Write an SEO Friendly Title Here…
Ok, so the title of this post makes it look like I have a template that I use to write blog posts each week. A ‘fill-in-the-gaps’ document that helps me to write posts on everything SEO. I don’t, and that is exactly the point I want to put across this week. Not just in writing content but what I’m about to discuss can be applied to everything in SEO, and probably marketing and business in general too.
From the way I see it, SEO is all about making things as user friendly and usable as possible by creating a great experience, whilst also being interesting and engaging at the same time.You give people information and allow them to make their own decisions, by creating something that is memorable and works well.
If you take a step back and think about it, that really should be what a website is about but I still see many people in and out of SEO and marketing still getting this wrong.
The Template Approach
It’s human nature to try and take shortcuts to speed up a process, using a simple template approach – particularly if it is something you aren’t all that interesting in doing and just want to get the job out of the way. Well, it doesn’t work and you can’t reasonably expect it to pay off.
I’m all for speeding up processes to improve productivity, but not by taking shortcuts and creating a template approach to something, which will allow you to spend as little time on it as possible when the aim is to get a positive response in return. It takes genuine effort.
Let me explain; imagine setting up a business, you have a great idea and have the financial backing to make it work, the aim is to get great exposure and make your money make more money. Would you put just 50% of your effort into making it work? No, you’ll put 100% in to ensure it will work and becomes a business that exceeds the original aim and not just stay as an idea.
But My Efforts Your Efforts Have to Pay Off, Right?
Yes, but do magazines and newspapers use a template approach for putting out insane amounts of content every day? Did they get where they are today by taking shortcuts? No, because it doesn’t work; they’d lose readers like your nearest Argos store loses pens.
When it comes to writing content the same effort should be put into making your content as perfect as possible, as you would when setting up a great business. After all, you want your website to work, don’t you? Not just be a place on the internet that sees people come and go every day on which nobody actually ‘does’ anything.
Content marketing is a very important part of advertising online, but if you aren’t putting in 100% to make it work then it isn’t going to work 100%. In fact, it’s likely to not work at all if you put anything less into making it great. It needs to be done properly if it’s to yield any positive results.
Taking shortcuts when it comes to any form of advertising can spell out the failure of your efforts before you’ve even got off the ground, so think about how you can create quality content that people actually want to read, not skip past.
Always think about how what you are doing adds value and will help the visitor make an informed decision. Will the visitor take something from your website and remember it? Maybe offer advice, share a little-known tip, or just some general information that they can’t find elsewhere.
Also, think about how you can tell a story with your content, engage with the audience and keep people on your site. Give them information so they can make an informed decision rather than being ‘told’ what to think, and why they need your product or service.
What’s the upshot of that? You get people that are already willing to commit financially to your company, giving you a higher conversion rate, high return-visitor rate and a greater branding factor. Not only that but with everyone sharing everything online, social media is an effective tool for reaching whole new audiences – it’s the online equivalent of word of mouth advertising.
Not only that, but Google loves it; you’re being a real person, not just a company. You are engaging and involving yourself with your audience and reaching out to them in a way that interests them; that is what marketing is all about. You wouldn’t take shortcuts on any other kind of marketing, and content marketing is as much as important as any other form of customer acquisition.
So, if you cannot put the time into making something great, don’t publish what you have until you are confident it is perfect and people will love it. If it isn’t fit for publishing in a magazine within your industry, it probably isn’t going to have the desired effect on your website; get it right and it can work wonders.
