Content marketing is an excellent way to build visibility to search engines. Google, in particular, strives to present clear, current, useful content that best matches the search a user has requested. For example: If I search “Napa Valley Vacations” and I get 10 wine ads, I probably won’t click on the wine ads. I will click on sites that appear to offer information on where to stay, what to do and most importantly, good deals on vacation packages to Napa Valley. If the site promotes vacations in Napa Valley it should offer: gorgeous images, exclusive packages at great prices (bait), how to get there, what to do, where to stay, comments and reviews, and most importantly, how to buy it.
If I stay a while (engagement) and I purchase your package (conversion) you have a successful site. If people click on your site and STAY on your site a while, Google will track this “engagement” and rank you higher than sites with poor content. No tricks, no “backlinks” no pages of keyword gibberish – current, knowledgeable, unique content wins the Google prize.
The important message here is to fill your site with really attractive, current, unique and useful information to engage your visitors for a longer length of time.
A few items your website should include:
FAQs – If you are truly knowledgeable about the topic of your website, you should already know what questions people ask the most – and the answers. Make sure you write this down and provide a FAQ section for users to quickly search for and find the answers to questions.
Blog Posts – Try to provide new information on a topic related to your business. This does NOT mean that you have to talk about your business all the time. For example: Our Napa Valley vacation provider might blog about the annual BottleRock festival and why he personally enjoys attending.
How To Guides – This should be expert, insider advice on how the user can “do it themselves”. Our Napa Valley guy could suggest where and how to tour the area on $50 per day.
Case Studies – Some examples of unusual or unique products or services you’ve provided in the past. Napa Valley guy could describe a tour he put together for a group of people who do not drink alcohol.
Social Media Posts – Include follow links for your brand and share links for your articles. Get in the habit of posting an interesting tidbit daily, even if it’s just a link to another post or a comment about another post (reposted). Include a unique or interesting image. I’m not planning to go to Napa Valley for vacation, but if I see a Tweet announcing that Robert Plant is going to appear at BottleRock this year, I may very well check it out and ultimately, purchase a package to the event.
Reviews – Real, verified reviews from around the web. They don’t have to all be 5 star, actually, people do not believe that every review you’ve ever gotten is all 5 stars.
Calls to Action – Have you ever searched a site for contact or pricing information? It can be extremely frustrating to get help or answers to questions when this information is buried. You should have several, large clear means of contact. The users should “click to call” or “click to get quote”. Folks, you need to make this so easy a user can do it by accident! I actually had a client tell me they didn’t want their phone number to be too easy to find because the were afraid they’d get too many phone calls. Huh? Perhaps she should stay offline so no one would bother her. Most people welcome the opportunity to have direct contact with a prospect. If you are that busy, hire a sales person or assistant, but don’t discourage contact!
In short, Google wants to provide what the user wants to find. And the user could really give two dimes about how many keywords are in your site or how many other sites are linked to it. One key metric, “engagement” helps Google determine if users like your site. Successful content = engagement = conversions.
