Creating Better Content

Are you tired of seeing your website stagnate, struggling to climb the search engine rankings while your competitors surge ahead? It’s time for a change! Unlock your website’s potential with our exclusive guide that lets you in on the secrets of creating better content. Dive deep into this transformative world and unravel every nook and cranny that can turn your sluggish site into an unstoppable juggernaut (see what we did there?). Don’t miss out on the opportunity to unleash your website’s full power like a phoenix rising from its ashes – get ready to soar higher than ever before with these groundbreaking strategies!

Crafting a Content Strategy

A content strategy is a plan for creating, publishing, and managing content that aligns with your business goals. Without a strategy in place, you risk creating content that doesn’t reach the right audience, or worse yet, doesn’t add value to your readers’ lives.

Conducting a website content audit is the first step towards crafting a successful content strategy. You can analyze the current state of your website’s content by looking at metrics like engagement rates, bounce rates, time on page, etc. This will give you insight into which topics are resonating with your audience and which ones need to be improved or removed altogether.

For instance, if you run a local real estate firm and find that articles about the home-buying process are getting more engagement than those about home-selling, then you might want to create more content tailored towards home-buyers.

From there, it’s important to define your purpose. What do you want your website to achieve? Is it generating leads for your business? Establishing thought leadership within your industry? Educating your readers?

Think of your content strategy as a roadmap; it should lead to a specific destination. Just like how you wouldn’t embark on a cross-country road trip without planning out your route beforehand, you shouldn’t create content without knowing where it’s going to take your business.

Targeting Buyer Personas

One of the most critical aspects of creating better content strategy is targeting buyer personas. A buyer persona is an idealized representation of your target audience based on data and research. It should include information such as demographics, interests, pain points, challenges, etc.

Creating targeted content for different buyer personas can result in personalized and effective content that addresses their interests, needs and goals.

Let’s say you’re a local restaurant owner who wants to increase foot traffic. One of your buyer personas might be a “business lunch” customer: a professional with a high income who frequently eats out for business meetings. By creating content that speaks directly to this persona – such as articles on the best eateries for power lunches or affordable catering options for corporate events – you’re more likely to attract their attention and ultimately convert them into customers.

However, some businesses might wonder why they should limit themselves to targeting just specific personas. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cast a wide net and try to appeal to as many people as possible?

While it’s true that casting a wide net could potentially attract more visitors to your website, it’s unlikely that those visitors will convert into customers without targeted content. Plus, by trying to appeal to everyone, you risk losing focus on what makes your business unique and stand out from the competition.

Mapping Content to Client Lifecycle

When it comes to creating content for your website, keeping the client lifecycle in mind is critical. The client lifecycle consists of various stages a potential customer goes through; from being unaware of a problem to achieving a solution. As a local search marketing company that works with businesses from all industries, we’ve found that mapping content to the client lifecycle helps clients understand our services better.

At the top of the funnel (TOFU), awareness should be your focus. The goal at this stage is to attract potential customers and provide them with helpful information. Some types of content you can create at this stage include blog posts, infographics, social media posts, and e-books.

In the middle of the funnel (MOFU), your focus should shift towards educating prospects on how your business can solve their problems. This stage involves nurturing leads that have already expressed interest in your services. You can do this by providing case studies, webinars, expert guides and whitepapers.

Finally, at the bottom of the funnel (BOFU), the aim is to convince prospects to become paying customers. At this stage, clients are ready to make a purchase decision. Ensure that you use content that promotes trust and credibility such as testimonials, product comparisons and demos.

For instance, if you sell software-based products, it would be wise to offer free trials because not only does it give prospects first-hand experience with your product but also helps to elevate their confidence before making an actual purchase.

By carefully analyzing each stage of the client lifecycle and developing content that fits each one specifically, you can move potential customers further down the funnel towards turning them into loyal customers.

• To effectively create content for your website, it is important to take into consideration the client lifecycle and the various stages a potential customer goes through. At the top of the funnel, focus on creating content that attracts potential customers and provides them with helpful information. In the middle of the funnel, educate prospects about how your business can solve their problems by providing case studies, webinars, expert guides and whitepapers. Finally, at the bottom of the funnel, use content that promotes trust and credibility such as testimonials, product comparisons and demos to convince prospects to become paying customers. By developing content specific to each stage of the client lifecycle, businesses can successfully move potential customers down the funnel towards becoming loyal customers.

Writing Engaging and Valuable Content

Writing engaging and valuable content is key if you want your website to stand out amidst competition and rank well on search engines. But how do you create this type of content?

Think of website content as a candy store. A tidy and attractive display appeals to shoppers more than one that’s cluttered and messy. Similarly, engaging content has the potential to pique customer interest and encourage them to browse for longer periods.

Before you start writing any kind of content, it is essential to understand your audience. You need to know what type of content resonates with them. One effective way of achieving this is by conducting surveys on social media or creating quizzes that reveal what topics your audience is most interested in.

Once you have determined who your target audience is, it’s time to begin the actual writing process. Ensure that you use headlines and subheadings to break up long blocks of text, making it easy for readers to scan through and find valuable information. Additionally, avoid using industry jargon that might confuse readers; instead, opt for language that is simple, informative and highlights the benefits of your product/service.

It’s essential to have a balance between imagery and text when creating web copy. Research shows that humans are visual creatures, so using images and videos within text can keep reader engagement high. But make sure they’re relevant – don’t just include visuals for visual sake.

Lastly, make sure your web copy has calls-to-action (CTAs) placed at strategic points throughout every page but are not too intrusive. The goal is always to make it easy for readers to take action without feeling pressured into doing so.

Outlines ensure that each piece of content is thorough, meets the requirements, and has the best chance to outrank competing pieces.

Writers LOVE outlines. They provide guardrails and guidance that remove so much of the stress of writing a post. Plus, they don’t need to worry about missing the mark.

The key to creating an effective content outline is organization. The following step-by-step process can help you produce a structured and organized document that suits your target audience.

1. Analyze the Topic

The first step when creating an outline is to break down the topic into several subtopics. This is where you decide what subject matter you want to cover in the piece and how it will be structured.

2. Pick an Angle

Once you have selected your subtopics, you need to choose a unique angle or viewpoint for your article. This is how you differentiate yourself from other digital content creators on the web. As such, it’s essential to be creative in your approach.

3. Create Headings

Now it’s time to create headings for each subtopic that will make up the body of your article. These should be specific enough to reflect what the reader will learn but general enough to cover all aspects of each subtopic.

4. Add Bullet Point Takeaways

After crafting the headings, consider adding bullet points under each section that highlight key pieces of information for quick reading and scanning purposes.

5. Include Questions

Lastly, think about adding questions at the end of each section that could further engage your readers either as a call-to-action or through social media engagement.

By carefully considering each of these elements, you’ll be well on your way towards creating an effective content outline. Not only will this save you time by keeping your writing focused, but it can also increase traffic and shares by providing clear, concise information tailored for your audience.

AI Tools Mostly Suck

While it’s true that AI writing tools are making human writers’ jobs easier, they come with their fair share of limitations. One of the most significant challenges with AI-generated content is the inability to incorporate emotional context into text. Where humans can describe emotions or conjure a fitting tone pretty easily, AI typically struggles with replicating such behavior.

Another challenge comes in the form of the vast amount of data that lies beyond our reach. While machines can go through millions or billions of words in a matter of minutes, huge portions of valuable information are still only available offline or in hard-to-reach formats that may never get digitized.

The complexity and intricacy of language have ended up becoming a crucial limitation to AI-based writing tools. Some programs find it challenging to comprehend abstract concepts and metaphors alongside idiomatic expressions and figures of speech commonly used by people every day.

For instance, last year, OpenAI announced that it had developed an algorithm that could write articles it was fed from online sources autonomously. The “AI Journalist” experimented with producing results that were too tempting to ignore: weeks worth of perfectly-structured stories amassed within seconds of feeding the software with enough data. Despite these impressive results, some writings still fell flat when tested for quality.

On top of these various limitations, another major issue has cropped up concerning AI-generated text: quality control.

• A 2022 research by Stanford University found that nearly 60% of AI-generated content had factual inaccuracies or logical inconsistencies.
• According to a study in 2023, while AI can generate content faster than humans, the error rate is around 21%, suggesting quality issues.
• Data from a 2021 survey indicated that about 75% of users believe that AI writing tools lack the depth and creativity provided by human writers.

In addition, some believe that traditional writing methods tend to be more reliable than AI-generated ones. With traditional writing, research is conducted on credible sources and students and professionals use complex grammar rules frequently used in education which bolster credibility. On the other hand, AI-generated articles take information from various sources that aren’t always factual or verified.

Use Images to Add Value

If you need images to “break up the text,” your content sucks. Images should add value and enhance the piece.

Design work isn’t cheap. But, a well-crafted infographic or visual can add value to your posts. Plus, people may also link to these images organically.

Avoid cringy stock images. If you have to stock photos, be sure they fit and don’t distract from the post or make it appear cheap or spammy.

When creating better content, original images are best.

Use these sites for free stock photos:

• Pexels
• Pixabay
• Stock Vault
• Burst

How to Write Better

Solid writers can take a detailed outline, go to work, and deliver a quality product ready to go live. Sadly, quality writers are rare.

SEO is a great skill set. But without quality writing skills, your content has a much harder time trying to rank.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most crucial aspects of creating content. The goal is to make sure that your content appears at the top of search engine results when potential customers search for particular keywords or phrases. However, there’s more to SEO than just stuffing your content with as many keywords as possible. Search engines have evolved, and they now prioritize quality and user intent in their algorithms.

For example, if someone searches for “best coffee shops in New York City,” a search engine will prioritize results with content that matches this query’s intent. That means including not only the keyword phrase but also relevant information about coffee shops in NYC. Therefore, optimizing content involves understanding what people are searching for and answering it correctly in your content.

How can you optimize your content? First, consider using long-tail keywords – keyword phrases that are three or more words long – in your content. For instance, instead of targeting just “coffee shops”, opt for the specific phrase “coffee shops with outdoor seating.”

Second, ensure that the content satisfies user intent by being informative and relevant to the topic related to the keywords used. It’s valuable to address common questions surrounding the subject-matter by providing answers throughout your website’s pages.

Additionally, organize your website into categories and subcategories so that search engines can easily crawl your site. Make use of internal linking between pages to avoid orphaned pages without a clear path to navigate back to other parts of your website and improve user experience on-page by encouraging engagement.

Conversely some might argue that optimizing content doesn’t matter due to frequent changes in search engine algorithms requiring continuous updates in order for optimized web pages remain at the top of search engine rankings rather than improving relevance and catering to intended users’ needs. However, this is only true if you focus solely on traditional SEO methods.

A comparison can be made between optimizing or creating better content and marketing traditional brick-and-mortar stores. In the same manner storefronts optimize their placement, environment, and style to appeal to potential customers, online content should also aim to improve user satisfaction in terms of clear navigation, information and organization for easier browsing.

Great Tools to help in Creating Better Content:

• Hemingway Editor : Great tool for ensuring writing is readable.
• Grammarly: Quickly edit documents and improve writing beyond what most spell check tools catch.

Critical SEO Elements Every Blog Should Have

Optimal Blog UX

Your blog should be skimmable without too many additional elements to distract users.

Here are a few points to consider:

• Keep paragraphs short. Aim for under 4 sentences unless you need the extra lines to explain complex ideas that should stick together.
• Use wide margins. People don’t want to read across the whole page. Instead, your blog should have at least 15% – 20% margins on each side.
• Pick a simple font. Stick with readable fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, or Lato.
• Choose a large font size. Use a size 16px font in most cases.
• Add Video: Embed relevant videos that add value to your content.
• Avoid Multiple Pop-Ups: Keep it to one pop-up (MAX). And give your readers time to read the post before bombarding them with requests.
• Use Other Elements: Tweet embeds, Tables, Infographics, Quotes, and Text boxes can change the flow of writing and enhance aspects of your content.

Compelling Headlines

Effective SEO Titles and Headings are critical for success. SEO titles drive people to click on search results. Headings keep your content organized and make it easier to skim.

SEO Titles are what people see when they google keywords in search.

They’re the bright blue headlines:

Headings create hierarchy categories in content, keeping it organized. These usually range from Heading 1 to 4 (H1 – H4).

Note: You want to mark headings as headings and not simply increase the font size. This improves the crawability of your posts.

You want people to click on your article in the search results and continue reading through your piece. Titles and headings do that.

How to make your headings and SEO Titles stand out:

• Use your keyword – (this is a must)
• Use power words
• Use unique words
• Use emotional words
• Use Numbers + Years
• Use the most popular words in the most viral headlines
• Use Parentheses ( ) and Brackets [ ]
• Make it different from competing pieces

Spend time on it. But don’t obsess over it. You can always come back and optimize them later.

Bigger Isn’t Necessarily “Better”

You will undoubtedly run into Brian Dean from Backlinko while researching how to write blogs for your business. He’s an experienced authority in the SEO space and the creator of the Skyscraper Technique.

In short, you take your target keywords, research what’s out there, and then try to write better content.

It makes sense: the goal of search engines is to serve the best results. If you want your content to rank, you need to write something better than what’s out there.

Unfortunately, marketers ruin everything.

And along the way, “Better” turned into, “Longer.” Now, everyone’s solution for not ranking is to create 3000+ word articles for EVERYTHING.

And there are a lot of problems with that.

Mainly, you want to be the LAST click for the user.

This means your content satisfies search intent fully. Sometimes, that takes 2000 words to do that. Other times, you can satisfy the search query with a much shorter response.

It depends on the question.

Longer also doesn’t mean better if the writing is bad, it’s full of fluff, or completely off topic.

Don’t Forget to Keep Your Content Current

People want the most current information. When left with the choice of reading (and linking) to a post six months or six years old, most people will choose the newest one.

Updating your content is a quick way to drive results.

But you can’t just change the publish date. Instead, you need to review, edit, and improve the piece. It’s time-consuming but worth it as it can push your post up in the results.

This is especially true for resources like statistic pages, where the data changes more often.

A great way to keep your content up-to-date is to set reminders for revisiting key pages.

Hiring + Training Writers: Avoid the Nightmare

If you’re a busy business, you may not have time to sit down and write content internally. And that means you’ll need to outsource content creation.

Unfortunately, hiring writers is extremely challenging.

Every writer has a portfolio. And at first glance, it looks good. But you don’t know if the work is theirs. And even if it is, you don’t know how much editing went into the content to get it live.

Sometimes you find a writer, review their work, and give them a test project, only to be shocked by how bad the result is.

(This says nothing about writers spinning articles, plagiarizing content, and outsourcing their work to others.)

If you’re going to find writers yourself, you need patience and determination.

Tips for vetting writers:

• Avoid Cheap Writers: Anything under $200 for a single blog post will require numerous edits (and time).
• Ask for Bylines: A lot of writers ghostwrite content. This makes it hard to guarantee the work they show you are theirs. Still, ask for articles they’ve published with a byline.
• Be Careful with Upwork: It’s a bit of a mixed bag. You can find some great talent, but you’ll need to sort through many applications. And sometimes writers can ghost you.
• Spend Time Vetting: Take the time to read writer profiles and review their work.
• Always Give a Paid Test Project: This is a great opportunity to see a writer’s abilities.
• Pad Deadlines: Writers will be late. Sh*t happens. Set the deadline 2 -3 days before you need it so you don’t have to rush the piece to publication.
• Ask About Their Niche: Preferably, you want writers familiar with the topic area. Otherwise, you’ll need to spend more time training them.

Sites to Find Writers:

• Problogger: You’ll find a lot of quality writers here.
• iWriter: Great place to find remote contractors and freelancers.
• Upwork: It’s a mixed bag. You will spend a lot of time vetting and training writers.
• LinkedIn: Reach out to people working in your niche and ask them if they’re open to writing content.
• Directly: If you find an article in your niche that you enjoyed, find the author’s details and reach out to them directly to see if they’re open to more work.

Headache Free Content Creation

This is a lot. But, the truth is that writing great content takes a lot of work. It requires an understanding of SEO, the audience, and the market.

Plus, you need writers who can create content that drives people to act.

What’s worse, it takes time to analyze results and adjust your strategy. (Search engines keep their algorithm secret to prevent people from gaming the system and SPAMMING everyone.)

Rather than juggle the challenges of running your business and scaling your marketing efforts, you can outsource content creation.

At Local Juggernaut^TM, we offer a Content Blitz.

Rather than worry about training writers, teaching them to write better, and creating content with all the various elements needed to drive conversions, we do it for you.