In the digital age, content marketing is absolutely vital to keeping your business on top of the competition. As customers can search from countless sites to find the products they want, you have to stand out above the rest. You need to be the first thing they see, and have all the information they want. Content marketing allows you to do this with little effort. So what does a content marketer do? If you can master several content marketing skills, you can keep any business at the top of its game.

 

What Does a Content Marketer Do?

Becoming a master content marketer takes time, research and work. Don’t expect it to come overnight, but let your strategy develop organically and naturally. We have a few tips to help you become a master content marketer, and a few skills you need to have in your arsenal to keep your business at the top. With a finely tuned, expert set of skills, you’ll stand out as one of the greatest in content marketing.

 

1. Writes Strong Content

It’s more than just getting the consumer to your site; it’s how they feel once they are there. Do they trust what you are saying because it’s professionally written, accurate and typo-free? Or do you lose credibility when your sites don’t offer what they say they will? Content marketing is about more than just buying content. As the focus trends away from keywords and more toward engaging, informative content, you (as a content marketing manager) have to be able to keep up with the changes.

Writing is about more than just grammar and spelling. Your content should provide useful information to the reader, engage and interest the reader from the beginning, and be packed full of high-value stuff they can’t find anywhere else.

 

2. Tells Stories

While there’s no magical way to do storytelling right, this is one of the most successful ways you have in content marketing to connect your audience to your company or brand. Stories allow your customers to connect with your business on an emotional level, and to see what they have in common with you. Use storytelling to explain why your company was started, what you do to make the world better and how your products and services have helped customers increase their quality of life.

Statistics show that while 57% of marketers believe that storytelling is an essential part of content marketing, most struggle to find effective ways to tell a story. There is no right or wrong way to do it.  Your storytelling as a content marketer should be based around the facets of your company that are most engaging and exciting to your customers. How do you determine what that is? That brings us to our next point.

 

3. Research, Research, Research

Content marketing involves countless hours of research. Every piece of content you create as a content marketing manager and put on your site should have several points of research behind it. Those who want to be effective at content marketing go the extra mile by looking at the following things:

• The pain points and interests of the target market
• The channels that are most effective to distribute to that target audience
• The terminology or keywords that consumers use when looking for your product
• The search questions consumers use to find solutions and answers
• The discussion threads and social groups where your audience is discussing their interests and concerns
• The applicable demographics, audience segments and psychographics
• The trends in your industry and in marketing in general
• The content formats that offer the most reach and engagement to your audience

Research isn’t a one-time thing, and those who want to be an effective content marketer will stay on top of current research and trends at all times.

 

4. Correctly Reads and Analyzes Marketing Data

Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to learn how to apply those numbers to make a blog more successful. Now that you know how to tell a story and what your readers want to know, you have to determine what to do with that story as a content marketer. It’s impossible to cover every single metric, so you must determine which metrics are important for your business to ensure that your content is performing well and you are meeting your goals.

Reading data gives you insight into which topics aren’t performing well and which you want to use to re-purpose and recycle to bring more traffic to your site.

 

5. Has Exceptional Organization and Strategy

Research shows that while companies with a solid, documented content strategy are 36% more likely to be successful during a particular campaign, over two-thirds lack in an organized, strategic plan for content marketing. If you want to run a successful content marketing campaign, you must have a strategic plan involving the following things:

• Defined goals
• Tracking of all research
• Content plan
• Recorded progress of each step of your plan
• Effective, consistent deployment through organization

Successful content marketers often use a content strategy combined with a detailed editorial calendar to plan the year in advance and know exactly what they want to do and the best time to do it.

 

6. Isn’t Afraid to Shake it up

Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket. While you can produce SEO articles all day long, successful content marketers provide a more versatile approach for their clients. Use more than one form of content to attract your target customers. Successful marketers recognize that every member of the audience is unique and prefers a different type of content to digest. Customers want podcasts, videos, infographics, case studies, articles and whitepapers to get their information.

They rely on you for new insight, and they want you to give it to them in the ways they best understand it. This means creating a versatile content marketing strategy that includes a little bit of everything to ensure that you hit every member of your audience.

 

7. Has Developed Design Skills

You always have the option to hire out your design projects, but these cost money and you want to save cash wherever you can. If you want to be a successful content marketer, work on your own design skills to give you more independence when it comes to creating your strategy. If your content goes live quickly with compelling stories and pictures to make it popular, then you’ve done your job. If you have to wait on your designer to get back to you, you may miss the boat on a trending topic.

Even a basic skillset of design tools like inline graphics or attention-grabbing images can make a huge difference in your ability as a content marketing manager to quickly and effectively use content for marketing purposes.

 

8. Distributes and Promotes Content Effectively

It’s not enough to post content and promote it in one area and leave the rest to organic traffic. Great content marketers use every outlet available to promote new content. Always promote your content through multiple channels including YouTube, audio and video podcasts and social media outlets. Give your target base more opportunities to find your content.

Your content can also be shared to your subscribers through emails or through influencers and contacts that you know. There is also the option to share it through some social media channels, ensuring that it will reach as many customers as possible.

 

9. Watches Trending Topics

Industry trends are constantly changing, and it’s important that you stay on top of those and focus your content around the things your audience is currently interested in. Perhaps as important as that is reaching out through other trending topics to catch your audience’s attention. Good content marketers focus on all trending topics and are constantly looking for ways to apply them to their own strategy and business.

Using trending topics ensures that you are in front of a specific audience discussing a topic they want to talk about. Some trends will remain completely irrelevant, while others are correlated enough to your business that you can reach a much larger market and audience than you are currently hitting with your strategy. Pay attention to what people care about, as shown in trending topics, and see how many people you can reach quickly.

 

10. Collaborates and Listens

Even the best content marketer in the business can’t do it on their own. You create a more versatile, engaging campaign when you seek the input and advice of others. One of the best things you can do as a content marketer is to seek assistance and collaborate with an influencer in your industry, and you’ve found a way to quickly expand your audience.

Even if you don’t have the connections or network yet, it’s never too early to start tossing out ideas. Mutually beneficial collaborations can benefit both parties, and they all start with one content marketer asking for help. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your network to collaborate on ideas or projects.

 

On Your Way to Becoming a Content Marketer

So what does a content marketer do? A whole lot, actually. This is just the beginning of the list of skills and habits a master content marketer has, and it’s a great place to start honing and developing your skills, knowledge and talents. These content marketing tips can put you well on your way to becoming a master content marketer whose services are sought after. Provide engaging content in strategic ways and watch your content marketing campaigns take off.

Are you a business with multiple physical locations? Do you want to increase online traffic and convert more leads? A location page is exactly what you need.

Marketing today has completely evolved over the years, making digital marketing a vital part of any campaign. Not only marketing, but business itself has changed and requires companies to get creative when reaching out to customers. One way to do this is by creating local SEO landing pages.

 

Reach Leads with a Geo-targeting Website

Perhaps one of the biggest struggles of a company is finding and attracting their target market. When you have more than one location, most people choose to visit the location closest to them. By building out local SEO landing pages catered to each specific location you serve, you increase the probability of someone in that area finding your business.

Building location pages takes work and effort. If you built a top-notch landing page when you were a single location business, you’ll need to multiply that effort to satisfy the unique options available for each of your locations. And if you have duplicate content on your website, it’s time to optimize those landing pages and build something that will bring in results.

So what is a local SEO landing page? How can you build and optimize each one you make? We’ve got the answers.

 

What is a Location Page?

A local landing page (or location page) is typically built for websites or companies that service multiple geographic locations. These unique landing pages give potential customers a better opportunity to find a store location in their area.

Think about a local real estate company, for example. While they may be located in one state, they likely serve many different counties or cities. In order to improve their chances of showing up in a SERP for a specific area, they would need to create geo-targeted content for each individual city and area.

Let’s look at Uber for example. If I’m looking for an Uber in Salt Lake City, this page is going to be my top organic result. You can see they’ve created a specific geo page detailing their services in the Salt Lake area and they’ve done the same for every other location that they service.

With just one landing page, you can’t rank for several location-specific keywords at a time. You need to focus your marketing strategy and branch out with landing pages that have specific keywords for that location. These keywords are particularly important for brand exposure and getting more leads in all of your locations.

Now that you see the need for a location page, it’s time to get started.

 

Structuring and Creating Geo Location Pages for Your Site

By building unique local SEO landing pages, you can better support a variety of on-page elements, such as individualized content, localized URLs, page titles and optimized H1s. Before long, your content can rank in the top ten for each local keyword you are optimizing for.

However, geo-targeted content is not just changing the state or city between the pages. You have to create unique pages to provide a more focused and targeted user experience and avoid duplicate content penalties. This requires a team of dedicated writers who research, write and optimize for a specific town or city.

Also, because each geographical market may cater to a diverse demographic, it’s essential to streamline your individualized online marketing efforts, particularly when you’re operating multiple locations. Here are some actionable tips to help maximize search visibility for each market you serve.

 

Create a Geo Page For Each Location

Get the most for each location you cater to. Each local SEO landing page should be location-specific, including the URL, business hours, address, phone and email. Make each page the most reliable and trusted source of information for that location. Not only with this benefit potential customers the most, but it will improve your brand image and expertise in the industry.

 

Structure Your Location Page Information

Sometimes, leads won’t automatically find your location page. Create a landing page for locations as a high-level menu to offer search engines and users. It should provide easy-to-navigate location information that links to specific location pages. Once they find the link, they can go to the local page that has the information they need.

 

Share Unique Content and Data for Each Page

Location pages should be gems of local information. Build out these pages with content distinct to each site. Include details such as:

• The physical location, including nearby cities, neighborhoods, landmarks and directions
• Available parking
• Interior, exterior, and other photos
• Contact information
• Staff recommendations, tips and favorites

The more beneficial knowledge you present, the more comfortable potential clients will feel with your services.

 

It’s About the Finish, Not the Start

A top website goal is getting visitors to your location pages, so focus on that aim instead of where visitors start. Including locations in the navigation and main content areas of the site may feel redundant, but it offers as many paths as possible to the final destination.

 

Capture Leads

Now that your potential customer has found your local SEO landing page, don’t forget to provide a way to capture that lead. Although your information may help them, provide a call to action that can help them act on what they have learned. A submission form or contact us section should always be found on your location pages.

 

Optimize and Use Keywords

Remember, this local SEO landing page is in place to help you capture searchers that are looking specifically for your products or services within their area. Don’t forget to include those location names as part of your keywords and be mindful to use long-tail keywords which can be easier to rank for highly in the SERPs.

Don’t forget to utilize other parts of your website such as your footer, sidebar, home page, drop-down menus, and main navigation. This makes arriving on the right location page a simple process.

 

Tips for Reaching Your Target Audience

Geography is an influential component of creating targeted and customized location pages. The effectiveness of geo-targeting will only develop further as mobile use expands and location data becomes more reliable and accessible.

In fact, the Local Search Association discovered that mobile devices surpassed PC use in local business and service searches. Here are some practical tips for using location-based landing pages to reach your target audience:

 

1. Know What’s Around

Each city has something that makes it unique. There are many location-specific events or festivals that attract people who could potentially be your future clients. Mention these events or collaborate with their directors to expand your reach. You can also boost sales by providing services needed during these events on your location pages and in your stores.

 

2. Learn About Your Target Audience

To effectively reach out to your target audience, you need to know who they are. Who are you trying to get the attention of? Look at age groups, interests and other demographics. With those things in mind, you have a better chance of finding the groups you want to target.

 

3. Use Location-Specific Keywords

This is one of the best ways to get recognized by your target audience. Use the benefits of SEO and start whipping out content that is location-specific and keyword-oriented.

 

4. Be Smart About Location

If you have a specific target audience, be sure to only advertise where they will be. Along with location pages, your marketing campaign should be particular and directed towards those who will be interested.

Consumers react better to relevant marketing, resulting in increasing the ROI of targeted campaigns such as those found on geo-location pages. Mobile consumers make geography one of the simplest methods to target, and innovative technology makes doing so a real help to those who use it.

 

Scaling Lots of Location Pages

For larger corporations, scaling hundreds (or thousands) of location pages can seem like a daunting task. When tackling a large project like this, working in phases can help to get value quickly while cutting down costs.

Phase One

Initially, focus on creating main location pages for the largest market in each location. You can use analytics and past data to see which products are being sold most in each location. Make this page unique, specialized for each community and talk about specific landmarks and popular locations in that area to give context. Use the tips above to refine your geo-targeted pages.

Phase Two

For this phase, work on building out location pages for the smaller areas in those markets. Use your large market page as a template and then replace the geo-specific commentary with something specific to that city and rewrite the main messaging so it stays original – but no need to change the overall messaging or information. Doing this can speed up the time frame of getting the pages done as well as reduce the writing costs since you’re using a template to structure the data.

Approaching large-scale city landing page SEP in this way can help you to capitalize on large markets first but also cost-effectively allow you to build out the rest of the locations that need pages as well.

 

Benefits of Location Pages

Adding geo-targeted landing pages to your website is an ideal method for generating leads, links and local traffic. They direct potential clients to your business in their location and gives them valuable contact information and research about the area.

Not only does it benefit your local clients, but it helps you gain Google authority. With carefully optimized keywords and content, you show Google the importance of your location page and rank higher for local searches.

 

Final Targeted Landing Page Tips

If you’re looking for more ways to improve your location pages, consider these last four tips:

• Add a map
• Write about the staff
• Display reviews and social mentions
• Offer local menus, store information and coupons

The more you personalize the page, the more useful it is to search engines and local leads. And by using an individualized strategy with each page, you can understand how locations are performing independently. As you continue to develop these pages, you can identify goals, traffic and ranking issues.

 

Building Location Pages

If you haven’t ventured into developing location pages on your site, now is the perfect time to give it a chance. Sometimes it takes a little creativity, but it is worth the effort, particularly for local businesses with multiple locations. The online benefits far outweigh the time and effort it takes to create them.

Need some help whipping out your local SEO landing pages? Our writing team can help.

If you’ve ever wondered how to get your content ranked in the top spots on Google, part of the answer is to focus on creating evergreen content. While this is not the quickest way to reaching the number one spot, it is the method that will continue to garner clicks when other posts have succumbed to the fading of time.

What is Evergreen Content?

While the name may seem self-explanatory, there are certain things to remember when creating content that will last on the ever-changing worldwide web.

• High Quality: When creating content, the quality of your work will determine the consumer opinion of your entire site. If your content is sloppy and full of mistakes, potential clients will find other sources and your Google rankings will drop. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from all the recent Google algorithm updates, it’s that high quality content should be your focus.
• Valuable: As you strive for quality, you also have to be sure what you’re writing has value to your readers. You can write the most beautiful piece in the world, but if it doesn’t benefit your readers, it’s likely to be ignored and sink to the bottom of the search results. Engaging content that benefits your reader will also encourage them to spend more time on your page and make your site look better to Google.
• Timeless: One of the most important aspects of evergreen content is that it doesn’t become useless over time. While you can always return and adjust parts that need changing, true lasting content leaves out details that may be subject to change.
• Canonical: This type of content is often focused on a single topic, making it easy to canonize and find by search engines.
• Optimized: As search engine results are one of your greatest concerns, optimizing your content with keywords will make it searchable for a longer period of time, gradually moving your site up the search engine results list.

How to Create Evergreen Content

Most people understand the importance of building lasting content, but far fewer know how to create it. Developing content that won’t become outdated requires a few simple steps.

1. Decide on a Format

Before you do anything else, make a decision about what type of post you’re going to do. This will affect what you research and how you organize your findings. Whether you’re going to create a list, how-to post, content roundup or one of many other post formats, you need to be sure that the information you present will retain its value over time.

2. Research

Since most evergreen pieces are also long-form, you need to perform extensive research. Don’t pad the article with fillers, include relevant, riveting information that will draw readers to the piece. Also, do keyword research to be sure you’ll be found in organic searches relevant to your business.

3. Make it Readable

Once you’ve prepared, you’re ready to write. Remember to make your content readable. Using headers, bullets and images will break up the text and make it more attractive to viewers. Write simply using easily understood terms and relatable subjects.

Why Evergreen Content Matters

The more times your page is viewed, the higher your ranking will be, but if your content is dated, you’ll quickly lose readers and your page will eventually become obsolete. Your content will be more likely to rise to the top of the list over time as more dated pages decline if you continue to promote it and draw viewers in. There are several reasons to do this.

• It can be shareable. Social networks often prove the most fertile ground for sharing information. By using eye-catching headlines and pulling out a few interesting sentences to grab reader’s attention, you’ll be able to keep your evergreen content circling social circles rather than only being read by your followers after the initial posting.
• It continues to generate leads. Because timeless content attracts viewers for a longer period of time than trendy articles, its capacity for lead generation is much higher than other pieces.This means your traffic and rankings will continue to grow instead of decreasing with time.
• Your site will become more credible. The more relevant, lasting information your site contains, the more visits it will garner over time and the better it looks to search engines. All of the previously discussed benefits add up to a more credible, established website that can gradually become a leading resource in the industry.

In summary, the reason why evergreen content is one of the top forms of content marketing is because it can continue to promote your business long after it was written. Including lasting content can bring timeless benefits to your site now and for years to come.

The internet has completely transformed how today’s companies do business. While traditional methods of marketing can be beneficial to businesses, the reality is the future lies in SEO and content marketing methods. When combined successfully, SEO and content marketing services provide an atmosphere that is prime for meaningful interactions with customers and buyers. Many assume that SEO has become obsolete as content becomes more valuable and informative, but the truth is that SEO is often what drives customers to your content.

The old tactics of keyword stuffing and “spamming” were often seen as intrusive and may have even driven the average customer away. In today’s world, the goal of every business should be to provide meaning and value behind each interaction they have with a customer. From helpful, reliable blog content to descriptions that paint a visual of even the most basic products, content and SEO go hand in hand when it comes to not only catching the eye of your customers, but also getting them to buy your products.

The Relationship Between SEO and Content

When it comes to SEO and content, one simply cannot exist without the other. To create a successful marketing campaign, SEO teams and content writing services must be in perfect sync. Without SEO, your content is hard to find, and without content, there is no need for SEO. In this way, the two concepts create a perfect cycle that attracts customers and builds brand loyalty.

While the two concepts overlap significantly, there are a few differences that set them apart:

• Content: This is a broader strategy that is often used to attract and keep an audience with relevant, helpful information, often before SEO is even put into place.
• SEO: The more technical aspect, SEO can include sitemaps, ALT tags, correct URLs, and many other things that help define your SEO and content marketing strategy.

If your business is separated into a content marketing team and an SEO team, you may be surprised to find that 79 of SEO experts say they would like to work more closely with the content writing service. How exactly can you make that happen?

Create Quality, Original Content

Two years ago, search engines looked simply for keywords or relevant information, but algorithms today are now much more advanced. When customers look for your products or services, they want engaging, original content that connects them to your brand.

From the SEO side, good, engaging content means that you are indexed in places your competitors aren’t. Original, entertaining, relevant content doesn’t just attract users; it also encourages them to stick around and even come back when they need more information. If your content encourages users to hang around your site for more than a few minutes, then your content marketing services and SEO are doing their job.

Identify the Right Keywords

Good content is vital to a business, but keyword research is often the bridge that connects content marketing and SEO. The content must be high quality, but it must also include the terms that the average consumer is searching for. If your content is too technical or doesn’t have the basic terms that users associate with your products, then good content is essentially wasted.

SEO teams handle keyword research, which identifies the search terms that internet browsers are most often using to search for products and services that are like yours. If a customer searches for “roof repair in St. Louis” and finds a particularly engaging blog post on how to determine if a roof is leaking, then your SEO and content team are on the right track.

Keywords do more than draw attention to your site. They can also help you to generate good ideas for content. Beyond the technical aspects, a good list of keywords can be used to for title tags, meta descriptions, blog posts and social media. When you’ve identified your keywords, it’s easier to pinpoint the type of content your customers want to see.

Build Links with Good Content

Links are used by Google to measure authority, trust and relevance of websites. Simply put, linkable content helps boost your rankings in search engines.

If you have a good piece of content that attracts consumers, it’s likely they will link to it or share it with their friends. The key to building links is creating content that people want to read and share. While the science on this is far from perfect, the formula of the right SEO analytics and content that people genuinely want to read is almost guaranteed to create a wealth of links back to your site.

When you are stuck on how to create content that is linkable, consider the four aspects of shareable content:

• Comparisons: how one thing holds up against another
• Broad appeal: are you hitting a small demographic, or can your content be read by everyone
• Highly emotional: humans respond to emotional situations including stories, anecdotes and real-life experiences
• Pop culture: it’s easy to fall back on what is popular in today’s news when you need a quick, shareable piece of content

Just a Start

Bridging the gap between SEO and content is just a start to creating an effective digital marketing strategy. It may take some time and some adjusting, but when your SEO and content teams work together, the results are obvious.

With online presence as a hefty factor in a company’s success in the world today, search engines have become the lifeboat of exposure for businesses. In order to keep afloat, one must grant easy access and possess significance to the modern audience. Executing proven keyword research methods through a content marketing plan is the surest way to secure passage for your customers through the ever-turbulent waters of the web.

Concocting a Keyword

You may be asking yourself why keywords are so important. If you provide a service, shouldn’t users be navigating the proper channels to your site? With an average of over 6 billion searches made each day, the chances of appearing on the top page of search engine results are more than slim without making use of effective keyword research strategies. When crafting a keyword, there are important things to consider:

1. What Are Your Goals?

Every business needs a well-thought-out plan to increase revenue or attract more long-term consumers. Use these goals as a rubric to shape the type of online content you put out. Then, simply find the language to incorporate those goals into keywords that will take the proper steps toward achieving them.

2. Who Is Your Audience?

Determining your audience is crucial in gaining traffic to your site. You don’t want to be shouting information into the void. Rather, you want to be directing your information to a specific demographic. This means getting inside the mind of your target consumers. What lingo do they use? What questions are they prone to asking? What kind of information do they prioritize?

Stay away from generic keywords. Strive for the language of the consumer by inhabiting a niche and employing the words common to that niche. It narrows the search to the kind of audience that is looking for exactly what you are advertising.

3. What Information Can You Provide?

Your keyword should be informative. Vague keywords will get lost amid the large number of competing keywords. By providing a straightforward and informative keyword, you’ll have a better chance at ranking higher and traffic to your site will increase.

4. Are You Being Relevant?

Keywords must be relevant not only to an audience but to the content that you are producing. Say you hook the right audience with a keyword and reel them in. How likely are they to stay if the subsequent information is not relevant? How likely are they to return? Make sure the keyword and the content match up.

5. Consider the Questions Audiences Ask

Questions are among the most common types of searches. It’s important to anticipate the kinds of questions your target audience may ask, and cater keywords and keyword phrases to those questions. If a reader asks, “How does Jane Eyre end?” flagging a summary of chapter 3 is only going to upset him or her and send that person looking elsewhere for answers.  

Creating a Content Marketing Plan

Keywords are incomplete without content. In order to gain more traffic to your site or business, a content marketing plan is crucial. There are big factors to keep in mind while drawing up the blueprints.

1. Publicize

In order to get more brand recognition, you must advertise on the appropriate platforms. Social media is the headliner for publicizing webpages and businesses. By tailoring your content to mobile-friendly and social media-enabled spaces, traffic to your website is bound to increase.  

2. Get Literate in Target Demographics

Your audience is a big part of the plan. Getting to know consumers’ interests, ages, geographic locations, and other information is helpful in planning the kind of content that will cater to them and determining the keywords that will draw attention to your brand.

3. Produce Quality Content

Produce content that connects with your keywords. Content marketing is about building a clientele. Providing content specific to that clientele is crucial in managing it. Long-form content exceeding 1000 words is more often shared and linked than shorter forms of content. Be sure your content provides value and is not just full of fluff to make it longer. Taking as much care with content as you do with keywords will help you get visitors who keep coming back.

Content Marketing Makes a Difference

A marketing plan is no good if you don’t put it into action. There are several content marketing methods that can get you closer to your target demographic.

1. Go Beyond Droning, Jargon-Jumbled Information

When text is too hard to follow, an audience sees it as a waste of time. Jargon-heavy content is intimidating and uninformative. Simplicity is a key element for keeping an audience’s attention and garnering their trust.

2. Provide Valuable Information to the Reader

Go beyond parroting information. Audiences appreciate originality. Your content should be unique and offer a new lens through which to view the material. Originality begets curiosity, and value builds loyal consumers.

3. Have a Conversation

A lot of information-based content can separate an author from its reader. Rather than simply getting information out, approach content writing as a conversation. Engage the audience with examples, stories, and tips from your own experiences. Encourage your viewers to join the conversation. Human interaction is filled with persuasion, information, and education. When content incorporates these elements, it means more to the consumer.

Integrating the Best Content Marketing Strategies

Often, the best content marketing strategies consider the visual draw to content that will increase web traffic. The internet is an interactive space in a fast-paced, technologically expanding generation. Create a space users will want to return to and tell their friends about.

1. Hook and Headlines

Creative headlines intrigue the audience and aid in getting visitors to the site. Coupling creative headlines with a good hook in the introductory sentence is a great recipe for continued reading and multiple visits.

2. Visual Appeal

Despite old sayings advising us otherwise, we really do have a habit of judging books by their covers. Visual appearance and aesthetic appeal are huge contributing draws to content. Even using a single image within content increases clicks and search engine rankings. Illustrating your content with good graphics can make all the difference.

3. Update Old Content

Because of the speed of the internet, information changes quickly. Recycling old blog posts and content is an effective strategy to hone. In fact, updating and republishing old content with new images and information can increase traffic by 111%.

Listen to Your Audience

Knowing your audience is the key to implementing effective keywords and content marketing methods. Starting with the needs of the consumer helps you create the kind of content that can brave the biggest of waves. By following these guidelines and taking advantage of various keyword research tools, your content has a much better chance of glowing happily from the first page results of any search engine.

Traffic, leads and brand awareness are all benefits that come from good marketing, but the most important goal of any marketing strategy is to generate sales. It’s been proven that a good content marketing strategy can increase revenue for almost any business, but many neglect the obvious benefits that come from combining content marketing methods with social selling.

Social selling is simply using social media to interact and be social with your customers. It’s an ideal way to receive real-time feedback and give your brand a personal feel to it. Studies show that LinkedIn is the most common platform for those who use social selling, with Twitter right behind.

When customers receive feedback and engagement from social selling, they gain trust in your brand and your products. Studies show that businesses that regularly use social selling consistently grow in revenue each year by over 20 percent more than those who don’t. To make it easy, we have come up with five ways you can incorporate social selling and content to boost your sales.

1. Create Content That Helps With Social Selling

What kind of content will get noticed and shared on your social media sites? We have a few guidelines and examples.

• Webinars
• Surprising or shocking information that promotes action
• FAQ pages
• How-to guides for simple problems customers face
• Content that demonstrates how your service or product works

These types of content are interesting, easy to share and helpful to almost anyone scrolling through social media or searching the internet.

2. Answer Questions Your Customers Have

We can’t stress it enough – social media is invaluable when it comes to building your brand and solidifying your customer base. Now, content can play into that when you listen to your customers and answer the questions they have about your products or industry. What you offer should provide a solution to a problem, and your content is your chance to explain HOW it does and WHY it is better than the competitor.

Pay attention to what your followers, potential customers and fans are saying and asking. When you show that you are truly interested in what they want, they are more inclined to see the value in your products.

3. Offer Content for Every Phase of the Sales Cycle

From opening a conversation to closing the sale, there are several different pieces of the sales cycle. You need valuable content for each phase.

During the sales cycle, the customer is making the decision about whether your products are the right fit for them. As they do their research, you are essentially competing with other companies when you don’t even know it. When social selling, companies use content to generate leads and create awareness about a product or brand. They also nurture leads with targeted content to increase sales opportunities by over 20 percent. Once you have delivered and the customer has evaluated, content creates trust, loyalty and improves your brand reputation. At each stage of the sales process, there should be content that your customers find engaging and helpful.

4. Have a Conversation

Content that starts a conversation is content that is doing the job it is intended to do.  Answer questions, address concerns and engage regularly with your potential clients and customers.  While originally this may mean that they simply reply to a post or comment on a status update, your long-term goal is to schedule a call or respond to an email.  That will continue the conversation and leads to revenue, sales and a solid relationship.

5. Keep an Archive of Useful Information

FAQ pages, blog posts and simple articles can be extremely useful when social selling. While you can pump these out on a regular basis on your social media platforms, they are ideally used when a customer has a question or concern. If you have an archive of valuable information that addresses common problems or issues in your industry, customers are more inclined to trust your expertise.

Anytime you have a concern, question or conversation on your social media posts, link back to a relevant piece of content that your company has used in the past.  This showcases you as an expert in your business and highlights you as an established business.

Good Content Is Essential

It is much easier to make a sale to a potential customer when you have valuable, helpful information to share with them about the problem they are facing. Using a content marketing service is the perfect way to get started on establishing your business as the go-to source in your industry.

Although you might find link building as one of the best content marketing strategies in guides around the internet, it is not the only way to improve your e-commerce SEO. To start with, focus on creating a great user experience with an easy to navigate site, fast page speed and great content. Additionally, have a safe and secure site that incorporates an SSL certificate with an HTTPS.

Once those basics are complete, there is still no need to delve into the complicated nuances of link building with your content marketing agency. Instead, enhance your content marketing plan through implementing one or more of the following.

Build Out Your Category Pages

When you build your website, you probably put a lot of thought into the layout and navigation. This includes creating category pages for your products. Do not simply create pages that only curate the products; instead, build out your category pages with keyword rich content, one of the best content marketing strategies. What is the advantage to this? You have more content to optimize and improve your organic rankings. Take Auto Anything for example, they have inserted relevant content on every category page of their site.

It does not need to be extensive, long-form content. Even a short description at the top provides a place for SEO content. Avoid the temptation to simply keyword-stuff the content. Instead, focus on details that provide value to consumers, such as answering commonly asked questions.

Category Keyword Opportunities

When creating your website, do not simply focus on the keywords that match your broad categories. Instead, perform some keyword research to find subcategories that might provide some opportunities for additional pages and content. For example, a clothes retailer might have categories for shirts, pants and dresses. Then, they might have subcategories for different styles, colors and/or sizes, each one with new keyword-rich content ready for ranking.

For every new category you include, you create more opportunities. As an added bonus, you have less competition for many of the keywords for the subcategories. Once you have built your site, do not become complacent. Always keep an eye out for new and fresh keyword possibilities for different categories and subcategories your customers might appreciate.

Create Original Product Descriptions

Writing unique product descriptions might seem like a lot of time and effort for no reason. However, you miss out on an opportunity for quality content when you use the manufacturer descriptions. Again, you want to avoid keyword stuffing. Pick one or two of the top keywords for that product to incorporate into the description.

To start, take the information from the manufacturer and write a short description that details the product, using some of the popular keywords. This is also a great opportunity to promote the product and reach the customers on an emotional level through telling a story. Consider the function as well and incorporate information that answers questions that consumers might have. This also helps your ranking, since many search engine algorithms take into account how a page answers common inquiries. If this sounds too difficult or you just don’t have the time, hire a content writing company like BKA to come up with and create unique product descriptions for you.

“Best of” Guides

A widely popular type of content that you can easily add to your site is a “best of” guide. To do this, rank certain products based on criteria like price, usability, durability and quality. You also should include some key pros and cons of each item, as well as details about the basic features. Expect this type of content to take some time to curate and build. They should be in-depth, with word counts above 2,000.

Consumers in the research stage of their shopping experience often search for guides or comparison lists to help them decide what to purchase. This gives you a great opportunity for evergreen content that provides something of value to your customers. It also provides content in which to incorporate keywords to optimize. Another bonus to this type of content? If you do it well, it helps to develop your reputation as a trusted authoritative voice in the field.

How do you write this type of content? First and foremost, you want to create something authentic, not just a vehicle for selling certain products. Take the time to look at customer reviews, buying habits and other data that you might have from your own site. You can also do some research around the internet, especially from trusted resources such as Consumer Reports.

Rich Snippets

One of the best content marketing strategies to help boost your page rankings is rich snippets. Rather than having your search result display a basic title tag description along with the URL, add some additional information, such as price, model number, short descriptions and more. Before customers even click on your page, you have already started to answer their questions.

Although rich snippets are not used for ranking the same way that title tags and meta descriptions are, they do increase your chance of a user clicking on your site. People respond more often to search results with more information on the results page. This leads to more traffic and a higher organic click-through rate, which ultimately increases your rankings. Google offers free resources to help you mark up your content without having to create code.

Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Although rich snippets might help increase your chance of someone clicking on your site, do not underestimate the power of a strong title tag and meta description. Rather than focusing on optimizing for the search engine and stuffing in keywords, create a title tag and meta description with the user in mind.

Internet searchers read the title tags and meta description and use this information to determine if the page has the information they want on it. Through creating content with the user in mind, you once again increase the organic click-through rate because they click on the descriptions that have meaning to them. Rather than just describe the content, you can also incorporate selling points and highlight promotions or sales for additional impact.

Many of these actions not only help to increase your e-commerce SEO rankings but also create a better user experience on your website, which is one of the best content marketing strategies. It increases your SEO rankings, lead conversion and number of repeat customers to ultimately help your business. If you need help creating category descriptions, product descriptions, “best of” guides or any other type of content for your site, let us know and we’d be happy to help.

The fact that the majority of websites are now being accessed via mobile devices is causing businesses everywhere to readjust their marketing strategies. This is especially important to keep in mind when you evaluate your content marketing plan vb, since many aspects of your strategy may be affected.

While natural rankings are still important, content that is optimized for your local area can actually rank above the typical organic results when users are searching via a mobile device. This means that you also need to not only create a site that is search engine optimized, but also one that ranks in the map pack for your area. Here is what you need to know as you evolve your site for better exposure on local pages.

Get Local Citations

Having your business mentioned several times by local sources is a great way to increase your presence in a certain area and will push you up in that location’s rankings. Your credibility will be increased the most if your sources have more authority, so making sure you are listed on sites like directories and the Chamber of Commerce is a must. Put this information on your social media page as well so search engines can match it.

Optimize Keywords for Location

Web users in one area may not be using the same keywords as searchers in another state, so it can be helpful to do research on a local, rather than national level. You should include these terms in each page’s description tag and content to give you the best shot at local exposure. This can mean a little more work if you have multiple locations but can give you a major boost in that area’s search rankings.

Write Localized Content

One of the best tidbits you can pass on to your content marketing service is to ensure that content is focused on the geographical area. That means blogs, social media posts and product descriptions should have at least a small mention of the local market. This could be the name of the geographical region, mention of local customs or landmarks, or specific phrases or terms that are localized. Google’s searching abilities are becoming increasingly sophisticated and can pick up on these details when scanning the web.

When creating a title tag, make sure that your city and state are included. Many experts believe that this is actually the most important place to put that information. Headings are also great spots to insert the city/state info and the URLs for all pages besides the home page are one of your best bets to broadcast your local relevance. Also, consider adding the area information to any image alt text and in your meta description.

One great way to do this is to insert your business’s NAP (name, address, phone number) in the footer for your website and use a Schema.org data markup. Here is an example of what this would look like for your site:

The experts at Search Engine Land have provided this sample code that you can adapt to your own site:

<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/LocalBusiness”>
<p itemprop=”name”>COMPANY NAME</p>
<p itemprop=”address” itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/PostalAddress”>
<p itemprop=”streetAddress”>ADDRESS LINE 1</p>
<p itemprop=”addressLocality”>CITY</p>,
<p itemprop=”addressRegion”>REGION</p>
<p itemprop=”postalCode”>POSTCODE/ZIP</p.
<p itemprop=”telephone”>PHONE NUMBER</p>
<meta itemprop=”latitude” content=”LATITUDE” />
<meta itemprop=”longitude” content=”LONGITUDE” />
</div>

By inserting your business’s information into the bolded text, you’ll provide the exact information search engines need to direct customers to your store.

Create Local Link Juice

Creating link juice is probably already an integral part of your content marketing strategy, but links from regional sources can dramatically boost your organic traffic and local credibility. This tactic will require a lot more work on your team’s part, especially if you have several different locations, but the payoff can be huge. With a little extra effort, you can use local sources for internal links and sub-navigation pages.

Insert a Google Map

Signaling your address to Google by embedding a map is a clear way to point out your location to the search engine, but there’s a right and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way is to have an embedded map that simply points to your address. The right way is to have a map that actually points to your Google Plus Listing. Take this extra step to be sure that Google is getting the message and your storefront will pop up in Google map searches.

Keep Multiple Listings Consistent

If you have more than one location for your business, a key part of your content marketing strategy should be to keep all listings consistent. Your contact information listed on your Google Business profile needs to be complete and must match whatever is listed on your website. If you have several locations, you may want to consider using a tool to check for any inconsistent listings.

One mistake that can commonly happen with complicated business names is that the name may be misspelled on the page, confusing search engines. If you have a complex name like “Clear’N Clean,” your citations may be suffering because other sites and even your own pages may be listing variations, such as “Clearin’ Clean,” “Clear n Clean,” “Clearing Clean” or “Clear ‘N Clean.” These differences may seem slight, but they can lead Google to assume that each entity is a separate business and divide your ranking authority between multiple names, putting each at the bottom of the list.

Conclusion

Boosting your site’s local relevance is easy once you know what you are doing. Follow these steps and work with your content marketing service to increase your exposure on local pages and you’ll be showing up on everyone’s phones in no time.

In today’s world of fake news and distrustful readers, it’s tough to get viewers to really place their trust in what you are writing. Very few online content writing services put their pieces through any type of editing before they are posted, and writers often take advantage of a trusting public to publish content that is not true or completely made-up. An important way for you to build your brand and establish trust with your base is to get them to trust your content.

Sites and businesses that publish content that is not factual are often doing a disservice to those that work hard to earn the trust of their customers. Fortunately, it’s also easier to set yourself apart from untrustworthy sites as long as you stick to a few rules. As the battle seems to be flowing upstream and it’s more difficult than ever to gain the trust of the average Internet user, we have a few simple guidelines that can help you build and keep the trust of your readers.

Be Prepared to Back It Up

It’s easy to throw statistics, numbers or generalizations in your content, but if a reader decides to fact check your statements and doesn’t come up with the numbers to support you, you lose their trust immediately and it’s almost impossible to gain it back. If you plan to use a statistic or fact, always cite the original source that the material came from. Verify your numbers and facts and link them back to the original source, which may be further back than where you originally came across the information.

Use examples to back up your claims. While there are times your opinion will get you far, your readers want you to prove your point with examples and facts. Examples help to clarify and simplify what you are talking about, give concrete facts and also help them remember the information you shared further down the road, when it is particularly helpful.

Make It Helpful

One of the most basic concepts that many website content writing services overlook is that your content needs to be helpful, useful and interesting. Your business goals should always come second to your audience when it comes to creating content. Marketing through content is not the same as advertising.

To build trust, your content must be relevant to what your company is promoting. Blogs and articles that do not meet the needs of your customer base will frustrate customers and encourage them to look elsewhere for valuable information.

Write Professionally

It’s always good to make a piece interesting with personal anecdotes or funny examples, but your writing should always be professional. Many companies turn to online content writing services to get the message across in a way that is engaging but still professional. This builds trust and credibility in your content AND your brand. Any content with grammar or spelling errors is typically disregarded quickly by readers.

Whether you are writing your own content or hiring it out, the answer to this problem is simple: proofread as often as possible. Have someone other than you proofread your content before you publish it. You can never have too many eyes go over your work before it goes into print or online.  It’s fairly simple to change an online mistake, but by the time you get there you’ve already lost the trust of those who saw it.

Tell Both Sides of the Story

An extreme perspective really only works for an opinion piece, and if you want readers to trust your content, you have to present both sides of the argument to them. This also shows your expertise in the area and allows the readers a deeper understanding of the concept.

If you believe there is one right or wrong way to do something, explain why your views are more effective than the other side. Don’t simply ignore alternative options. This shows that you are aware of what is going on in your industry whether you agree with the experts or not. Don’t pretend like things that don’t agree with you don’t exist. Rather, address them up front and explain why your ideas or concepts are better.

Sharing content from third party sites can also help to build credibility. Studies show that a large group of people trust white papers or professional research over customer case studies or independent product reviews.

Make Your Website Attractive, User-Friendly and Functional

Your content and your brand loses credibility when your website isn’t functional. Viewers want to feel as if they are actually interacting even if they are simply clicking a button. If your website has little information or isn’t interactive in any way, viewers may go elsewhere for their information. Studies show that most people rate the design of the site as one of the most important factors in determining credibility. This highlights the fact that your site’s design may actually influence how much readers trust you more than your content. A user-friendly, functional, attractive site makes your brand and product seem more trustworthy, ensuring that readers are also invested in your content.

Use Email Marketing

Part of your content marketing SEO strategy should be email marketing, and if you aren’t using it yet, you should be. Studies show that readers are more likely to trust content that comes through email almost more than any other source. Unfortunately, email marketing is only used by 50 percent of small businesses, meaning many are missing out on a crucial element of gaining the public’s trust. It turns out that email is one of the most trusted mediums when it comes to delivering content, but far too many businesses are missing out on the benefits of using it.

How Do You Build Trust In Your Content?

Creating good content that is helpful to your readers doesn’t have to be complicated. Viewers are constantly looking for a site they can trust to give them useful information they can rely on, and you may just be their next stop. Make sure your content is ready to withstand their tests.

Is your goal to get your content to go viral? Even if you do not want to reach thousands or millions of views or shares, increasing the number of shares you get on social media increases the organic traffic to your blog. Developing engaging content provides one easy way to get readers to want to share your blog; however, this is very difficult. Many marketers struggle with finding that perfect type of content that goes viral. Luckily, you do not have to continue to struggle.

Developing strong, engaging content is not a guessing game. There is actually science behind it, with several key factors involved in leading to the sharing of the content. Ultimately, the content needs to somehow speak to the reader in such a way that they feel sharing it will somehow nourish their relationships. This might be through sparking emotion, entertaining them or otherwise bringing some type of value. There are many motivating factors that lead to people sharing the content as well, including affinity, validation and social expression.

Unfortunately, when the majority of your blog is dedicated to informational topics, it is more difficult to emotionally engage with customers and lead to social sharing. Adding emotion to an informative blog can sometimes just come across as manipulative and have the exact opposite response. Luckily, using social content can help you.

What Is Social Content?

Social content is content that bridges the gap between social media posts and blogs, infographics and other marketing content. It involves the audience and your social community to create a more authentic and personable content. Rather than focusing on going viral, you are developing authentic relationships with the community that helps build true emotional connections with others within the community. There are a few different ways to easily incorporate this type of content into your blog.

Elicit Emotion By Repurposing

Eliciting emotion is an important component of getting shares. When people read something that makes them laugh, cry, get angry or otherwise feel, they are more likely to share it with others. Stories that make people feel awe or that are positive are also more likely to get people to hit that share button. You do not have to be the one to create this information; it is also possible to repurpose or curate content to elicit the emotional response you want.

Just think about popular sites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy. They get tons of shares, but much of their content is not exactly original. Instead, they take third-party content and then write something new using a fresh perspective, rather than simply regurgitating it. Their success comes from providing a perspective or comment that leads people wanting to share your piece, rather than heading to the original.

Create a “Best Of…” Post

In a similar way to curating content, you can also round up informative articles from a bunch of different sources to create a “best of” post. This puts all the information together into one easy to read piece, while also showing that your ideas are supported by influencers within the industry. Just be sure that you always include the relevant citation. Authoritative links and resources impart authority to your content, which improves your reputation as a trusted source. Round up pieces take this one step further. By creating pieces that bring together a lot of information together provides value to customers who might be looking for this type of one-stop shop for information.

Highlight Your Customers or Readers

An easy way to integrate social content into your blog is to feature your readers or customers. There are many different ways to do this, such as testimonials and case studies. However, sometimes, these might not elicit the exact response you want. For example, case studies often appear too scientific, which leads to many customers not engaging with them. Testimonials have a role, but they only provide a small aspect of the overall journey. Customer spotlights provide a happy medium that works well as social content.

These are similar to case studies in that they show the journey and how your company fixed a problem or provided a solution. However, they are told from the customer’s point of view and tell a lot more of the story. This makes them much more interesting and engaging, especially when you add photos or use video. It also involves customers and lets them share their emotions and insights during the journey. You also will find that you get automatic shares from that person and many of their friends.

Look to Comments

Integrating social content into your blog is not just about highlighting actual customers or eliciting a response; it is ultimately about providing value that goes above and beyond the normal. One way to do this is to create blog posts that will engage customers. To find engaging topics, look at the comments of your previous posts and find ideas on which to write. Perhaps a question continually pops up again and again.

Another place that opens up a way to create engaging blog posts is to simply ask your audience what they want to read about. Go on your social media accounts and post a question about a particular topic. You can run a survey or simply state a question. Then, use the answers to develop a blog that matches what they want to hear. You can even do so in the form of a roundup or curated content, an infographic or some other type of content that is not just a single blog. You might even find that you can create a whole series on your blog integrating a lot of different types of content, including social content. As an added bonus, you also demonstrate that you are interested in engaging directly with your community and that you listen to your customers.

Although social content plays a key role in creating shareable content and thereby growing your audience, you also want to be careful about over-using. In many cases, it should not take over your blog; instead, it should be incorporated as one aspect of a versatile blog that provides value to your customers in a variety of different ways. Finding a balance between providing answers to customers and otherwise imparting information with building your relationships creates a much stronger blog that will provide you with the benefits you want.