Generate More Organic Traffic by Meeting Content Goals

As Google becomes better at machine learning, writer’s will have to focus on sustaining quantity while improving the quality of the content they curate. The only way to maintain rankings is to grow your strategic content efforts – despite time challenges. It’s possible to achieve your content goals by making a few tweaks to your day to day.

Here’s how industry leaders kill it at content and feed the SEO machine:

Planning

There’s no room for procrastination in this era of digital marketing. Writers need to identify strategic content goals, then consider the best ways to achieve those goals. Content should be planned six to 12 months in advance.

Once you have a content plan in place, you can reduce time spent coming up with titles. A content calendar isn’t met to limit you. On the contrary, calendars give you room to be creative. Get the “must write” content out of the way, and you can create supplemental pieces as you go.

When planning content, consider titles that connect with previous pieces so that you can make the most out of all the content you create. You can use a Google spreadsheet for your calendar, or get fancy with tools like Basecamp or Trello to help you keep track of what to write when.

Production

Many writers edit while they write, which is inefficient, according to Spartan Media founder Jeremy Knauff – and it can contribute to you falling behind.

Break content production into phases instead:

• Outline
• Produce
• Edit

Start with an outline that takes your rough concept to paper. This will help you get your thoughts on track, and reduces time spent on tangents. Keep your outline simple, even a series of subheadings can help speed up your process.

Once you have an outline, start writing. Resist the urge to edit your content as you go. One way to do this is to start with your subheadings – then write an intro and conclusion once those are complete. Writing your intro and conclusion at the end of your writing process means they will be more cohesive with your sub points. When you’re done writing, take a break. It’s good to take some space from your content before you edit to trigger the reset button.

Collaboration

Collaborative content can be quicker to create, and puts some of the work on your collaborator. Examples of collaborative content include interviews, quotes, point/counterpoint and roundups. The key to making this type of content successful is to offer a fresh perspective, and added value. You’ll need to make participation worthwhile for your collaborators. Offer to link to your collaborator’s website, social profile, share the content on social and/or promote their business in the piece.

Repurpose

WordStream founder Larry Kim is a proponent of repurposing content. He advises digital marketers to leverage “unicorn” content to its fullest extent. According to Kim, unicorns are pieces of content that perform exceptionally well in terms of click through rates, engagement and traffic. They’re called unicorns, because digital marketers rarely see this level of success from content.

Take those “unicorn” content pieces and milk them for all they’re worth. Take a popular blog post and turn it into a video, infographic or podcast. Expand upon successful topics for continued success.

We’re all strapped for time, making it challenging to meet the content needs of our target audiences. By planning, collaborating and repurposing content we can increase quantity while maintaining quality to not only improve our SEO rankings, but keep visitors engaged.

 

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