You’ve been in the game long enough to understand the importance of search engine optimization. Let’s face it, you’ve probably heard the term “SEO” constantly since the creation of your company.
However, as SEO changes, so too do the methods that your company should employ to make the most of it.
Tactics from some top industrial marketers have the power to boost your SEO ranking and propel your business to new performance heights.
Here are four steps to creating rich, seo-ranking content for your company blog:
- Create a content calendar.
- Determine your top 5 fielded questions.
- Make the most of all your resources.
- Partner with other content creators.
Blogs may not feel like an instant fix, but anyone who’s stuck with theirs can tell you: the difference they make can be monumental.
1. CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR
Content marketing should always begin with the formation of a content calendar. This way there are exact days when information will be published. The exact schedule will vary based on the business and the delivery methods, but it is very important to create this calendar first.
As part of your calendar, also determine specifically who is responsible for any piece of content. We highly recommend nailing down multiple volunteers from within your organization who might be game to contribute.
They don’t have to be weekly authors by any means, but if one person is asked to cover one topic per year, that doesn’t sound so bad. The more contributors you have, the less often they each have to create something.
Typically, the more frequently content is published, the better it is for your SEO. For example, we have found that posting more blogs throughout the week gives the greatest return on investment than when posting once a week, or only a few times a month. Every blog post creates a new link, which sends more traffic back to your website.
Now for anyone first starting off, we understand it can take some time to truly hit the ground running. Don’t feel pressured to start off posting three blogs a week. Start small: once a month, or even once a quarter.
With the aid of a regular calendar and analytical data, it will become easier to publish new seo-ranking content, measure the results, then adapt to the process in the coming months.
2. DETERMINE YOUR TOP 5 FIELDED QUESTIONS
Before you start creating any kind of content, first identify the top five or ten questions your potential clients most often ask your sales teams. You can also include general questions you think a consumer is most likely to ask about your field in general.
For example, if you sell Bluetooth headphones, a potential customer might ask what devices it works with, how far the Bluetooth signal is, the battery life, and so on. Each of these questions is a topic worth covering.
Once you have identified these top questions, each can then become the focus of a different publication.
This is an excellent place to start when beginning a new marketing campaign. And, chances are, you have more than one product or service. Each product will have different questions asked about it, which in turn will provide more points of interest to create content for. Creating these posts will then help to educate leads, and inspire more questions; which will then spark future posts.
As the weeks turn into months following each post, measure the analytical performance of each. Use systems like Google analytics if you don’t have others – Google analytics is free and available to all.
Take a look at each post’s retention rate, bounce rate, how long it’s viewed, what kind of visitors might be viewing the content, and so on. This data provides helpful information on what future posts should be created and what will likely bring in additional views (and boost SEO).
3. MAKE THE MOST OF ALL YOUR RESOURCES
After you’ve identified the top questions for each product or service, then create the first round of content.
It’s particularly convenient to create entire batches of content at a time, if you have the means.
If you have ten people each write one blog post for you in January, then you have almost a year’s worth of monthly blogs! Or, if you pick one day and sit down to interview four people, you’ve just created everything you need for this year’s quarterly vlog!
Whether people feel like capable writers or whether they’re only comfortable giving a presentation, find a way to capture the information they’re handling on a daily basis.
Record their voice while they’re in a meeting and covering the topic they’ve been assigned. Film them giving a presentation to some potential buyers. Capture a thirty-second video of their answering for a common question.
Any quality of video will do if you’re just beginning. Don’t chicken out just because it might not be Hollywood perfect. Substance over style is the name of the game with seo-ranking content.
Additionally, the more forms of media you can create, the better. That’s one of the reasons why we love video so much.
If you’re filming interviews, the video transcripts can become keyword-rich blog articles to go with each video. The still frames can become high-quality images and thumbnails. And, if you’re really ambitious, the audio can be turned into a podcast (which is what we do. It’s great for SEO, but can be a fairly big commitment. So if you’re just starting out with content, maybe leave podcasts for a later date once you’ve gotten into a rhythm with other forms of content creation).
It’s important to never stretch yourself thin when first starting off. Instead, it’s often better to start out small.
4. PARTNER WITH CONTENT CREATORS
One of the best ways to grow your online presence, especially on social platforms, is to invite guests from – or be guests with – outside publications. You can tag one another on social media and share audiences. Your websites can link to one another, which increases credibility in Google’s eyes.
Cross-promotion can help boost publicity. It brings in new interest, leads, and potential customers. Just remember that whatever attention you want from others, you must also offer.
Search engine optimization has become one of the most important pillars in the architecture of your marketing department. Without a well-oiled website, your brand identity will crumble. That is exactly why you need to continually adapt and evolve your industrial marketing approach.
If creating rich, SEO-ranking content isn’t already on your daily to-do list…then you’d better break out the pencils and paper.
You’ve got a lot of work to do.
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