- June 28th 2024
- Blog
Why the right web content means that you get to do more of what you love
It’s a common theme across industries: you train and develop, work hard, strive for promotion, and move through a career path. But all of a sudden you find yourself not actually doing the work that attracted you to that industry in the first place. Whether you’ve gone freelance, made partner, or started your own firm, you end up being more of a sales person than you ever expected to. Promotion and growth is great. But let’s not forget that you trained for your vocation for a reason; wouldn’t it be nice to get to do more of it?
The soft sell
Depending on your industry and position, there will be traditional ways that business is generated. From structured networking events to conferences to long established relationships between firms, lead generation pre-internet was face to face and proactive. Indeed, it often still is. But in our digital world, there’s much more opportunity for soft selling techniques that actually work. To be organically found by clients searching for your services, rather than having to actively seek them out. The thing is that the digital marketplace is so incredibly noisy.
Online presence
From solicitors to dentistry, online presence is now accepted as a must. The theory is straightforward. Your website describes your specialism, services or products. Your potential clients use Google or other search engines for a related query, and they find you. But your website alone simply is not enough to be found by the searches that matter. You’re up against competition, user trends and of course the algorithm. As the algorithm is continually evolving and refining, you need to make sure that your website does the same.
SEO strategy
At its most basic, having a web presence can be thought of as a bit like a high street shop front. It’s there for when people pass by and sometimes they pop in if they happen to need your services or they remember that you’re there. Far better, though, to drive people out of their way to visit you. The way that SEO works is a bit like having constant sales reps or leafleters out on the streets finding and directing potential clients to you. The strategy lies in the signals that your website is sending to the algorithm, and this is where professional SEO techniques come in. Regular, fresh, relevant content is one of many ways that your website can send the right signals to search engines.
How to use content
In the enormous pond that is the internet, your website should be creating ripples (waves if you’re lucky!) of attention. Using that pond analogy, the pebbles that create ripples are your pieces of content which, as they drop, drive traffic. Some will be small, some large, and some will skim and create ripples from various places.
So what kind of content should you include? Bear in mind that your content is essentially how the search engines attribute value to your website. The algorithm wants to see your content display Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Different forms of content all have their value, and work together to build the authority of your website, moving it up the rankings for specific search terms. Some content is great for linking, other pieces may drive traffic using keywords. All of it, though, should put the user first. Here are a few examples…
Legal
Your blog is really important to elevate your authority above the competition. Mix industry knowledge with human interest stories. Specialist legal content is great to build the authority signals of your website, and opinion pieces work to improve your visibility for specific queries like divorce or probate.
Medical
From dentists to therapists, location is often key to successful business leads. So incorporate this into your content strategy with local interest pieces.
Consultant
Potential client pain points should be at the forefront of your content. How-to guides and videos are fantastic to have in the mix here.
Services
Remote services are a busy marketplace. Regular content can help you to be found when it’s strategically planned. Detailed keyword research is crucial here; get to know what your potential clients are searching for.
Leisure
Theatre, restaurants, and sports events all rely on awareness to be successful. Knowing your demographic is central for your content, so engage video, social media, reviews, and sneak peaks with them in mind.
Suppliers
Product based businesses and need to gear content around transparency. Customers buy from brands that they trust, and your content should support this.
How to get it done
We’re not suggesting that you replace all of your business generation time with content creation time of course! That wouldn’t solve the dilemma. You might choose to appoint SEO experts to optimise your site and manage your content for you as part of your marketing budget. That’s what we do, and we love seeing enquiries for our clients surge without them having to lift a finger! There are some other things you can do to maximise any content that you’ve created.
Social networking
Spread your content far and wide. Link to it from your social channels, encourage comments and feedback. These actions drive traffic to your website and increase its value and ranking.
Added value
Offer content as a resource. The more helpful your content, the more it’s consumed, and the more Google likes it! This means that your website becomes more visible. Plus your existing clients get value too, which is great for client retention.
Updated content
Adding an update to a blog post is a great technique to freshen content without having to compose a whole new article. You might have a change within the organisation, or a new piece of legislation might mean a pivot in your position on a certain topic.
The idea is that with regular, fresh content helping to push your website up Google search results, clients who need you are able to find you. This means less calling around, less networking and more of doing what you wanted to do in the first place. It might seem like there’s a lot to do, and this is why SEO services exist. If you’d like to make your website generate better business, get in touch.
- Is written or video content more effective for SEO? - October 2nd 2024
- Can SEO content still be creative? - August 28th 2024
- Where does content fit in with brand engagement? - July 29th 2024
