Once fundamental SEO is in place, the process of ongoing content updates will help you stay out front of competitors. The best way to do that is increase the amount of content on your site and the range of topics you talk about.
Why More Content?
The goal of SEO is to produce content that is relevant to what your customers want to know about your product or services. That way, when someone searches “where to get X in Austin,” you have relevant content on your website that Google can show.
Adding content also helps your site grow traffic. By continually updating your website with good content, you are giving Google more pages to index and more information about your products/services for them to show in search results.
The most basic tool websites use to add content to their site is a blog.
Blogging is a way to:
- Address updates in your industry
- Showcase your expertise in the field
- Highlight company news and recent projects
- Write about topics that would otherwise feel out of place on your homepage or service pages
It’s a place to get creative and broaden your scope without cluttering up your sales-focused pages.
What Am I Supposed to Write About?
As an expert in the {%insert your industry here%}, you are the one best to answer that question.
You should write about anything that you feel is relevant to your products and services. Google really rewards websites that demonstrate their expertise and share unique information with their customers. As the subject matter expert, you would likely know better than me what to talk about on your blog.
That being said, there are ways to get the wheels turning if you don’t know where to start.
Here are a few methods to come up with something to write about on your blog:
- Address recent questions from a customer
- Talk about changes in your service process
- Notes from the field (maybe a particularly notable project or client?)
- What are some of the best practices in your industry for you product?
- What are some of the best practices in your industry for customer service?
- Have there been any recent company news and updates?
You can also go to competitor websites and see topics that they have covered. Just do what they did and make sure you put your own expertise into the content.
You don’t have to be a great writer to have great content, you just have to be knowledgeable.
Common Excuses for Not Writing Content
A lot of businesses will find ways to not write content for their site. Here are some of the most common excuses:
I don’t have time to write content.
No one said you had to write an academic essay. Only have 20 minutes to spare between calls? Answer a specific question in depth. Focus on getting to 500 words. Post a picture of a recent install and list out the process in bullet points.
You can also use voice to text on an iPhone or laptop to get your ideas down in raw form, then come back to edit it later. Another option is to record a video response instead of a written one. Search engines (and some users) love video content and that is an easy way to showcase your expertise without having to put pen to paper.
I’m a bad writer.
Don’t let perfect get in the way of the good. It’s the internet – misuse of grammar, punctuation, and run on sentences are going to happen.
The truth is that search engines and users will overlook grammatical and spelling mistakes if your content is unique, authentic, and good. The same cannot be said for low-quality content.
At the same time, try your best. It’s okay if you’re not an English major. You can also hire freelance proofreading services at a fairly reasonable price.
I wrote a couple blog posts and nothing changed with my site traffic, so I’m giving up.
Content creation is a long-term strategy. It can have an impact in the short term, however, the majority of the impact will happen at the 6 – 12 month time frame. That’s why consistency and continuity are key in ongoing SEO.
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see any results within the first few months.
I don’t know what to write about.
Approach your topic ideas from your customer’s point of view. Address their primary questions, concerns, and misunderstandings with straightforward, helpful answers. Google rewards sites that provide valuable content for their users time and time again.
See the section above for some methods on how to generate topics to cover on your blog.
Simple Guidelines for Writing Good Content
There are really 5 simple guidelines to follow to generate quality content:
- Write for your target customers
- Showcase your expertise
- Be authentic
- Be unique
- Get to the point
If you follow those guidelines above you’ll have the fundamentals of creating quality content in place.
If you want to generate real SEO results, take the guidelines above and include “consistency” in your publication schedule. Do what works best for your schedule.
Only have time to write 1 post per month? That’s great. Do that. Don’t set yourself up for failure by planning a content strategy that is too aggressive for your schedule. 1 post per month over a year is better than 3 posts in a month and then nothing afterwards.
