We commonly receive calls from retailers looking to improve their Google search rankings. One way you can help do that is to keep the content on your website, blog, and social media channels fresh. Just posting random links or recipes isn’t enough, though. You need to put some thought into what you’re posting, when you’re posting it, and who you’re posting it for. That’s all a part of your content strategy. At the November AMAKC lunch, Scott Schaper of Unravel shared his thoughts on why you need a content strategy and how to design your content.
Search engines like Google love content, and they prefer real, trustworthy, and relevant content. But don’t think you’re creating content just for search engines, writing for search engines is really writing for your customers. You’re able to share your knowledge and expertise to your market (and to the search engines).
Schaper laid out six steps to creating content:
- Ideation
The first step to brainstorm ideas. What do your customers want to know? Let them see how things work behind the scenes. Answer commonly asked questions. How did you learn from a failure and adapt? Make ideation a habit and part of company culture by delegating to different departments. - Research
Talk to management and staff, and read relevant information to help you know what you need to convey to your audience. - Writing
Put those thoughts onto paper (or the screen). Writing a blog post? One topic can be one post, breaking down each thought into a paragraph. It doesn’t have to be long. - Posting
There’s more to it than just pressing the “POST” button. Optimize it for search engines by using keywords in your page title URL, headlines, subheadlines, and body copy. Include links to other posts or pages on your website. And don’t forget to alt-tag your links and images with descriptions that include your keywords. - Promotion
Spread your content via social media, email, etc. - Measurement
Follow your numbers, bounce rate, new visitors, etc. to see what works get the most people to your site and into your sales pipeline.
By providing value through unique, authentic, educational and entertaining content, you’ll not only help inform your customers, you’ll be helping the search engines find you as well.
