Great content is a fail-safe way to increase website traffic – that’s nothing new. With Google’s 2020 and 2021 algorithm versions rewarding user experience, content has become fundamental to every high-end SEO strategy.
Gone are the days when you could write airy blogs and nonsensical texts stuffed with clumsy keywords. Your visitors are more sophisticated than ever; you have no choice but to focus on their wants and needs.
This article is not about pure sales content. It isn’t about how to write the best call to action or what font to use. It’s not about product specifications or the right keywords.
This blog is about creating excellent content that drives converting traffic.
Reliable Content
Reliable content is essential for brand trust. The problem is, too many of your competitors know a lot about your sector. Your potential customers have a bursting bag of how-to’s and why-not-to’s at their fingertips. So how do you stand out?
Reliable content is just that. Infallible. Researched. Tested. But any researcher will tell you that most written sources published for the layman are very, very similar. These sources often come close to plagiarism, using the same terms of phrase, headings, and even titles. This trend is pushing visitors to be more selective – if you publish hearsay and maybe’s, it won’t be you they click on.
The trick is not only writing meta descriptions that pull in traffic; it is producing quotable content that looks like you’ve thought very hard about every word.
It’s writing a piece of art.
Even if your piece of art is about dog food.
Becoming the Go-To Source
Consumers can get plenty of generic information about healthy kibble and personalized doggy menus without clicking on a link. They’ll use search terms like “carbohydrates per day labrador” or “do dogs digest dairy” and work their way through the meta descriptions and never land on a linked page.
Some of these sources will pop up again and again with informative, short, and useful answers.
These are the sources people remember – the Quoras and Wikipedias, the painstakingly-curated review sites, the big brands (they become big through customer trust), and official advisory boards.
You want them to stop typing “carbohydrates per day labrador quora” and replace Quora with your dog food sales platform. The only way you can achieve this is when these people continuously associate you with correct, up to date answers. Naturally, your products must relate to the solutions you provide.
Whether you provide electrical services, freshwater fish, takeaway menus, or horse-riding lessons, the right answers to your targets’ questions breed trust and, eventually, brand loyalty.
Your SEO strategies make them aware of you, your content ensures they opt for you.
What Content?
If you’re unsure about the right content topics for your products or website, make a list of keyword phrases matched to your business’s different aspects and go from there. If you sell men’s jewelry, you’ll find search terms that include gold, platinum, rings, necklaces, bracelets, and so on.
Add pictures of your products in your content as a call to action and speak with authority. Tell your visitors about the history of gold mining, the future demand for platinum, kings, and princes who bought Cartier rings, Harry Winston cufflinks, what is a carat…
It is likely that you will generate new targets from this expert content; it is essential to test both visitors and conversions’ reactions. A/B testing of specific topics can be done with your own organic traffic or with paid traffic. If you own a website that offers multiple product types or services, deciding on one area of expertise should be a response to target audience behavior.
You will find competitive paid traffic plans at WebTrafficGeeks.org. These plans give analytics professionals opportunities to test hundreds of niches all over the world. Marketing agencies integrate the simplicity of this cost-effective testing method to their own and managed sites.
Hiring Professionals
Visit Twine, Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer, and you’ll find thousands of content writers, marketing agencies, and website managers. Some have glowing reviews; others don’t get past the starting post.
They all promise perfection, but a letter of application often lacks a full understanding of the advertised job. While there are many true professionals on freelance platforms, these are often recognized through their silence – they don’t apply (or respond to your invitation) because they have plenty of work coming in (and a waiting list).
When you look at the job descriptions these freelancers are competing for, it is understandable why few serious writers respond. Hiring businesses seem to expect a single solution content, without being prepared to pay for it.
They invite professional native speakers to create perfectly-written viral content, research which topics to write about and construct a long list of the best and cheapest keywords. They also expect these writers to come up with catchy taglines and SEO headings that guarantee conversions. They insist all applicants possess in-depth knowledge of unfathomable topics. Oh, and they want all who apply to have lots of content writing experience (with proof).
If you expect the freelance writer of your awesome content to be experienced in all aspects of digital marketing and know everything there is to know about kibble chemistry and the funniest dog outfits on Amazon, you are going to be disappointed.
In short, when you want a professional result, you need to hire a professional. And if you want more than one result, you need to hire more than one of them. Actually, you’ll need at least three.
Hire a Professional Content Writer
If you’re fortunate, you’ll grab a professional content writer right at the start of their career or in the first months of their joining a freelance platform.
Posting regular content can make a severe dent in any marketing budget; the average per-hour rate for generic website content in the US is between $12 and $62. If a writer produces 500 words an hour, that’s $0.025 to $0.125 per word.
But take a look at content writing jobs on freelance platforms, and you’ll find companies offering $15 for 2000 words, or worse. While a dollar stretches further in many parts of the globe, it is highly unlikely you will receive an interested message from a successful freelancer when you offer rates like these.
When hiring writers, find one or more who know about your topic and are prepared to research it further. Once you have found contributors with the right expertise, the only thing you need to insist upon is high-quality text.
It is worth asking one of your writing team to edit all content so that the style is similar. If one article uses can’t and ain’t, and the other cannot and is not, your visitor knows this knowledge does not necessarily represent your personal expertise.
Hire a Professional Marketer
You now have your quality content. The next natural progression is within your marketing team. Rely on their professionalism and knowledge to turn an interesting, correct, and carefully-researched text into high-quality marketing copy.
It is up to marketing professionals to fit in the right keywords and codes, not the content writer. Don’t dilute these skills.
Hire a Professional Curator
If you have invested in high-quality content, you need to refresh it at regular intervals. Last year’s statistics are old news unless you are using them as a comparison. Scientific research relating to your product could change how the world (and your potential conversion) looks at it. Keeping on top of weeks, months, and years’ worth of content takes time.
Repurposing content means you get the most out of your initial investment. It will also give you and your writers ideas for new articles (finding fresh topics can become a real chore, especially if you specialize in pencils or coathangers).
Even better, your old content can become a complete volume of helpful advice or entertainment.
Now Write a Book…
A bunch of older articles might not mean much to a non-writer. But for a good content writer, old articles provide the skeleton for a big, fat, book.
If your knowledge is worth sharing – and if you have taken this article’s advice, it will be – getting a professional writer to merge your articles into an informative volume is a lucrative step.
Audiobooks are another worthwhile option. After all, you have spent energy, time, and money on getting the best content for your target audience – why not repurpose it?
Make sure you sell your book in smaller book-based markets as well as the major contenders. While the biggest platforms are saturated with literary delights and attract many visitors, competition is fierce. Find sites that are just breaking into the book market, like Etsy.
For example, Amazon.com has hundreds of thousands of health and fitness books for sale, while Etsy, not famous for its book section, has just over 2,500 books on the same topic (on 5 October 2020).
Unsure on how to approach the Etsy market? Yet again, professional services make the most significant impact. Etsy Geeks is a unique company in that it specializes in the weird and wonderful Etsy algorithm – if they don’t get your new book listed in the top ten, they’ll refund your investment.
By adding your book, e-book, or audiobook to multiple platforms, you will naturally attract a broader audience. This also increases your authority (and credibility) – a published volume has more authoritative content than most blogs.
Finally, if your articles have concentrated on how-to’s, YouTube presence is a must. Video advertising is another major driver of website traffic. If your content isn’t found on every channel – social media, your website, online e-zines, book stores, audio book stores, and video-based platforms, you are not making sufficient use of it.
The foundation of these additional markets and the foundation of your SEO is (and will be for at least the next two years according to the Google Page Experience algorithm) excellent content.
