I currently work with a number of freelance writers who produce keyword rich content for my clients' sites. I thought I’d pass along some content development tips I’ve discovered over recent months. As you probably know by now, creating new content on your website gives you more “real estate” online. It’s another way to broaden your influence and attract new visitors.
Write Quality Content!
People like to read good articles on the web. Solid advice can ingratiate you to your visitors, help build your brand equity, and create new customers. Don’t get sloppy, people!
Avoid Lousy Writers At All Cost.
Just a corollary of what I said above, but it must be said. You may be able to get people to your site, but if your content is lousy, you’ve not only lost a visitor, but you may have damaged your brand. That visitor may never come back. Worse, they may tell others never to visit your site.
Avoid Automated Content Creation Tools
There are a number of software packages out there that claim to create instant content. I would think twice about using any of those. Google will eventually catch on and filter that stuff out. Why waste your time for a flash-in-the-pan solution? Instead, write your own original, evergreen content, and attract visitors for months and even years to come.
Consider Writing Content for “Influencers” Instead of Your Normal Website Audience.
Here is what I mean. Would you rather your article get noticed by the L.A Times or the Ghost Town Herald? Get to know the “influencers” in your niche on the web. You’ll probably discover a number of bloggers in your industry who really carry some weight with their readership. Get to know their blogs. Become a contributor. Consider writing an article mentioning the blog or blogger by name. Tailor the flavor and style of your article to the blog itself. The basic idea is to get noticed by this “influencer.” If this blogger picks up your article or mentions it, you suddenly get instant exposure to his or her entire blog community. Now imagine doing that 5 or 10 times over.
As an example, I wrote a post a couple weeks back on Pay Per Click Marketing Tips. Someone picked it up on Digg, and I got 800+ visits to that post in one day.
Choose Your Content and Keyword Phrases Based on Your Company Goals and Resources.
This may sounds obvious, so let me unpack it a bit. Content is all about keywords. The keyword phrases you choose or don’t choose are critical to your success. If you think you are going to write a quick article about “music downloads” or “stock trading” and suddenly get a ton of web traffic from your instant #1 Google rankings, guess again. Now if you have the time to build links to those articles, blog about them, get them circulated and ranked well on StumbleUpon, Digg, and some of the other big social networking communities, then yes, maybe it’s possible. The key, however, is to write rich, compelling content that has the possibility of going “viral” and get distributed widely across the web.
Consider Keyword Trends
Google Green Bars: Use the free Google Keyword Suggestion Tool, and only write articles using keywords that have lots of green bars (good traffic, strong trends, and advertisers.) If you are going to spend time carefully crafting an article, why waste it on a topic that has little or no interest?
I’ll digress here by saying that, yes, some people purposely go after hundreds and hundreds of topics that get just a little traffic. They write lots of articles and get a little traffic to each one. Unless you have lots of time, money, or already have
access to rich compelling content, this approach is long haul.
Use the other tools like WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, and Google Trends.
Keep Your Articles Short or Long
Confused huh? After reading dozens of opposing views about this topic, I have come to the conclusion that it simply doesn’t matter. Length is not the issue. Good content is good content. If a 500 word article works brilliantly to cover a topic, then so be it. If 3,000 words are needed, then that’s fine too. The reality is that people will read it IF it’s a good article! Are you getting the point here?
Consider Outsourcing Your Content Development.
Here are a few companies I have worked with directly or have heard good things about:
- Constant Content - worked with directly
- WeWriteIt - worked with directly
- Associated Content - worked with directly
- CKMG - have heard good things
And the last tip?
Write Quality Content Always!
Cheers!
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