CrazyLeaf Editorial If you’re reading this, you already know how valuable content is to your website. Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without one, but the key is optimizing it.
When it comes down to paid ads or organic search results, consumers click on the organic results 94% of the time. This makes ranking high for organic search results is a priority.
The question is, how can you make your content stand out and rise to the top of Google searches? The answer is simple: optimized content.
By the end of this post, you’ll know some of the best content marketing tips that experts use to increase their search engine rankings and gain the traffic their business deserves.
Let’s dive right in.
Content Marketing Tips You Need to Be Doing
We’re about to share the eight hottest content marketing tips with you that will be sure to bump up your search engine results. If you are already writing content for your site, you might as well strategize the way you do it and increase your traffic.
1. Be You, Everyone Else Is Already Taken
This cliche applies to your blog writing just as much as it applies to your personality. Google favors unique writing and its advanced tools will be able to tell if you’re using shortcuts to make it to the top.
If it thinks you’re plagiarising it will display the older, original content in the search results and penalize you, negatively affecting your ranking.
2. Answer the Questions People Are Asking
The beauty of the internet these days is that you can truly get to know your customer. Using tools like Google Analytics you can understand who your customer is, what they like, and what they spend their money on.
The key to keeping those customers is creating content that they want to read. What are their struggles? What are they interested in?
If you find that out and write about it, it will not only keep them on your site longer but keep them coming back for more.
3. More Words the Merrier
There is a direct correlation between the length of the content and its rankings. We know that to get on a search engine’s radar you must have 500 words, but what if you wrote more?
A study on more than 20,000 keywords has shown that the average top 10 search results on Google have over 2,000 words. This tells us that the more you write, the higher you will rank.
Long content ranks higher for several reasons: your readers spend more time on your page, more internal links, keeping them on your site for longer, and often includes more backlinks, which increases your authority in the eyes of Google.
The facts don’t lie: the average first-page result on Google contains 1,890 words. If you are looking to increase your rankings, a good way to start is by writing longer articles.
4. Quality, Not Just Quantity
Of course, Google’s algorithm considers a lot more than the length of your content; your information needs to be relevant and your own but most importantly, it needs to be quality. If you want to be an authority in your field, you need to produce consistent quality content on up-to-date topics that people are discussing in your community.
If you want to see how it’s done, check out Paranet’s blog for a great example of tips one through four. This website showcases quality, long-form blog posts that provide a unique spin on IT topics that interest people.
5. Learn the Dos and Don’ts of Keywords
If you are writing content for your website you can easily slip in some keywords to up your ranking. What’s difficult is finding out what keywords to use and where to place them for the most optimized results.
There are tons of free keyword searching tools out there that can help you identify your trending words and phrases as well as how good of a chance you have for ranking for it. Avoid attempting to rank for too many keywords in one piece of content and avoid overusing the keyword. It’s suggested that you place keywords in the title, one heading, and in the first and last 100 words of your article.
6. Use Eye-Catching Graphics
Most of us are visual learners. Use this to your benefit by breaking up the text in your content with graphics like images, charts, videos, and infographics. Graphics keep readers engaged in your content and on your page longer, while videos help engage the viewer’s attention to the subject at hand. Of course, videos shot by professionals like J Knowles have multiple positive effects on marketing, most of which you can read about in the guide at the end of this article.
In 2016, reports showed that nearly 60% of search results were coming from mobile devices. That number has only risen since.
With those numbers, it’s important that not only your site is mobile friendly but that the graphics within your posts are also mobile friendly and attention-grabbing. For tips and tricks on how to optimize your graphics, check out our post on 5 Tips for Creating Visual Content that Compels Mobile Users.
7. Strategize Where and When You Share Content
The internet is bursting with channels waiting for you to share your brilliant new content. Maximize your traffic by being strategic on where you post each piece of content. It’s always worth thinking about using different streams you haven’t considered before to cast a wider but more strategic net for attracting traffic.
Instagram is ideal for high-quality images whereas Youtube is obviously your best video outlet. If your content appeals to human emotions, Facebook might be a great choice, but if your article is answering a specific question, you could try Quora.
8. Update Your Content
Experts suggest repurposing your own content twice a year, in January and in June. Search engines like to have the most up to date information on the subject; therefore, Google bumps up recent, relevant content in the search results. Searchers often look for the most recently published article in the search results.
You may have a better chance of ranking for a more difficult keyword if you the date in your article title since you are making yourself very time specific and relevant. Here’s an example: 10 Content Marketing Tips That Will Improve Your Rankings in 2018.
If you are doing this trick, make sure to update the publish date, change the year/season, and be sure to add the newest, relevant information on that subject. Google will sniff out who is just changing dates and keeping old information.
Now that you know all the hottest trends in content marketing you are ready to start writing content that will send droves of people to your site.
What’s your Go-To Content Marketing Tip?
Do you have more content marketing tips that we missed? Let us know down below in the comments what’s been working for you this year.
To keep up with all the latest marketing trends and Google algorithm changes, be sure to check out our marketing blog. Here you can sign up for our newsletter for the best design news sent straight to your inbox.
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