Few things have caused as much of a stir in the online world as the good old blog post. With the first few appearing at the end of the millennium, blog writing was in full bloom by the early 2000’s. Suddenly, everybody and anybody could become an armchair author, travel writer or overnight confessional sensation.
They may have been around for a while now, but for websites, blog writing remains an instrumental marketing tool. In fact, companies who blog receive 55% more visitors to their website. These don’t necessarily have to be written posts either – photos, videos and anything relevant to your audience counts as content. The best thing? Writing a blog (or any other website content marketing) doesn’t need to cost much.
Whether your online space exists for ecommerce, lead generation or as a not-for-profit, nailing the art of website content is a guaranteed way to get visitors through the door. The blogosphere is a crowded and noisy place these days too, so it’s the quality of your content that will keep them coming back.
Let’s explore a few reasons why regular and consistent content is so important to help your website stay above the noise.
While ultimately the goal with regular content is to increase your site’s impact, a great piece of collateral is that it keeps you engaging with it too. Think of your website like a garden – the more often you come back to pull out the weeds and plant new seeds, the better your rewards will be.
If you’re dedicated to keeping the content on your website fresh, whether that’s with blogging, vlogging or external links, the fruits of your labour will be that much sweeter. Because you’re checking in regularly, you’ll have an eye on any software or design that needs updating. That’s a big plus for security, and for keeping everything fresh, relevant and user-friendly.
If all this gardening sounds intimidating, don’t sweat it. Our team at State Creative are all over website maintenance – and if you need, we know the right people for sharp and snappy content, too.
The pieces of content you share are basically the building blocks of your brand, creating that bigger picture of who you are as an organization. Consistent and high-quality website content is a way of showing your customers that you’re reliable, trustworthy and, of course, you know what you’re talking about.
Because you’re creating value for your audience without taking anything in return, you’re building trust and a relationship with them, making them more likely to click on that call-to-action down the track. In fact, it’s been shown that leading with expert content to establish this trust is essential to the success of self-promoting content down the line.
With a bit of strategy behind your website content, you’ll capture and engage the attention of your intended audience, making your site a regular go-to. In other words, boosting your website’s traffic and converting more leads.
One great way to know you’re producing solid, quality content is when other people, blogs and websites start sharing your posts, increasing engagement and traffic exponentially. These external links to your content are called backlinks, and seeing them build is a sure sign your content is valuable, engaging and relevant.
The online community is a potent network to tap into, and companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website.
Now’s the time to be savvy with your website content strategy. A little bit of intention will go a long way in creating a powerful content marketing plan that grows your website’s audience and keeps them coming back. Have a good mix of educational or expert input, entertaining content and self-promotion.
Make sure every post has at least one call-to-action, whether that’s for purchase, to get in contact or to subscribe to a newsletter.
Search Engine Optimization is essentially using your website content to rank higher in Google and other search engines. The visitors from SEO also tend to be better quality, with higher closing rates than outbound leads.
In the early days, people could rank higher by ‘stuffing’ their content with keywords. Now, however, with the invention of algorithm updates, Google rewards only authentic content, so keep it real.
Though your content is important, the packaging that you present it in is just as crucial. This is where expert web design, development and maintenance come into play. How user-friendly is your website? How easily can people access your new blog post? Is it optimized for mobile? 74% of users are more likely to return to mobile-friendly websites, after all.
