Believe it or not, content is a huge piece of your foundation for good rankings. We’ve shared key elements and structure that you need to include in your content previously, but we haven’t zeroed in on WHY it’s important, and how to put together a strategy to create solid content on an ongoing basis. Let’s do that today…
Content Marketing
By definition: It’s strategically publishing relevant and high-quality content on a regular basis with the goal in mind to attract and engage potential clients.
A couple of weeks ago we talked about creating a marketing strategy, where we focused on figuring out your sweet spot clients. The next step is to focus on the information that these potential clients would need and love. With the steps we outlined, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Why are you creating content?
- Who are you creating it for?
- And, what will that content do for them?
Understanding the Funnel
Neil Patel has a great article that goes in-depth on content marketing. He talks about content mapping based on the journey your customer takes. He makes the following point: Content marketing is at the top of the funnel. This is where you build brand awareness and engagement… i.e. it may not lead to direct sales.
Neil also points out the importance of writing content aimed at the 3 different stages that people are at: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. When you’re starting your journey — start at the Awareness stage and over time progress to the other two.
Putting Content to Work
So, how can you increase the visibility of your company so that more people have the potential of becoming aware of you? Hint… it’s our topic for today.
Think of the number of pages on your site in relation to those flashlights where you can dial in the light to be a narrow pinpoint or a broad light. The amount of area you can see with the pinpoint of light is limited… the broad light allows you to see more.
Apply that to Google… IF you have 10 pages on your site, Google can only rank 10 pages. BUT if you build out strategic content to 100 pages, Google will rank those pages, and you’ve just increased your overall visibility by 10 times. Would you rather have a bullhorn on one mountain top, or one on every peak for miles around?
IF you have your site structured correctly (a few easy to set up technical details that a good SEO plugin easily handles), and you write super relevant content that people are already searching for as they’re looking for answers… your site/article will show up on Google in those top “People also ask” section.
Putting it simply… Google loves websites that regularly put out quality content!
Next Steps
Build your plan, do your research, commit to a timeframe you can stick with, and start building your foundation. 🙂
If you are finding this a bit overwhelming, reach out to us for a free consultation. We’ll take a walk through the elements of creating your strategy and help with brainstorming ideas, and if needed provide a free tutorial to get you off and running on your site. All you need to do is ask!