Adapted from ©iStock.com/Nevenova
Why bother to publish content online?
Chances are you might be asking yourself this very question.
After all, you already have a website and you do get some customer inquiries through it. What’s the big deal about content, anyway?
Adding online content, such as blog posts and articles, is a bigger deal than you might think. In this post, I’ll explain why.
Online content made big news in 2013. Everywhere you looked it seemed that websites and blogs were talking about content marketing strategy. Phrases like “content is king” were used liberally on blogs and news sites alike.
Why Content Really Is So Important
Online content is important because, along with social media mentions, it draws potential customers to your website. The more often you publish content, the more chances you get to share your message.
Within the past year, the search engine algorithms have been tweaked in an effort to remove low quality content from the search results. Choosing a term and using it over and over in a post or article was never really a good long range strategy, but with recent changes this strategy could actually harm your search engine rankings.
Including a blog on your website is a great way to keep regular, relevant content flowing on your website. A blog also has the added benefit of building a community and helping your customers get to know you. That’s why whenever I’m contacted by a business without a blog I typically recommend that they add one.
Of course, articles and posts are just one type of content. You can also publish and of the following types of content and still get results:
- Images
- Videos
- Slideshares
- Infographics
With a little imagination, you can probably think of even more types of content you can share online.
Whatever type of content you decide to use be sure to also share it on social media to maximize your traffic.
Why You May Not Be Getting Results
I often hear small businesses complaining that they aren’t getting results from the content they publish. Here are the three most common reasons why your online content strategy may not be working:
- You don’t publish often enough. This is probably the number one cause of content problems. What usually happens is that a business publishes a post or two and expects immediate and ongoing results. However, the benefits from content are cumulative. You need to publish regularly over time. There are many opinions as to what the right publishing frequency is, however, a good rule of thumb is that the larger your business is the more often you should publish.
- Your content isn’t targeted. If your content is interesting to your customers and your potential customers, you won’t get the kind of leads and conversions that you hope for. Make sure that you share information that is both interesting and relevant. If you’re not sure what type of content your customers like and need, do some research to find out. You can start by asking them what they’d like to see published on your blog.
- Your content is not professional. There are a lot of ways that online content can be unprofessional. It can be poorly organized, poorly researched, or full of typos and spelling errors. It’s important to remember that anything you publish on your website represents your business. If it doesn’t look good, your business doesn’t look good. If you need to, get editing or writing help from a professional to ensure your content is top quality.
I recently published a more complete list of content marketing mistakes.
If your content isn’t getting you the results you need, review the list to see if you are making any of these very common mistakes.
Your Takeaway
What you publish on your website can make a powerful difference for your business. Why not make 2014 the year you add a content marketing strategy to your business plan?
