons why people don’t share your post:
1. They do not see it- The majority of the posts on our feeds are things we’re scrolling past without even seeing them. We’re all familiar with this situation – Facebook has given us more options but sadly there’s no way to express how bored we are by certain topics unless someone decides to make a meme out of it. Back in the day there was no other option but now users have found an alternative solution which is using the “unfollow” button – Ain’t nobody got time for that!
2. They consider the content offensive- There’s not a single topic on social media that can’t be taken out of context if you try hard enough, but some conversations are simply more likely to receive negative feedback than others. Facebook seems to have over 100 rules when it comes to what is allowed and what isn’t – from hashtags to images there’s no way you can avoid breaking one of them at one point or another if they decide to ban your ad based on their own preferences. If you’re not a comedy genius then I suggest you pay attention to the ads running in your niche and learn from them how NOT TO do sponsored posts because Facebook keeps changing its algorithms which basically means that there’s always a new way to get banned.
3. They don’t know how- You can create the most brilliant piece of content in the world but if no one knows about it then you’re wasting your time. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours researching and writing an article only to see that nobody is interested – What did I do wrong? How am I supposed to fix this? These are just some of the things you hear ourselves saying on a daily basis, we put our best effort into every single post we publish and what we get in return is often little to none engagement so it’s easy for us to become bitter and give up on sharing good content on social media altogether which leads us into our next point:
Sharing is a 2-way street – It’s not all about you!
I’m not going to lie and say that sharing content isn’t challenging because it is. Our task is to create something interesting enough for people to look at but in order for them to do that, they need the motivation. So why would anyone bother checking out your latest blog post if there are hundreds of similar articles available? In most cases users don’t see the effort you put into creating a great piece of content so they don’t give it a second thought which is why we’ve decided to share some valuable insights on how you can address this issue:
Show a little bit more than just your industry expertise – You may have written 25 posts already covering the same topic but what about the readers who are new to it? We all know how frustrating it is when someone starts talking about something you’ve heard a thousand times before because chances are that unless you’re interested in learning more, there’s no reason for you to stick around. The solution here is simple – if your goal is to get people hooked then start using different angles and show them that you have done your research instead of just regurgitating information they can find anywhere else online.
Promote ONLY the best content- This might be one of the most time-consuming tasks on our list but it’s also one of the most important so take some time out of your day and go through everything you already published in order to see if it has potential or not. You can start by sharing the best posts you’ve ever written but after a while take a look at your engagement and see how many likes, comments and shares each of them received – if it’s none then don’t be afraid to delete it from your page altogether because nobody will notice anyway. Try promoting other people’s content instead- Just like we mentioned in point number 1, there are times when we simply get bored with the amount of self-promoting going on which is why we decided to approach this matter from a different angle – Instead of showing our own work, we started sharing great pieces of content created by other influencers! Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that you should start spamming Facebook with other people’s work because… well, that would be spamming and we all know how bad it is for your page. Instead of doing that try and learn from successful pages and see how they go about sharing content. If you’re not sure where to start then feel free to check out our Pinterest board – It has nothing but the best posts related to social media, blogging or just overall entertainment so don’t leave it empty!
Be different- Opportunities are everywhere these days which means that there’s always room for improvement when it comes to making a good impression over time. I’m well aware that marketing through Facebook can get frustrating especially since everyone seems to be using the same method (you may even notice this by yourself) but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a better way of doing it. In our opinion the best way to stick out from the crowd is by being different, creative and most importantly transparent with your audience. What I’m trying to say here is that you should stop using cheesy quotes and try sharing valuable content instead, show off your personality or even start a proper conversation because all those little things will eventually bring people closer together which in turn helps you build a stronger relationship with them.
Build relationships- This might seem like something we touched on already but it’s more than just that – if you take some time out of your day and engage more often then people will begin seeing the real you, the one they can relate to and the one they can actually come to appreciate. You need to tell them more about yourself and the things you do so that your audience knows what’s going on behind the screen, otherwise all these posts would be counterproductive but if done right, it could help build a better connection between you and your readers.
Show off your personality- Whether it’s through pictures or even short videos, there are millions of different ways in which you can show people who you are without relying too much on words which is why I highly recommend using at least one of them for promotional purposes. The best example would be our Instagram page – where else would you find out how obsessive we are when it comes to sushi?
Tips for boosting your company’s ranking on Google
The following article is a reprint of the original, which was written by David Harry and published on Search Engine Watch .
Tips for Boosting Your Company’s Ranking on Google What follows are 16 tips that will help you boost your company’s search engine optimization (SEO) and boost its ranking in Google. 1. If possible, don’t ever put up a site without PageRank. 2. Make sure every page has a title tag with keywords in it. 3. Make sure to include one or more keywords in the first paragraph of each page 4. Include a description meta-tag 5. Add a “search this site” feature 6. Create pages for very specific topics, instead of just one huge page covering 7. Don’t have external links to other sites on every page 8. Make sure each internal link has a descriptive anchor text 9. Create links pages 10. Don’t include hidden links 11. Use Google’s tools (Webmaster Central) to monitor your site 12. Monitor your stats 13. Do everything you can not to get de-indexed by Google 14. Put some common misspellings into the meta tag 15. Consider using Google ads on pages that don’t rank highly 16. Submit your sitemap file for inclusion into Google’s index The full feature list can be found at Search Engine Watch .
This is an excellent article and these tips really do work! I added them to my blog today under the SEO section.
I agree, this is great advice. It was so well written that I didn’t have anything to add when I first read it…. until now 🙂 While I don’t disagree with any of the 16 points, based on my own personal experience… Let me also say before I begin that much of this advice has been given in other posts or articles here on SEW as well. If you’re serious about SEO, you’ve probably read most if not all of them. However, even though they are very similar in their advice, they’re always worth repeating. Not reinventing the wheel is one of the most important rules to live by when it comes to SEO. Don’t be afraid to use that quote or paraphrase something if you feel your point will be better received coming from someone else’s mouth… Just try not to do it too often 🙂 Anyway… Here are my 2 cents on each of David Harry’s 16 Tips for Boosting Your Company’s Ranking on Google:: 1. If possible, don’t ever put up a site without PageRank. – Agreed but you should make sure you have at least some content on every page just so Google has SOMETHING to index and link back to pages with more PR. 2. Make sure every page has a title tag with keywords in it. – Check 3. Make sure to include one or more keywords in the first paragraph of each page – Agreed but don’t keyword stuff 5a “search this site” feature – Yep, good idea 6. Create pages for very specific topics, instead of just one huge page covering all your products/services under the sun… Use multiple folders to organize your products/services instead… 7b Don’t have external links to other sites on every page 8c Make sure each internal link has a descriptive anchor text 9d Create links pages 10e Don’t include hidden links 11g Use Google’s tools (Webmaster Central) to monitor your site 12h Monitor your stats 14e Do everything you can not to get de-indexed by Google 15a Put some common misspellings into the meta tag 16c Consider using Google ads on pages that don’t rank highly 17 Submit your sitemap file for inclusion into Google’s index – Agreed
This article was simply outstanding. Basically, it has just about all of the most important points one should know when working on SEO. I have noticed many sites are not doing several of these things. Some are just having a site with little or no content and others are even including links to other sites within their pages. It is very important to note that there are probably more than 100 factors used for ranking in Google’s, but if your site does not cover several of the items in this article you are probably not going to do well in getting ranked at all.
Great advice! I’ve been looking for a concise list like this. Now if only I could get my company to follow it… Thanks!
I agree with your point about links pages – they’re very important and Google gives them high value. Why wouldn’t you have one? I also think that there’s a key omitted from #4: link exchange agreements with other sites in your industry, particularly when done reciprocally (i.e., I’ll add a link to your site if you add a link to mine). This is potentially very powerful when done properly, but extremely dangerous without thinking through the ramifications carefully beforehand. Agreed with point #5. Sometimes I think it’s better to tell people what you DON’T want them to do than add more to the page. Google has so many rules and they change so fast that it can be impossible for anyone, even a search engine expert, to keep up with the dos and don’ts in any detail over time. Point 4: if you’re in a huge industry (like insurance) and trying to get links from hundreds of other sites, I think using services like link exchange directories may be your best bet – they generally have more listings than most individuals would bother submitting their own site too, there’s less chance of getting caught based on an unconnected site complaining about spam, and if you find one that allows do-follow links, it can be a great way to get inbound links from hundreds of “local” sites. Just make sure that you do your due diligence on their site first and use it for a while before going through the effort of getting your links into it. The last two points in #4 are very important – if possible, don’t EVER put up a site without PageRank (and ideally lots of it), and ALWAYS submit a sitemap file to Google (both for submission into its index as well as inclusion into the Search Console). Agree with point #8c. I learned this lesson too late – my site is HUGE- almost 50K pages at this point, but there’s no way I could ever realistically update all internal links with good anchor text. I think it’s a bit of a problem that the larger your site is, the worse off you are going to be in terms of SEO. It would make sense for Google to give more weight to internal links but not penalize sites for having huge amounts of content (the latter should be considered a feature rather than a bug- after all, surely if billion dollar companies like Microsoft and Oracle can maintain huge sprawling networks of web properties without getting de-indexed by Google, then there has got to be at least some benefit gained from doing so). Agreed on point #9d – this is one that I often forget myself when adding new pages/content to my site. My suggestion for other people looking to start/expand their SEO efforts is to use the Wayback Machine tool for crawling your site and then using that data in a spreadsheet, comparing what Google thinks your rankings were for keywords and links against what they used to be (or simply just looking at old versions of pages). It can turn up some surprising results. If you’re doing good work on-site and with links, you’ll see improvements over time.
”The best SEO advice in one chart”