To be successful, a website must have great content, so why do so few SMEs create high quality content for their sites? Many entrepreneurs are simply too busy to write a company blog or to create new optimised pages that showcase new products and services.
The biggest challenge is often coming up with ideas for new topics for the blog. Websites should be fed with fresh content to perform well in search, but many people find that when they sit down to write their blog, they simply cannot think what to write. The solution is to develop a content strategy, and then follow it.
Every page on your website should support your business, therefore, all new content should be closely tied to your marketing strategy. If your website does not provide the information that your customers want, you will struggle to engage them and convert browsers into buyers.
A content strategy should set out a plan for creation of new content to meet the needs of your market. So the first step is to understand the market and your customers.
Search Terms and Keywords
There are four main ways a person will first connect with your website: they will either find it by searching Google, see a link on social media, see a shared link via email or see an advert. Regardless of which method is used, the words in your page titles will play a large role in how many visitors you receive.
To maximise the number of people visiting your site you need to ensure that the most popular search terms in your industry can lead to one of your pages. So the first step in creating a strategy is to carry out some keyword research to discover what search phrases people use.
One of the best tools is the Google AdWords Keyword Planner. This tool is designed to help Adwords clients to decide which keywords to target, but it can also be used to help build a keyword based content strategy to drive more organic traffic.
One way to use the tool is to simply enter a competitor’s website, ideally one that is ranking well in Google already, and see what search terms are shown. The terms will be those that Google believes are relevant and be based on Google’s search data.
From this list, make a note of every keyword phrase that applies to your business products or services, and then group similar phrases. These groups can be used to either optimize current pages or create new ones.
Run the tool again by using products or keywords that you know to be relevant to your business. The tool will display a list of mostly relevant terms – many of which your website may not include. Group similar phrases again.
After you have run the tool a few times with some competitor websites and service keywords you should have a list of groupings. The only challenge left is to choose a catchy title that will allow you to create a page that includes all the keywords from each group. Once you have this, your content strategy is born.
Each week, refer to your list and create a new business page or blog post from your content list. You will soon have an information rich website full of optimised content that should result in more search referrals.
If you need help developing your content strategy, contact FSE Online today. Our team of SEO campaign managers and content specialists will ensure that your website content is fresh, engaging and relevant to your market.
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