Informative, helpful Web content is the backbone of successful digital marketing.
Good content is customer-focused: It helps people get the information they need to resolve the business or personal challenges they face.
To stand out from the pack, all Web content – blogs to e-books and everything in between – should strive to be valuable and compelling.
Here’s how to make your web content writing stand out:
Go from Keywords to Topics
Thanks to the latest major Google algorithm – Hummingbird – Google interprets queries in terms of complete meaning rather than by individual keyword. You can still optimize given phrases, of course, but you can expect Google to direct users based on their intent.
With this in mind, it’s important to delve deeper than ever and understand the real problem or question queries bring to the table. At the top of the funnel, aim to create thoughtful intros to topics that readers can put to use right away. As they progress, offer more detailed and specific guides.
Get to Know Your Readers
As marketers, you have buyers. But, your brand is also a publisher, and that means you should also think in terms of readers. In a practical sense, this means revisiting your buyer personas, finding out what sources of information they trust, and adapting your content so it addresses them in the way they find comfortable. That includes format, vocabulary, and so on.
Start with Evergreen Content …
To be an effective hub for would-be buyers doing research, sites should start with a core of evergreen content. This represents FAQs, how-to guides, and other basic content that will always be of value to those at a certain stage in the buyer journey and will rarely go out of date.
… Then Build Toward Ultimate Guides
As useful as evergreen content is, it often needs a little extra spice to climb the search results pages. Once analytics data clues you in to which content is getting the most views, build on it to create guides others will want to link to and share. Adding a year (“… in 2018”) shows that the content is fresh and makes it more attractive than updated or clearly older content.
Be Consistent!
Content is an ongoing journey where you’re sure to learn with time. Not all content will be a slam dunk, but even B+ content can be a huge success when you deliver it consistently. Adopt a content calendar and stick to it: You’ll soon see the difference in organic traffic.
On today’s Web, content is king. Luckily, content marketing success doesn’t have to be a mystery. The more you know about your prospects and customers, the easier it’ll be to give them content they’ll appreciate.