In the movies, the old adage of “If you build it, they will come.” Often holds true. However, if you have a website with a blog and hope your customers will flock…. Just because you have a website with a blog, think again!

While blogging and creating useful content are essential tactics for any business that has an online presence, in order to drive ROI, you must have a cohesive strategy in place. Now comes Thanks to the invention of easy-to-use CMS platforms like WordPress, blogging is simpler than ever. With a few tips and tricks, getting targeted visitors and growing your organic traffic (without spending an arm and a leg) can be easy if you follow the steps below.

BUILD AUDIENCE PROFILES FOR USER INSIGHT

Before you begin writing blog content, put some time into getting to know your target market better. More specifically, discover what they’re in search of.

Establish the framework for your market by addressing the following queries:

• Who is your target market?
• What type of content are they looking for online?
• What do they seem to need assistance with?
• How have they gone about attempting to find what they’re looking for?

Addressing these search queries will give you a better understanding of your target market.

You can take things up a notch by adding more customized queries, including:

• Their age
• Their occupations
• Their education levels
• How proficient are they in the topic of your blog?

In the world of e-commerce, these profiles are referred to as “buyer personas.” If you manage a store online, this article will show you how to make buyer personas using templates and examples.

*HACK #1 – Look at your Google Analytics report to get a good look at who is visiting your website, where they are coming from and what pages they are visiting the most. Keep this in mind when creating content for your blog. 

UTILIZE A KEYWORD-BASED CONTENT STRATEGY

SEO experts and content creators use a tactic known as keyword research in order to create content that is highly searchable. It aids them in finding specific sentences and words that users enter in search engines for the sake of getting answers to their questions.

Generally, blog beginners create content based on guesses and hunches. If you are guessing at what people are searching for when it comes to your line of business, most of your content won’t rank very well in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). You may find that no one is making queries using the keywords you chose. Perhaps they are being used, but your competitors are already dominating SERPs with content of their own.

Here are the benefits of conducting effective keyword research:

• Find search terms that people are actually using.
• Discover ideas for unique content based on frequently made search queries.
• Understand your competitors better and outrank them with stronger content.
• Produce pillar articles to direct visitors to your blog consistently.

This begs the question; how does one conduct keyword research? Fortunately, it’s not as hard as you might believe.

There are plenty of paid and free tools you can use to conduct keyword research properly. Some of our favorite resources can be found here.

When using these tools, you simply type in a keyword (or your competitor’s website or blog), along with your own URL, and you’ll be told what keywords people are typing in, when and where they are doing it, and much more data.

We have assembled a thorough beginner-friendly article on how to conduct keyword research for your company here.

CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR

After you have performed keyword research, you will have fresh ideas for new blog posts.

This long keyword list can scare may newcomers away. Don’t be one of those people. Instead, put together a game plan (otherwise known as an “content calendar”).

Always keep in mind that no successful website was produced overnight. It takes ongoing effort for a website to become successful over time.

With a content calendar, you will make a plan and stick to it.

There are several helpful programs, such as Sprout Social and Asana, that can help you organize your content calendar strategy.

Your objective should be to coordinate a big-picture strategy and enhance your productivity.

1. Useful and thorough content creation

High-quality content is what search engines and people look for. By high-quality, we mean in-depth blog articles that are at least 1200 words and tell readers how to do something that is of high value to them in their professional or daily lives.

The purpose of the article is to answer a question or solve a problem for someone. These are called “pillar articles.” Some experts call them cornerstone content or flagship articles.

• Pillar content can be comprised of any article type. For instance, they might be in the form of a list article, editorial article, comparison study, or tutorial.
• Pillar content offers more detailed and comprehensive information on a given subject.
• Pillar articles aren’t mostly read at one time or another. They are convenient and evergreen. We suggest updating them with new content to remain on top of SERPs.

2. Creating readable content

As we mentioned above, internet users and search engines seek out articles that are longer and offer information they are looking for in a single place. However, most people have very short attention spans, so you need to create some introductory content, as well as write in tone that will resonate, in order to keep people reading and searching for more.

Begin by offering a synopsis of what your article entails, and ensure the full-length piece has plenty of visuals. Your content should be written in an inviting tone. Most importantly, your sentences and paragraphs should be brief.

If you want readers to pay close attention to any content you’ve created, consider the following tactics:

• Write brief paragraphs and shorter sentences. The text will be simpler to read and look at because of all the white space surrounding the wording.
• Use enough line spacing, large font sizes, and more legible fonts to enhance your typography.
• Look at your content’s readability score. The Yoast SEO WordPress plugin (and several other plugins like it) which should be part of your website set up, can gauge the readability of your content.
• A grammar evaluator should be utilized. We suggest using Grammarly because it helps you write stronger content while checking your grammar.
• Use visual elements like infographics, videos, screenshots, and pictures — such media elements will make your content simple to read and more engaging.

3. Write eye-catching headlines

When your content is discovered in RSS feeds or SERPs, the headline of your article will be what people see first.

You’ll get more clicks with a catchy title for your blog post, making it stand out. In contrast, a boring headline won’t get any attention, and will likely just be scrolled by in favor of more attractive ones.

You must master the art of authoring eye-catching, optimized titles. Doing so will result in more clicks….. and more leads for your business.

Here are fundamentals of creating an impactful headline:

• A captivating headline stimulates an emotional reaction (greed, excitement, fear, curiosity, shock, surprise, joy, etc.).
• Users believe your article offers value; they are rewarded with content that helps them in some way.
• Targeted keywords triggers promotion of your content.
• Emotional responses are triggered by strong words. These words tell users what they can expect from reading your article.
• The best headlines are ones that subtly issue users a CTA (Call to Action).

*HACK 2 – Utilize tools like SEOpressor Headline Analyzer or  the Hubspot Blog Topic Generator Recommendations to create topics that will help you rank high with the search engines and keep people engaged!

REMEMBER TO ALWAYS ADD INTERNAL LINKING

Once you have begun writing quality blog posts, it’s vital to create links within the blog post to your content from pre-existing articles. This is known as “internal linking.” It is essential part of search engine optimization. (see what we did there?)

The value of internal linking:

Internal links aid Google in comprehending the relationship and context between various posts on your blog. This information is used as ranking signals and lets Google know that you are a legit blogger/business.

When taken into context and strategically placed, internal links can increase traffic and minimize bounce rates. They can also help drive potential customers to other places within your website that will allow for more lead conversion.

ATTRACT QUALITY BACKLINKS

A link coming in from a third-party website to any page on your site is called a “backlink.” As far as Google rankings go, high quality backlinks from other reputable websites are a very influential in helping your company’s website rank high.

However, getting high quality backlinks is not as easy as it sounds. If you want to try and partner with other organizations to get these highly coveted links to your site, consider trying out the following tactics:

• Contact reputable bloggers and influencers in your field. Inform them of an article on your site that might be relevant to their specialty.
• Guest-post on other websites and blogs.
• Conduct interviews with bloggers and influencers in your field and publish the content on your site. The person that you interviewed will inform their own base about the interview, and as such, backlinks will be created.
• The simplest approach to getting backlinks is to display links to your site on social network profiles by reposting content.

MAKE YOUR NEW CONTENT ENGAGING WITH SCREENSHOTS, INFOGRAPHICS & POLLS   

Integrating charts and pictures into your content will make it more reader friendly.

Humans are partial to visual elements…. They like looking at familiar items and colors because they stimulate emotional reactions. As such, we become more immersed and engaged in our environment.

People enjoy viewing infographics since they simplify the process of consuming information, making the content more engaging in the process.

Pictures in your articles will also work to catch a user’s attention, helping them concentrate on the wording and the visual aspects around it.

If you are a newcomer to content creation or blogging, understand that not just any picture you find online can be used. Pictures come with copyright protection rules and using them without permission can result in very large fines.

Instead, you should use photos, graphics, and pictures of your own that you purchase from legitimate stock photo sites like istock or Shutterstock. If you’re working on a tight budget, there are a number of free stock image sites where you can find useful images for your content creation.

EMBED VIDEOS INTO YOUR CONTENT

The most consumed form of media on the internet right now is video. More time is spent by users watching videos on blog posts then looking at pictures or reading the actual article the video is embedded into.

Supplementing your articles with videos is quite easy to do in WordPress. With that said, videos should never be directly uploaded to WordPress since the CMS is not built for video streaming.

If your video is hosted on WordPress’ servers, it will absorb a lot of resources, slowing down your blog’s loading time. Instead, you should upload your video to YouTube, then embed the video to a blog post.

This provides you with greater exposure since YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world (behind Google) and a frequently visited social network.

There are several video content creation methods you can try out:

• You can make slideshows of tutorials with voiceover directions.
• You can make screencasts.
• You can conduct interviews with influencers and bloggers in your field.

If a Mac is being used to edit your videos, iMovie can perform simple editing services. For windows, there are several video editing programs out there you can use for free – such as Shot Cut or Lightworks – for simple edits.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF USER GENERATED CONTENT

Content created on your site through user activity is known as “user-generated content.” It is comprised of reviews, guest posts, testimonials, comments, and other variations.

• You can drive more visitors to your site through user-generated content since it offers users several ways to engage.
• People are more inclined to share content and even buy something from it if they spend a lot of time on your site.
• There are several types of user-generated content you can use. Determine what is optimal for your blog and begin from there.

We hope you enjoyed this article and can use these tips to help your website generate more organic traffic. If you have an experience related to content marketing and generating more organic search traffic, we would love to hear from you. If you would like help with your content marketing strategy, call or email us for a free consultation. 480-305-2017 or info@rmimpr.com.