Content marketing success formula | StepOne™ to StepThree™
Throughout this blog, I will be following my own content marketing success formula to build content that ranks and gets picked up by google. Why would you want to do this? Well, it is pretty simple, eyeballs equal money. It doesn't matter what you are trying to achieve in any business that you run, if you have no eyeballs you will make no money.
There are many different ways that you can achieve getting eyeballs on your business however none of them is free. I believe that you need to use a combination of methods but the first you should start with is content. The reason is the true cost of this is more your time than anything else. There is no direct cost associated with writing a great piece of content and throwing it up on your website.
Use content to gain traffic for your business website
Over my past 12 years in business, this strategy has been a pillar of success and any business in which I did not do this or left it too late I just delayed the inevitable and in some cases that was a complete failure. If you have a business idea then this is where you should start way in advance of kicking off that first day of trade as I think getting the problem first is a far better way of starting a business than with a great product and no eyeballs.
Let's get started and for each reader, you may be at a very different level with your content writing or maybe have never written an article in your life.
How do you come up with content ideas?
StepOne™ - Get an idea
What do you write about? This is a big question and actually stops people from getting started because they feel like they are not creative. When it comes to business or even if you are writing a blog generally you should be the subject matter expert and that is why you are going into business or starting your blog in the first place right? The easiest ways to start with are what are some of the questions that your future customer may need answers to? Here is a prime example directly related to this.
Use Free SEO tools for keyword research
This search term according to Keywords Everywhere achieves global 1300 searches per month. Not a bad start. Once you get the idea then you should really be in your way, if you need to mind map it out all the subheadings you wish to write about to help trigger your creativity to flow.
StepTwo™ - Write
When it comes time to writing then there are a few set rules that you have to think about. The days of stuffing keywords into articles are long gone so my suggestion is to write however you like to write but include the keyword in the most important area. The most important place to include the keyword is in the heading (H1 Heading) and within the opening paragraph. This is a great start and then if you reference the keyword again through the article try to use some different varieties of the keyword to show google uniqueness.
Article length will play a big factor too when it comes to your article getting picked up by google. For most web pages across the internet, google needs to see a minimum of 600 words to rank at all. Recommended though can be debatable. In my experience, I have found that you will need a minimum of 1000 words usually and a maximum of 2500 words. It is pretty rare I would ever write 2500 words as it is bloody hard to write that much on any one topic.
You must write more then what is currently number 1 on Google
One thing that you can do before you get cracking on your article is to have a look at what content ranks number 1 currently for the topic you are writing about. The simple rule just writes more than that. As you write the article another best practice is to include subheadings that relate to the next section of content you will write. I call these subheadings like a normal person however for Google you must include them as H2 headings. When you do these try to relate them in a way that answers other questions within the google search that you may find. I guess you can call these sub searches.
The cool thing I find when writing is that every time I write finds my next content idea within what I just wrote. So keep these in mind as you go along and then in further steps as your reference to these other articles we will tell you what to do.
StepThree™ Graphics
When writing these articles you must think about the reader first. Most readers will get very bored if all they see is text. All text feels like homework. No one likes homework. Well, I sure as hell do not so please follow this step and have some professional appealing graphics made. If you cannot make graphics yourself I feel you. The good news is if you are terrible at it that we live in 2022 and all around the world you can gain access to low-cost talent across the web that can help you do this.
When spending time and money on the graphics to go along with your content you should make sure you focus on the most important. That is the header image as that will be the one most people see whether they read your article and will also come into play when people share your content across the web. So think of the top image as the hero image which will make readers want to read what is in your article.
Do not forget about the rest of the article though as well as you do not want to lure them in with a sexy image and a catchy title then bore them to death. You must keep it consistent. Within the article include other images that refer to the paragraph you are referring to. Natural images always work best like real experience and real shots of whatever it is you are pertaining to. Too many stock images just give the article a sense of being artificial and will detract from the reader experience.
This really is a lot to take in. It may sound like a lot of work but it really is not once you just get started. In this article, I am following my own rules and through future articles, I will be back with the next steps. As I get through all of those I will endeavour to update this article with everything you need to execute the StepTen™ content success plan to rank your business or your blog with a consistent effort that will give you serious rewards.
If you like this article then share it across your social channels and if you do not then why did you even get this far. Enjoy the rest of your day fellow weirdos!