Strategy for Creating Better Content
Producing engaging content is the #1 challenge for B2B marketers. You are busy and you do not want to take the time to write an article, nor do you HAVE the time! … I UNDERSTAND!
1. Let’s create a CONTENT CALENDAR. I wrote about this last November Editorial calendars are used to define and control the process of creating content, from idea through writing and publication. An individual or small business might have this publishing process:
1. Brainstorm content ideas to publish and when to publish.
2. Write each piece of content based on the publication schedule.
3. Edit each piece of content.
4. Publish each piece of content on your site, your newsletter, your social media accounts.
Let me help you create your own calendar for regular and timely subjects. These can be geared around your own targeted keywords / phrases or simply directed towards interesting subjects that your customers / patients
may have some interest.
2. Narrow down your market. Only write about what you know, your business, information that your customers / clients need to know about. You know your customers / clients and what they need. You are your business’ expert … write about it!
3. Concentrate on QUALITY not quantity. Write 3-4 paragraphs each month or 2. You can do it!
4. Ask questions. Once you ask questions and post these on your web site, your business Facebook page, your business LinkedIn page, people WILL respond.
5. Listen to your consumers / customers / clients. When was the last time you visited your business Facebook page? OPPS!, someone asked you a question about your business … 6 months ago!! OPPS!
You do realize that if someone gives you a bad review (Google+, Yahoo, Yelp, etc.) you can respond, apologize and possibly save a customer! It’s all about participating in / starting the online conversation.
In conclusion, there are a lot of things you can do to improve your content strategy if you pay attention to where your target audience hangs out, what they’re talking about, and how they’re saying it. The five tips and tricks above are not foolproof in any way, but if applied correctly, can bring a lot of positive results.
Is Traditional SEO Dead? Far From It!
SEO has changed, but it certainly hasn’t gone away. Marketing a web site has become far more involved than it was back in the 90’s when this all started. From optimizing your Google My Business page to marking up your content with schema.org,, managing social accounts, it’s got far more complex.
Today’s “SEO” has many different hats to wear, there is no “standard SEO” really, your traditional SEO of optimizing Title Tags, body content, site structure, etc. is still much needed, but it’s certainly not all that must be managed for the businesses in 2015.
Regarding the future of SEO, for site owners who face serious search competition, I see it this way. The pack of runners on the track is huge and growing. If you want to run with the crowd of “also rans,” many of whom have pretty good engaging quality content, then don’t worry about SEO. Just hope that people search for you by company name, location, or your own unique product name. However, the only way you can hope to move into the leadership pack is to apply the full body of SEO knowledge, with every bit of skill you can muster. You just aren’t going to get a leadership position without that.
To be blunt, most site owners do not have the time to do the latest SEO efforts. They don’t audit their pages for speed, they don’t update their content to take advantage of Google “freshness boosts” and they don’t design their pages effectively for the 70+% of mobile traffic that stands to become the standard by 2016. All of this stuff works hand-in-hand to generate higher rankings, which leads to increased traffic, which in turn leads to higher rankings. It’s a linked circle.
Rich’s Web Design – November Newsletter
