Are you an eager business owner ready to grow your brand online? But, maybe you’re stressed out by trying to figure out how to create a website content strategy (and hide that coffee stain on your shirt).
Listen up!
Our very own CMDS digital marketing experts are about to reveal their most valuable insights on how to create a successful website content strategy that captures mindset, builds a die-hard following of customers and attracts as much organic traffic as possible.
Sorry, we can’t help you with clumsy human coffee stains.
But, we can help business owners, like you, avoid common pitfalls and maximize your website content strategy efforts…because, we’ve been there, done that.
Let’s get down to business.
What is a Website Content Strategy?
Think of your website content strategy as the GPS that navigates your brand to digital marketing success. An effective strategy has plans that are specific enough to lead you right to your goals, yet flexible enough to adapt with ever-changing audience needs and circumstances.
Like most things when it comes to brand marketing, there’s not a one-size-fits-all answer, but website content strategies usually start with your vision.
What is your “why?”
In a nutshell, this vision must outline details on current and future goals, guidelines for brand voice, insight on why and how you will help your target audience and KPIs (key performance indicators). It will also include an analysis of your competition, showcasing what makes your brand unique (and better).
Digging into each of these elements will allow you to determine what kind of content to create, how to create it and when to post it.
Use Your Website Content Strategy to Improve SEO Results Now – and Tomorrow
Do you go cross-eyed every time you look at your Google Analytics dashboard?
As essential as a website content strategy is for businesses, it is still a mystery to many. And to make matters even more confusing, influential search sites like Google and Facebook keep changing the rules of the road. Although we can expect algorithms to continue to evolve, building an effective website content strategy will help set the stage to establish brand value, ultimately improving SEO results.
But, establishing brand value is not easy.
Your audience is looking for answers to their problems and desires. By posting useful content on your website, you have the chance to become the trustworthy expert, demonstrating that you understand their pain points (empathy is key). It shows that you’re the right choice and seen as the go-to thought leader in the industry who provides valuable information which can increase website traffic (boosting SEO) and attract new leads.
You can see, website content and SEO go hand in hand. But there’s more to it than that.
Optimize Website Content to Achieve Ultimate Results
Website content can do you more harm than good… if it’s not optimized.
Website content optimization involves strategically updating website page copy, links and coding to make it more appealing for 1) search engines and 2) human searchers.
From Google’s search engine results pages (SERP) elements like videos, images and featured snippets, the best website content will always rise to the top.
How? Glad you asked.
When we refer to optimized website content, we’re not just talking about original and engaging blogs with strong keywords (though that’s a very big part of the picture). Ultimately, the goal is to attract your audience and entice them to convert. You do this by using a strong headline that instantly commands audience attention, a captivating lead-in that pulls the audience in to your story, useful information that solves their problem and a strategic call-to-action (CTAs) that can help to rouse visitors to take next steps.
Whether it’s directing them to specific core pages on your website, purchasing a product, sharing information with others or opting in to your email marketing mailing list, your audience won’t have a clue that’s what you want them to do without the right CTA. Optimized website content should also take into consideration on-page SEO efforts including title tags, meta descriptions, url structures, images, H1, H2 and H3 tags, linking, mobile responsiveness and frequency of posts.
How Often Should I Update Website Content?
The process of converting a website visitor to a customer is a lot like dating. No one in their right mind would get down on one knee on the first date, yet that is exactly what a lot of brands are doing when they ask for a sale before first establishing a relationship. Considering that it takes 6-8 touch points before prospects become customers, brands must be prepared to devote time and be patient with the process.
This is exactly why website content should be updated frequently. And by frequently, we mean at least every other day. This can include refreshing website design, FAQs, testimonials, internal and external links, rewriting web pages, creating new landing pages, and of course, writing new blogs.
Blogs, when used correctly, are a brand’s most powerful SEO tool available. As a natural way to add keyword rich content to your website on a regular basis, blogs are a good starting point for any content strategy because they’re an easy way to educate customers, build trust and attract search engines.
As we mentioned above, search engines love quality, but they also love consistency.
Although every company and industry will be different, much research points to the simple fact that the more blog posts companies publish per month, the more traffic they’ll see on their website. Big or small, B2B or B2C, companies who publish 16 or more blogs per month get about 4.5x more leads than companies who publish 0-4 times a month.
Maximize Your Website Content Strategy with CMDS
If your website content is not showing the results you were hoping for, you’re not alone.
Get more eyes on your website by generating optimized website content as often as possible.
But remember, it’s not enough to simply update website content, it must be optimized. Maximize your website content strategy and start seeing real results. Connect with our in-house marketing experts to learn more.