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In a world of rapidly evolving technology BarkWeb’s Digital Operations Manager Matt Vinuesa takes a look at why it is important to focus on creating good content for our websites.
As someone who is lucky enough to work with a broad variety of websites, there’s often a common theme that keeps rearing its stately crown (and that we keep preaching to our clients about) and that’s the fact that “Content is King” and as such should be accorded the respect and importance it truly deserves. [endclip]So come on, roll out the red rug.
Why bother?
There’s no silver bullet for what makes a website successful. All the carefully crafted website infrastructure and technical SEO in the world will not be sufficient in itself to generate all the traffic and conversions you need if you don’t have (and continue to produce) high quality, compelling content to attract, inspire and retain a growing audience. What’s the benefit in attracting a mass of customers to your shop with tempting offers and promises of quality goods if when they get there they find sparsely stocked shelves containing low grade items they don’t need and instantly walk out instead of proceeding to the checkout?Worse still, when the disgruntled customers tell their friends and word gets round it might not be long before you’re organising a closing down sale. OK, yes the analogy is a bit extreme but hopefully I've made my point.
Making it happen
Larger companies may have a dedicated team of industrious online marketeers and skilled copywriters or perhaps can afford to outsource copywriting and content creation to an agency but having a focused web content strategy is important for everyone, and that includes sole traders, local businesses and SME’s. For some people creativity and writing good copy comes naturally, and they enjoy it. For others it’s not that easy; some find it daunting, whilst others may feel uninspired or just not have enough time. My view is that devoting time to creating content is crucial, both on-site and off-site. Ignore it at your peril and to the potential detriment of your business. It needn’t take very long and the rewards are worth the effort. So that's settled. All businesses should have a defined content strategy and commit the necessary resource to make it happen. No excuses!....errrhm.... that said, if you really don't have the time do get in touch as we provide a full content creation and copywriting service.
Types of content
There are various vehicles to carry content and transmit information via the web. Here are just some of the most widely used:• On-site copy
The copy on your landing pages is to a great extent the “cover” by which people will judge your “book”. Furthermore you don’t have a lot of time to convince visitors to stick around. Nowadays people browse web pages fast and if they don’t find what they are looking for quickly they’ll be gone faster than Usain Bolt in the last leg of a 4x100m relay. So make sure the copy on your site is up to date, relevant and engaging.
• Infographics
The mere mention of the word infographic can cause many a sigh and raised eyebrow and mixed feelings of anticipation and resigned scepticism. There are now many user-friendly free tools available with which to create infographics. At its peak about 2 years ago the infographics bandwagon got more crowded than the Tokyo Underground at rush hour.
Unfortunately this has meant that the quality isn't always top notch with many examples of questionable purpose available. Nontheless these can still be a refreshing and fun way to convey information as long as they are accurate and provide answers to questions people are genuinely interested in.
I like this example http://ow.ly/kX5PU on how search works from non-other than our friends at planet Google.
• Games and interactive content
If you can get people to interact on your website then you’re in a strong position. The secret is to provide something fun or really useful that also results in a conversion for your business either straight away or at a later point in a visitor’s journey.
• Blogs
Blogs are a great way of interacting with your audience and the use of guest blogs means you can have content created for you by someone else (bonus!) and may add a certain prestige to your Blog. Moz (formerly SEOMoz) is a great example that I follow for SEO news and developments and they have their own Moz Blog, the YOUmoz Blog which is a blog users can submit posts to plus a developers blog and yet another by their co-founder Rand Fishkin. Because blogs frequently allow readers to share and/or add comments they can be an ideal way to get meaningful conversations and valuable discussions going. If you’re thinking of having a user blog you’ll need a way of vetting and approving articles before they are published to ensure they are suitable and relevant.
• User-generated content
Sometimes messages that come from someone else can be much more powerful and convincing than your own. For example gathering and sharing positive client feedback, testimonials or product reviews can do wonders for your brand and inspire greater trust from prospective clients. User blogs (see above), blog comments and forums can aslo be very successful.
• Free give-aways
White papers, ebooks, best practice guides and expert tips are a great way to attract visitors to your website but be prepared to give something away before you get something back. For example you could share some free tips or advice on a webpage which also has a more detailed white paper or ebook available to download which requires a contact form to be filled in. In this way you can start building a list for marketing purposes and perhaps identify visitors who have a requirement that you can help provide a solution for.
• Video
Videos can make for great content and can easily be uploaded on sites like YouTube. People love to share videos, which is why we see so many videos going viral. They’re a great way of engaging with a wide audience and provide the opportunity for solid link building and getting that link juice really flowing. Sharon Flaherty, Head of Content at Confused.com gave a great talk which I was fortunate enough to attend at BrightonSEO back in April all about intelligent use of content for brands and business. Sharon is a big fan of video content. The full video of her talk is available to view here.
• Competitions
Everyone loves a competition and if you’re anything like me you always think you’re in with a good chance of scooping the top prize. You can organize a competition even if you’ve got seriously limited budget. It’s amazing what people will do for the chance to win even the most insignificant of things. Offer a good prize like an iPAD or a free holiday and they’ll come flocking like a scene from The Birds.
• Newsletters
Another great way to build an opted-in list and keep interested parties informed about important news and developments within your organisation. You can vary the frequency according to how much resource you can commit e.g. monthly, quarterly etc.
Stay tuned folks because next week in PART 2 I'll be taking a look at:
- what makes for good content
- whether we should write content for Google or real people
- how to ensure your content is kept fresh and up-to-date