Your Online Business Tune-Up: The Power of Great Content
If you want to make your website “sticky” — in other words, a site people want to return to again and again — your focus should be on providing valuable content that your visitors simply can’t find anywhere else.
Visitors might not make a purchase the first time they stop by, or even a few visits down the line, but when they’re ready to spend money on a solution to their problem — or on pretty much anything that interests them — you’ll have positioned yourself as someone they can trust to buy from.
After all, you clearly know your stuff… AND you share what you know!
Many online business websites focus primarily on urging their visitors to make a purchase, without establishing their credibility in any way, or giving customers something to come back and check out once a purchase has been made. And that means that they’re missing out on a BIG opportunity.
By providing valuable, credible information at your site, you’ll…
- Give people something to come back and check out again and again
- Encourage people to link back to your website from their sites and social networks, increasing your traffic
- Give the search engines more keyword-rich content to “spider” — doing wonders for your ranking!
- Establish yourself as a trusted expert in your industry
When you provide great content, you’ll soon see a boost in traffic… AND your conversion rates. If there’s one thing the search engines will ALWAYS like, it’s relevant, original content.
There are tons of ways to add content to your website. Here are just a few of the possibilities…
- Create an “articles” directory or page on your site where you post short articles about your industry
- Start a blog with a simple Wordpress or Blogger plugin
- Set up an archive of the email newsletters you send out to your subscriber list
- Post an RSS feed of industry news
- Post case studies/stories from satisfied customers
- Invite your visitors to answer questions/polls/surveys
If you’re wondering what you could possibly write about your industry or your product that your visitors would find interesting, see if the following options give you some ideas:
- A “Frequently Asked Questions” directory to answer the queries you get most often
- Detailed “How to” guides
- Advanced techniques for using your product
- Information about unexpected uses for a product like yours
- Case studies from users of your product
- Articles that directly answer the questions that led people to your site (check your website logs to check out search terms that pop up repeatedly)
- Your unique perspective on, and experiences in your industry
- Big news happening in your industry, or industry trends
The possibilities really are endless… and so is the value to your website. And what better time to get started than when you’re taking a close look at your business in preparation for a successful year?
One more thing: don’t forget to use your keywords throughout your content, especially in your titles.
Speaking of keywords, tomorrow we’re going to give you some tips on effective SEO for 2010.
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Yes, it is really true:
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adding fresh content can return people to your site AND help you to get a good position in Google rank.
(providing it is fresh and unique content).
Very good article. Looking forward to day 3
Lena & Dima
Publishers, InternetBusinessBTS.com
For me, adding fresh content means paying a ghostwriter to write LSI Articles for my blog and hope that it increased my SE Rankings. On average I pay $4 for a 400 word article. I usually order about 5 for $20, and schedule my google sniper style blog to post them every week. This technique hasn’t been working to well lately.
I have been thinking a lot about great content and what makes it great.
You know, there are millions and millions of pages on the internet that basically rehash the same old ideas. I click and click and rarely find something that is truly great.
I think there are a couple of key points here.
First of all, great content has unique and/or original ideas. It’s not a rehash of the same old stuff.
And secondly, great content comes from a deep level of knowing your subject. As much as the internet if very egalitarian, I don’t believe that everyone is an expert. I find that the people who are truly experts–who go deep, deep, deep into their subject deliver great content.
Thank you for continuing my exploration of great content.
Julia
i want to setup an Online Business with a credit card processor and i am still researching about it. my current online business is just selling handbags and some stuffs on e-bay.
Great post – Thanks. I find content is the ingredient that is so often over looked. Everyone is so busy building back links,they forget CONTENT IS KING!