Why Content is the Secret Ingredient
Updated: Jul 11
Content is what your customers want!
Your competitors win when your content is thin.
Why is Quality Content important?
Quality content is the secret ingredient. Quality content will grow your business online.
Quality means research about your products and services that gives the information your customers need to make informed buying decisions. Supply the facts, figures, charts, copy, text, illustrations, and photos that tell customers what they want and need to know. When you supply the best content in your industry, you become the go-to person—the one with the best answers that explain everything they need to know—the expert.
What is high-quality content?
To grow your business online, you need to be thinking about what people want—including creative content with a strategy that attracts potential clients. Don't be that site that talks about themselves. Instead, be that site that has the information that people want because it benefits them.
The most important thing your content can do for your customers is to solve their problems. Your customer is looking for answers to something. If you have done your research, you will have a good idea of what those issues are. Address the problem by telling a story and making it exciting and easy to understand.
What does content mean?
Sites with thin, little, or no content of value will have a tough time attracting visitors.
Content is:
Text
Copy
Photos
Videos
Illustrations
Artwork
Information
Your copy content should include the following:
Make your headline (h1) stand out.
Use subheadings to support each section and break up long copy.
Make it exciting and helpful for the reader.
Get to the point quickly.
Make it scannable with subheadings, bullet points, and number bullets.
Make it conversational. Read it out loud. Does it sound like you're having a conversation with someone?
Break up long sentences and paragraphs.
Make it Easy to read. The online rule is an 8th grade level of reading and writing skills.
Ask yourself, does it reflect your image and branding?
Did you include vital benefits, how your customers' benefits?
Who will be looking at your content?
Creating a buyer persona is essential when figuring out the types of clients you are trying to attract. A buyer persona is a working description for each type of person who will be visiting your site. You will be creating content for them based on their characteristics, age, lifestyle, income, etc. When you direct the right content to the right people, they will respond positively to what you have to offer. With buyer persona development, you have a map of your customer's behaviors, then creating the content they want becomes more achievable.
Creating content is a lot of work but worth the time spent doing it. You're creating content focused on the person buying the products and services you provide based on the problem they are trying to solve.
When you write to that person from your buyer persona, you understand who they are and what makes them "tick." You are helping them solve their issues by explaining the problem and answering their questions. You are creating a winning dialogue that is talking directly to your potential customer or client. Getting into their head and thinking as they do will help you write the content they want to read.
You're building a business with a reputation for quality answers to your customers' queries. You want to be an authoritative business that helps customers make better buying decisions before contacting a salesperson.
How do I start developing content or get ideas?
The research will start with ideas gathered:
Keyword phrase research
Scanning competitor's sites
Survey your current customers
Ask your salespeople what their clients need to see to make a purchasing decision.
Tools You might use for research:
When you provide the following in your content, you will win over customers.
Answer the questions, problems, or issues the searchers are having.
Keyword phrases use the same words your clients use and not industry-specific language.
No "thin" content. Write enough to answer the query in depth.
Proofread, Proofread, Proofread.
Graphics supporting the written material.
Are You linking to other websites that promote your solutions?
Easily readable format.
Citing your sources; giving credit makes you look honest.
No plagiarism, original content only.
Proper HTML coding.
Company information is helpful too.
Keep content about how great your company is on the "about us" page. All the other pages should consist of information your customers want.
Don't forget about SEO
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is how your client finds your content. Make it easy to find with keyword phrases.
Use the same keyword phrases your customers are using in their queries. Your customer is entering a query into a search engine to find an answer. Your organic traffic will increase when you answer their query questions with the same keyword phrases they use.
When you have a reputable & healthy website, search engines notice.
Search engines send people to sites that provide the best customer experience. This means your site needs to be easy to use and has content that answers the query.
Putting all your keyword phrases in the right places will help, but you need a reputable site as well. Content is essential for attracting your customers, but are you checking your site's technical parts for errors?
If you're working on building a website's reputation that will continually bring in clients, you will need to make sure your site is in tip-top shape. And it would be best if you made sure the search engines understand what each page on your site is about. There are a couple of ways to do this, starting with an SEO audit.
Through an SEO audit, you will find issues your site may have that are cause search engine problems. Some of the fixes can be technical, which is why you might want to hire an SEO professional.
An SEO audit should include checking for:
Title tags
Meta descriptions
Meta tags
Headlines, h1 through h6 tags
Images alternative (Alt) text
Sitemaps
Secure certification - HTTPS not HTTP
No duplicate content
Mobile-friendliness
Site structure
Error codes
Internal Linking
Site speed - how fast your site loads on different devices
Rich Results Make-up
Most importantly, a friendly and knowledgeable SEO Professional to work with you.
When you have all of the above are working for your site, the search engines will notice. They will understand what your site is about by:
Reading the tags, headlines, sub-headlines, photo alt text, and rich results.
Your site structure map is in order and makes sense.
Proving your site can be trusted because it is secure.
Fix all errors that have been found in your SEO audit and correct them.
The internal links that support the topics on other pages within your site.
The images that support the copy with alternative (alt) text.
The site speed of your site, which is fast enough to keep people from waiting.
Points to Remember
Pay attention to your content.
Write content that answers questions, problems, and issues your clients want.
Include keyword phrases search engines will notice but write for real people.
A professional SEO can help with keyword research.
Some SEO professionals even write copy.
The last thing you want is a penalty from a search engine for doing something wrong.
Scan your website with a decent SEO audit program to find issues.
Fix the problems the scan finds.
If you think you are in over your head, hire a professional SEO to work with you.
SEO is an investment.
It takes time to see results.
You're building an online business with longevity.
Additional Reference:
Marchetti, Karen J. The Results Obsession: ROI-Focused Digital Strategies to Transform Your Marketing. Bowker, 2020. UNSPSC-Code : 55101500 Paperback : 386 pages ISBN-10 : 0578686864 ISBN-13 : 978-0578686868
About the Author
Wendy Danko is an SEO Consultant and Web Designer at WenKo LLC. A design background has its perks, especially regarding SEO and website design. Wendy is determined to help all her clients understand and improve their SEO and website design. As a result, her clients have uncovered new leads to grow their client base with website improvements.