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Defining Quality Website Content

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Content marketing isn’t new, and the core idea of it hasn’t changed much over time. The path to sharing this content may have changed throughout the years, but since the beginning of SEO and Google, it has always been a key factor in ranking websites. Just as rankings and SEO matter, so does content. As a tightly intertwined and complementary component of SEO, quality content remains a vital aspect of building a stronger and smarter web presence. So why does your site’s content need to be unique, quality, and substantial? Because it helps your ranking, entices visitors to stay on your site, encourages links and shares, and allows you to connect with your customers. Quality content allows your site and business to thrive and/or survive.

What is Content Marketing?

Building quality content allows for content marketing. We found some great “content marketing” definitions to help drive the idea of content marketing home:

  1. “Content marketing is creating and sharing valuable, relevant content with prospects for the purpose of turning them into customers and regular buyers” (Zemanta).
  2. “Content marketing isn’t just about attracting customers. It’s about attracting and appealing to anyone who might influence a potential customer” (Rand Fishkin).
  3. “Content marketing is the umbrella of all techniques that are used to generate traffic, leads, online visibility, and brand awareness/fidelity” (Quora).

Content marketing is essentially the combination of content (blog, videos, white papers, ebooks), social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, blogs, podcasts), and SEO (on-page, off-page, link building, keyword analysis). Content can be text or non-text based, but is really anything that holds relevance to readers and viewers and has potential to be spread through social media. With content building and marketing, the goal is to write, build, and create promotable and legitimate content for your website in the hopes that you build a following of dedicated customers.

Content Development Tips

Take a look at your own site. Does it have unique, sharable, and interesting content? Is your site set up to link to your social media sites or a blog? Are the photos engaging? A review of your site, whether it’s done by you or someone else, will allow your site to be evaluated for content, user experience, and aesthetic values. To develop more content on websites, we often recommend the following:

  1. Write enough content to explain what you do, who you are, where you are, and what you have to offer. This should include keywords relating to your service, product, or intentions. For example, if you’re an internet marketing company in Knoxville, TN, your site should say so. Just don’t go overboard with keywords, because it can start to make your site look spammy and cluttered.
  2. Make sure you have appropriate content for your target audience and age range. For example, if you are in an indie band, your target audience will want videos, easy to find social media links, live show dates, and ways to play your music.
  3. Frequently adding new and interesting content, like that on a blog, will encourage users to return, share, and fall in love with your business. Loyal and fully invested customers are a great asset to any company, because they will share your content and help you find more people with common interests.
  4. Make your content unique! Write unique material or hire someone who can, but make sure they are supplied with everything that makes your business, products, or services unique and different than the competition. Instead of using stock photos on your site, use your own or hire a professional photographer. Try increasing your non-text content, like podcasts and photos, if they apply. Avoid duplicating content.
  5. Your site’s written content should flow easily. Not only does this apply to proper grammar and sentence structure, but to how users flow through your pages’ content. Content placement should be logical: Allow landing pages to introduce your product(s) or service(s), and then dive into the details of those services and products on their dedicated pages. Don’t make users jump around to find what they need.
  6. With more content comes the potential for visual clutter. Make sure you site is ready to organize and display this additional content in a clean, simple, and modern way.

When it comes to content creation and SEO, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s more to learn with industry jargon, translating text into different languages, site penalties, and more. Contact us if you would like a detailed consultation of your web site and online presence.

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