The Importance Of A Content Strategy
Let's face it. Updating your website can be a bit of a chore and is probably last on your to do list. With Google Panda 4.0 killing websites with low quality content, as a business owner you should have a content plan in place and not be scrambling around to kick out website content.
Pre 2013 you could just hire offshore content writers to post low quality content for your website and just leave your website as is. In 2014, it's a new ball game with Google Panda 4.0. Our customers that have worked with us on their content strategy are seeing hunting bookings and website traffic higher than they have ever in this down economy.
Bottom line, you need a content strategy.
Content Development
How are you going to write or develop content for your website on a consistent basis? It's up to you or working with your marketing company to develop it. Here are a few content tips:
Content Tip 1: Hire A Content Marketing Company
Why not have someone do it for you and custom tailor it for your business and the search engines? Easy enough right? Well, yes and no. The issue is, no one knows your business better than you. We work with 3plains clients who choose to hire us on a monthly or quarterly basis to help them with their website content, SEO and overall marketing strategy.
Content can be a tad dull to develop and write, but it's a very important process. Search engines sniff and hunt out text. If your website doesn't have quality text or content on your website, do you think a search engine will think your site is very important, or even find your product or service? Probably not. You must have quality content on your website in relation to what you are selling.
Content Tip 2: Pitch, Tone and Readability
Another important point about your website content is readability. Our writing is meant to be very straight-forward and to the point. The writing is truthful, meaningful, straight-forward and we try to convey that in the copy. If you write a bunch of fluff, people may see right through your product or service. There are several different ways you can go with your copy, just think about what type of person you would like to attract.
Content Tip 3: Break Up Your Content
Too much text or content will leave readers bored. People have a short attention span these days. Put a photo in there, a graph or some quotes to mix the content up a bit. A well thought out web design will also draw users in. In the below photos, we took a combo hunts page and added photos in the content to give users a feel for what they can expect with the hunting package to give them a visual. Then we added a contact us/inquire button at the bottom of each hunt as call to action buttons.
Content Tip 4: Don't copy text or plagiarize
"I'll just copy the text or plagiarize some website." Unfortunately that won't work. There are products out there called Copyscape that will run and scour the web to find identical content. Just don't do it, because it won't help you. Search engines use these algorithms to figure out if your business is legitimate, a fraud, a copy cat, or whatever you want to call it. Copy is very important to search engines, users, your business and potential sales.
Content Tip 5: Social Media (Facebook)
Updating your Facebook is a great marketing tool, but will not help your website rank well in the search engines. We have seen a few of our customers completely abandon their website and jump to social media. Consequently, traffic on their website fell by 35% and so did leads. This is a function of laziness or just not setting the time to do it. It could be as easy as emailing it to your web team or marketing team and having them post it for you. Social Media is a great tool when used wisely. Unfortunately, a lot of people use it incorrectly or as their only content strategy.
Content = More Traffic + More Leads = More Sales
What is the point of content marketing? Generating more traffic to essentially bring in more leads to make more sales. We can't tell enough you how important content marketing is to selling your product. It is one of the most important things to consider, don't underestimate the importance.
Contact 3plains for a free consultation or to inquire about our content marketing services.
Posted in: Marketing