Content is king. Audiences today are expecting brands to push out consistent content that is informative, interesting, and exciting. And not to mention, this content should be easily discoverable and pertinent. No pressure. It’s a big ask of brands, especially those that are just starting out or are smaller in size.
Fortunately, there are ways to create content without spinning your wheels too much! Planning ahead will be your best strategy as will knowing your audience and using other content platforms. These strategies are for solo content creators working on startups as well as full editorial departments working with freelancers and editors. So, without further ado, read on for three tips to getting the most out of your onsite content.
1. Create a Content Strategy
The first step to success is to create a robust content strategy or plan. Think of this as a roadmap. It will enable your team to plan accordingly and know what to expect next. Depending on the size of your team and your business goals, you may consider utilizing a software platform for your plan. These platforms can help ensure everyone is on the same page and knows who is working on which pieces of content.
Having this information at hand can also help build a long-term content strategy that is financially sound. Essentially, this means that the content you are producing is worth the time and money that is going into creating it. Moreover, with a predictive content ROI you will know what pieces of content are resonating most for your users. The key to knowing what is resonating is knowing your audience. You can establish what your audiences are expecting by analyzing traffic metrics, such as total unique visitors and time spent.
Utilize all of this information and data when creating your content strategy. You will soon be able to predict what types of pieces will go viral and which ones will fall flat. Of course, this will take some trial and error, so be patient. What works one day may not work the next, and that is alright. Remember, not every piece of content you or your team creates needs to be magic in order to be published.
2. Prioritize SEO
Now that you have a solid content strategy in place, it’s time to evaluate how users are getting to this content. By and large, search should be one of your primary methodologies. Unless you are The New York Times, chances are users are not visiting it everyday to read up on the latest content. Users are getting to your content by typing in keywords on their preferred search platform, such as Google. This is where SEO comes into play.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is arguably one of the main pillars for discoverability on the Internet. It’s essentially a way for the content your company creates to rise to the top of the search page results. This increases the number of people who see and read your content and thereby the number of people who are interacting with your brand. A winning SEO strategy can make all the difference in your business growth.
That said, enhancing your SEO strategy takes a bit of work, but it is definitely worth it. First, take a look at the keywords that are getting users to your content. See what could be adjusted and which keywords competitors are owning in the space. You may find that you are underutilizing some keywords and can add them into your content plan. If you aren’t familiar with SEO, lean on experts and hire a contractor who can help build a sound SEO plan.
3. Reuse, Repurpose, and Redistribute
No, this is not a campaign for recycling. Reuse, repurpose, and redistribute is an optimal way to basically recycle the content your team is producing regularly. Not everyone in your target audience is going to see, let alone read, the content you publish every day. This strategy is a way to reprocess what your team has created into something new.
From articles to social posts to email newsletters, the sheer amount of content users engage with every day is astounding. And because of this, research shows users aren’t reading all of this content anyway. In fact, only 28% of content is read during a single visit. Instead of being disappointed by this stat, see it as an opportunity. After all, this gives you a chance to reuse the three-fourths of content that users are not consuming.
So, how exactly can you reuse, repurpose, and distribute content? The easy answer is to take snippets and post them on other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. This is also a way to engage with new audiences that may not necessarily be finding your content via search. In addition, it’s a way to drive users back to the actual article for a full read.
Takeaways
You want your content to shine, and you now have the tips to help get it in front of more audiences’ eyes. Of course, keep in mind that great content takes time to develop and create. Be patient with yourself and your team as you start to implement these tips.