As the term suggests, putting gates on content simply means maintaining exclusivity over one’s material.
Only specific users are allowed access to it, especially after they go through the process of signing up.
That process generally involves getting some form of personal information in exchange for access to the content. Website visitors fill up a form and submit personal information such as email addresses or phone numbers. Even search engine AI cannot crawl or index webpages that are gated.
So why put gates on content that users want access to in the first place?
Instead of giving out valuable and relevant pieces of content for free to anyone visiting a website, businesses can instead put up gates to purposefully restrict access. While visitors can only access gated content after setting up a payment or signing up, not all gated content is the same. Content that is usually well-researched, highly authoritative, or valuable is generally restricted.
At the heart of every business, the objective is revenue generation, which can only happen through reliable leads. Therefore, setting up gated content ensures that valuable leads do not slip away.
Understanding the Purpose Behind Gating Content
The primary objective for any business is to generate a consistent source of reliable leads.
Gated content helps companies to achieve this objective. Moreover, it helps in creating a community and building relationships with website visitors. The principle of gated content is to provide an incentive to a visitor in exchange for personal information.
The idea behind this concept is to find visitors who value one’s business propositions and are willing to exchange their information for access to the content. Visitors gain membership to an exclusive club while businesses accumulate a potential set of leads.
Website owners can use WordPress gated content plugin to reap its several advantages. If done the right way, gated content ensures a consistent stream of qualified leads. It is well-known that only a handful of leads convert into paying customers. So why go all the way to restrict access to visitors with such a low conversion rate?
Gated Content Is a Strategy for Business and Marketing Veterans
For startups, it would be counter-productive to set gates on their content from the beginning. No visitor or search engine would appreciate gated content from a new website simply because new websites lack authority, credibility, and trust. Instead, this strategy is ideal for businesses and websites that already enjoy a large audience and are well-trusted by visitors and search engines.
On the other hand, startups should focus on building a sizeable audience first before considering gated content as a strategy. Without an established relationship with one’s audience, it will only be off-putting if visitors have restricted access to information they are looking for.
This certainly does not mean that established websites should stop audience building. In fact, for a gated content strategy to work successfully, it would be better to pair it with regular publishing of ungated content, social media activity, email marketing, and SEO. This will help to continuously expand traffic and attract more visitors.
What Content Should You Gate and What You Shouldn't?
Gated content relies on a CTA. To hook in a potential lead, CTAs encourage visitors to fill out forms and, in return, provide access to exclusive material. Ebooks, for instance, are great examples of gated content. An established website with regular traffic that values the content they publish can be a prime example of a business ready to take advantage of gated content.
If the audience is attracted by their posts, working on an ebook is a great way to generate higher audience interest. Moreover, loyal visitors would naturally flock towards a comprehensive guide to learn more about the information it contains.
However, if such an e-book is published freely for all visitors to download, the business would lose out on several quality leads. While converting visitors to actual customers is a slow process, it is still better than giving out free content and expecting visitors to contact the website for services.
Therefore, by adding gates, the websites can ensure that everyone getting access to the book is accounted for.
This helps generate leads as visitors accessing the e-book will have to exchange their personal information such as phone numbers, email addresses other relevant data. This strategy also works well for authoritative content such as webinars, tools, or other premium services.
Plugins Are a Great Way to Gate Content
After understanding the importance of gated content, a question that naturally arises is; how to restrict access to one’s content? This is where WordPress plugins assist in creating that exclusivity. They offer multiple user access levels. It helps in creating membership levels amongst the exclusive audience as well. It allows websites to further modify content restrictions based on the membership level of the visitor. Visitors often come across websites offering multiple levels of membership such as Platinum, Gold, and Silver.
They are just examples of the type of access levels plugins allow for websites. A platinum user will enjoy the highest perks, such as access to all premium content, services, and features. On the other hand, a silver member might not have unlimited access but would still be a part of the exclusive club compared to a free visitor.
Gates Are not Enough. Hide Content from Search Engines Too
A known issue with utilizing the gated content is that search engines often crawl their way into the gated content webpages. This translates to visitors arriving at webpages that they should not have access to. Using plugins can lead to websites facing this issue.
Therefore, a recommended fix for this problem is to ensure that search engines cannot crawl to or index restricted webpages. You can do this by either doing it manually by editing each page or using an online tool that can simplify the process. It is wise to ensure that all gated content is well-hidden from search engines moving forward.
Final Words
The best strategy for creating gated content can vary due to several factors such as budget, the website’s relationship with its visitors, and the type of content they publish. The current status of a website, in terms of traffic numbers, also plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of gated content. The idea is to balance one’s free offerings with restricted content. Excessive reliance on free content can potentially lead to a business losing crucial leads vis-à-vis a loss of a potential client or customer.
On the flip side, too much gated content can also put off visitors who would much rather spend their time and energy on researching free information. Therefore, a careful balance is essential without compromising on content quality. If an established business is not investing in gated content, maybe it’s time they should consider diversifying their approach and reap its benefits.
