Creating great online content for your website

21 Jul 2010

To appear in that search engine results for your product and service keywords, great content on your website is essential.


How it works

The search engines rank website content according to:

1) Relevance - How relevant is the content to the keywords entered into a search?

2) Popularity - How popular is the content? Popularity is measured by links to the content from other websites. If you have great content on your website, it is likely other websites will link to it. For example, a blogger may read your content and post a link to it.

Great content on your website, content that others link to, is essential to your rankings!


The challenge of online content

For bricks and mortar businesses, creating engaging online content is usually a new and unfamiliar challenge. In this article we examine the easiest ways for established businesses to develop engaging online content and how to integrate content creation into the day-to-day business.


Content types include:

Text Content - Articles, Blogs, ebooks
Multimedia Content - videos, audio
Software - software applications, downloads, web applications, games, mobile apps.

We recommend most businesses start with creating article and video content.


Article Content Creation

Brainstorm ideas for articles around your business. Content that will educate and entertain your website visitors. Examples include:

  • Tutorials on the best practice use of your products.
  • Basic guides on how to get the most out of your products and services.
  • How to select products and services.
  • Industry relevant information, analysis and opinion.
  • Expert advice and tips.

The goal of all articles should be to simplify concepts and generalise to principles that will be of relevance to the widest possible audience in your niche. Article content should also be as close to non-commercial and objective as possible. Provide this information for free in order to build trust and a loyal audience. Articles should be at least 500 words, so that articles can be syndicated to free article directories, in exchange for links back to your website.


Video Creation

Just like article creation, in video it is important to hit on interesting topics, those that educate and entertain. One approach is to purchase a digital video camera, and take every opportunity to film content of your products and services in action. You can now easily edit and cut up videos using low-cost video editing software. Arrange for a professional to create a 10 second flashy introduction for use at the start of each video.

You can then set about creating your videos. As well as your digital video camera, you may also like to setup a web-cam in a corner of your office with a nice back-ground. You can then mix video camera content with speaking segments from the web-cam.

Once you complete a video, it is a straight-forward task to upload it to a video sharing site such as youtube. Most video sharing sites provide you an embedded link, which allows you to embed your video on a page of your website. You now on your way to creating fantastic videos for your website!

Keep videos short, usually no more than 5 minutes. This makes it easier to get a quality result in your editing, and keeps your viewers from getting bored. If videos are short, users are more likely to browse to and watch your other videos.


Integrating Content Creation into the Business

Creating great content is a time-consuming task, and not likely one you signed up for as a business owner. The process of content creation needs to be systemised into your business process. Here are some ideas for achieving this:

  • Inform your staff about article and video creation and to be on the look-out for opportunities to create this content. Provide them with the necessary tools and training.
  • All print and video content in your business should be repurposed for use on the web. This may include training manuals, training video footage, brochures, case-studies, power-point presentations, recording of training sessions given to clients and staff, recording and documenting of product demonstrations. Once you start brainstorming, many opportunities in your business for content creation will present.
  • Identify your star content producers and provide them with time and targets for content creation.
  • Repeat the process. Content creation needs to be ongoing so you develop a content base on your website that the search engines will love.

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