When most people set up a business website, it is little more than a glorified business card. You obviously want your contact details on there, as well as a brief description of your business. Maybe you even add a contact form. Unfortunately, this ‘barebones
approach’ doesn’t give the search engines much content to analyse, so your business will rarely be shown to people as a search result.
Adding regular content, such as with a website news feed, is one way to increase the richness and visibility of a website. This form of content marketing can bring a range of benefits.
Increased visibility
The first benefit is the increased visibility to search engines like Google. Every time you post a new story on your news feed, search engines will index it for key phrases. This then helps your website to rank higher for these phrases. Of course, it’s better to focus on writing articles that are relevant to your business and location. For example, if you run a building company, you could host location-specific articles that offer building advice for homeowners. Likewise, if your business is a guesthouse, your news feed could focus on popular activities and events in the area.
Get relevant search traffic
By focusing your content like this, you attract very relevant traffic to your website. For example, say that someone is searching for information about fell walking in the Lake District. If this person finds a range of articles on your news feed about the subject, you then have the chance to convert this person into a customer, such as by making a booking at your guesthouse.
Build up authority
When you have a variety of content that discusses various aspects related to your business, you can start to build up authority with potential customers. This helps convey the impression that you have a well-run business made up of knowledgeable people, especially if something on your website news feed has answered a specific question for someone. In contrast, a minimal business website offers nothing that potential customers can use to form opinions.
For content to be an effective marketing tool, however, it needs to be of a certain quality. Content with spelling and grammatical errors will actually damage your authority, so you probably want to commission either a writer or a news writing service to provide your content. The provided content should also be well researched, reliable, and presented in an entertaining manner.
Social signals
The final major benefit of providing good quality content is how it can improve your visibility on social media. Even if a visitor to your website does not become a customer, he or she might share an interesting article through social media sites like Facebook and Google+, which then attracts more traffic to your website. Returning to the example of a Lake District guesthouse, imagine if a member of a local hiking club shares one of your articles with his or her social network, which would very likely include other members of the hiking club.
- How to surf the rising tide of content marketing - June 5, 2018
- Money saving tips for content marketing - May 16, 2018
- Is your content readable enough? - March 21, 2018
