After the most recent Google
algorithm update, it’s no wonder most SEO specialists are puzzled. So are most
of the copywriters.
Where do we go from here?
Do we have any chance to get our new
website to rank?
How can we fight big brands or
competitors who have been in the industry for years?
All these (and many more) are
questions I heard from my agency’s clients after I told them we needed to
re-evaluate our content strategy.
So yes, I can understand the panic
even though it’s not in my nature. I’m a digital marketer by trade, so planning
is in my nature.
I went back to the drawing board and
came up with individual plans for my agency’s clients. While they are each
personalized for their respective industries, they do have some things in
common.
Here are some of those things:
6 ways to up your content game and
get more organic traffic
If you’re a regular on SiteProNews
and have read some of my articles here, then you must already know that I never
advocate for vanity metrics. In my opinion, traffic is irrelevant if it doesn’t
lead to actual revenue.
Thus, every SEO and content plan I
create has ROI in mind first and foremost. Traffic is a means to get there, not
the end goal.
This is what I do to make sure the
traffic my clients get is relevant to their business in the dawn of the new
“Google era”:
1. Create more content
One 500-word article per month no
longer cuts it. You need long form content if you want to get ahead and boost
your rankings. And you need it frequently and regularly.
Forty-one percent of content
marketers agree their efforts have brought ROI. The fact that both B2B and B2C
companies strive to create more content is not a coincidence. It’s today’s
norm.
A constant flow of great content
brings a constant flow of targeted organic traffic. In turn, that traffic turns
into business opportunities.
It’s a seemingly simple equation,
but we all know that creating great content is not exactly a walk in the park
for everyone. When I hire new SEO copywriters for my agency, I always ask them
to come up with a brief content plan for boosting an imaginary client’s ROI.
Those that tell me they just follow
instructions and insert keywords fail instantly. I don’t need them to be
marketers. I just need them to have a marketing or a growth hacking mindset. If
they don’t, this will be shown in the copy they write, no matter how impeccable
it is from a grammar point of view.
2. Create better content
What does that mean besides the
marketing angle I discussed above, you ask?
Offer your readers something
valuable. That’s it!
Your marketing angle is important.
But offering actual value is crucial. Depending on your niche, that value can
be information, entertainment or inspiration.
Whatever it is, it needs to be your
main focus. So, before you sit down to write, make sure your research is
thorough. Think about the right tone of voice to appeal to your buyer persona
and about coming up with a fresh angle.
Source: - http://www.sitepronews.com/2017/09/06/6-ways-to-gain-organic-traffic-with-content/
You see, search engines are
advocating for people today. They can easily spot an article that offers no
real or new information. And they will bring down its rankings.
As long as your customers find the
articles valuable, so will search engines. And, if you come to think about it,
as long as you can produce valuable content, you’re in for a double win.
3. Target long-tail keywords
You will never rank for ice cream.
And why would you want to? But you could easily rank for best ice cream shop in
West Melbourne.
Again, this is the type of traffic
that brings the best of both worlds: organic traffic and customers. It’s
important to be realistic and set your expectations right when you do keyword
research.
This is one of the mistakes that
most business owners and even SEO experts do most frequently: targeting
keywords that are both irrelevant and hard to rank for.
4. Use LSI keywords
LSI (or Latent Semantic) keywords
are terms related to your main keywords. Not synonyms, though. They help Google
pinpoint the exact topic of your article.
For the ice cream example above, we
could have: vanilla ice cream, chocolate, mint chocolate chip ice cream,
all-natural ice cream and so on.
You can read more about LSI keywords
and their importance for your SEO strategy here.
5. Use outbound and inbound linking
I’m sure you already know about the
importance of inbound linking: connecting your blog posts between each other
through links strengthens their relevance for certain keywords in Google’s
eyes.
But what about outbound linking? Why
would you want to link to someone else’s website and help them gain more
traction?
Here’s why: if you link to high-DA
websites, you tell Google you’ve done your research. Better yet, you tell Google
you’ve analyzed a problem from multiple angles. And that is exactly what Google
needs to deem your piece of writing relevant and boost your rankings.
6. Create great headlines
Sometimes, you will spend more time
creating a good headline than the rest of the article. And that’s perfectly OK.
Why? Because 80 percent of readers
never get past the headline anyway. When you create great headlines that have
the potential to go viral, you stand a chance at getting more than 20 percent
of those who see them to actually click on them and read the rest of your copy,
too.
And, as you know, traffic attracts
more traffic. Plus, if you share them with the right social media crowd, you
might even get a lead or two out of a great headline!
Organic traffic and quality content
go hand in hand
Thinking about hiring that guy who
promised to deliver articles (SEO-friendly, of course!) for $50? Think again!
The reason why the cost of
copywriting services has soared so high is because getting traction with Google
and potential customers has gotten harder and harder. If you offer anything but
exceptionally good content, both Google and your readers will penalize you.
In a nutshell: if you want organic
traffic, don’t write for search engines. Write for the people who use search
engines to find great content.
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