Let me start off by introducing myself. I’m Sophie, the new Senior SEO Executive here at the Word Agency.
With 10+ years of experience in SEO and Content Marketing, my job is to help clients at The Word Agency really get the most out of their website and demonstrate the importance of an SEO strategy.
Whether that be ensuring their existing content is performing to its full potential or coming up with some new, kick-ass content ideas to not only position them as experts in their fields but to drive the most traffic to their site.
Boosting Your Website Traffic and Sales with a Content Strategy
As a business owner, one of the items at the top of your list is to set up a website to showcase your products/services and expertise – including a blog to showcase industry knowledge.
However, all too often, this can feel like more of a ‘tick box’ exercise, rather than something that works alongside a well-thought-out SEO strategy to improve website traffic, and ultimately, increase sales.
So, let’s dive into what a content strategy is, and the importance of having one for your business…
What is a Content Strategy?
In a nutshell, a content strategy provides a clear plan to help you create content with a purpose. What we mean by this is creating content that increases your chances of your website getting seen in search engines, rather than creating content just because it feels like it’s what you should be doing.
By having a documented content strategy, you can understand the following questions:
Why are you creating the content? Does it align to your business goals i.e. are you wanting to promote specific products/services, are you wanting to offer advice and position yourselves as experts in your field?
Who are you wanting to read your content? Who are your target audience? It’s important to identify who your target audience are so you can create content accordingly. Examples of tailoring content includes using the right tone of voice/terminology that your audience can resonate with, and choosing the appropriate content format that your target audience will be able to easily digest i.e. blogs, videos, infographics, etc.
What are the focus areas and keywords that align with your business goals? When we talk about keywords, we mean the ‘words’ or ‘terms’ that users type into Google to find your site. For example, if you run a chain of hardware shops and want to increase your website traffic and store visits, you would need to include key terms within your content that cover an array of areas that people will search for, including:
- Questions based terms: ‘best tools for plumbing’, ‘what are the different types of screws’, ‘how to fix a TV to the wall’
- Product-specific terms: ‘hexagon head screws’, ‘screws for wood’, ‘anchor fixings’
- Local terms: ‘buy screws near me’, ‘tool shop near me’, ‘hardware shop London’
How will your content be incorporated onto your site? i.e. amending existing content to help it perform better (on-page optimisation), strategic blog plans, adding new content to your current pages such as FAQs etc.
A content strategy isn’t a finite document either. Business goals change, so your strategy should too. Are you not receiving as much website traffic as expected? Are certain areas of your website performing better than others? That’s okay!
A content strategy is designed to evolve with your business and can change tactics whenever you feel necessary.
Why is a Content Strategy So Important?
So now we’ve touched on what a content strategy is, let’s look at why having a tailored content strategy is important for your business:
Building Brand Awareness – Having a content strategy helps to ensure your content is reaching its maximum potential, meaning increased visibility. By increasing the number of times your website is put in front of new and existing customers, you increase your brand awareness and visibility.
Helping to Build Customer Relationships – By creating relevant content that answers customers pain-points and providing information, your customers build trust and loyalty with your brand and will lean on you as industry experts.
Improved Search Engine Visibility – This one goes hand in hand with the above, but quite simply, you can’t improve brand awareness and build customer relationships if they don’t know who you are.
By adding high-quality content to your site, search engines will rank you higher in results pages. The higher up you are, the easier it is for users to find your website, making it much more likely for them to discover your brand and click through to your website.
Quality Over Quantity
While it can be tempting to churn out content to fill up your website, when it comes to driving traffic, it really is quality over quantity.
Although you may think that a large volume of content across your site can look good, it can be more damaging for your SEO if there is no strategy behind it.
Search engines will serve your website in results pages based on the following factors:
Is it relevant? Does your content serve a purpose by either helping potential customers with your products, services or relevant queries, or is it simply just words on a page? The more relevant your content is, the more search engines will choose to rank you above others.
Does it include the right keywords? As a business owner, you may have your ideal terms or words (keywords) in mind that you want customers to associate you with, but is this what people are actually searching for? Are there other variants for your keywords that resemble the same thing but are more widely used?
Carrying out in-depth keyword research will feed into your content strategy and determine which keywords to include within your content to get you maximum traffic.
Any content deemed irrelevant, solely AI-written or duplicated can result in your website being penalised, meaning less clicks and fewer sales.
I’ve worked with clients who have had an array of content on their site, predominantly created by AI, which looked great, but wasn’t performing whatsoever.
Once I carried out a content audit to identify which blogs were actually relevant, as well as keyword research to identify the keywords that would drive traffic to their site, I then optimised these (amended these to ensure they align with SEO best practices), as well as suggesting new content for the site through a tailored content plan. The results were undeniable, with a significant increase in traffic to their site month on month, which naturally went hand in hand with a surge in sales.
Need Help with Your Content Strategy?
Ensuring your content strategy is aligned with your business goals, relevant to your business niche and targeting the right audience is key to driving more traffic to your site.
So, why not let us help? Our experienced and dedicated team of SEO experts at The Word are here to help you with your content strategy, from planning and research right through to content creation. Get in touch to find out more.