Keeping Content King

Adage “Content is King,” popularized by Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates and praised as a mantra among marketers may be familiar to many; despite the popularity of this phrase, most lack an in-depth of understanding of the functionality behind the term. To the point, website’s content has the unique ability to attract consumers to your company and the brand that you sell. Focus on the quality of the content you promote and use language that will be identified by search engines.

Grab the reader’s attention
On average, most people spend less than a minute scrolling through a website and skimming over the material to garner a quick grasp of what your site is about. They may be looking for the phone number of their attorney or for an article but most consumers will not read through the entirety of your articles. At least during their first visit to your site. Want to increase those odds? Attractive headlines that grab the attention of readers have the power to capture their interest for longer. Without a headline that piques readers’ interest, readers will move on to the next. An appealing title can often lead to readers digging deeper and possibly sharing your content. So, make sure your headline is unique and useful in how it concisely summarizes the importance of the article and catches the attention of the reader.

Longer posts in Twitterville
As we live in an era where competition is abundant and fierce, it is important that you stand out from the crowd. If you run an online business, lengthening the posts that you supply to readers is one way to stand out. If this proves to be a difficult challenge, the hiring of writers to assist you facilitates the process.
According to a SERPIQ study, when a simple google search is done, the results that come up on page one are primarily consisting of site with longer articles. In fact, further research details that the average word count ranked in the top ten results on Google is over two thousand words.
These studies further the belief that the more content is provided the content, the higher the chance of attracting visitors to your site is. Nevertheless, focused and substantial content is still the ultimate goal; adding length with unnecessary information will lessen the quality of your article.

Draw A Picture
While high-quality content without any visuals or multimedia has the potential to be successful in attracting visitors to your site, visual content outperforms text with regard to social media shares, attracts inbound links and engagement, and increases time spent on a page. Research shows that about 40% of people are likely to respond with more interest when presented visual content, compared to plain text.
To gain a competitive edge in your industry, supplement your content with images, infographics, videos or other media.

Who is your audience & what do they want?
While attempting to write quality posts that appeal to a broad audience is a valiant effort, trying to appeal to everyone only results in appealing to no one.
Create an audience persona to help you develop relevant and detailed content. Analyze your existing customers, find out their preferences—what they like, and what they dislike— and gather as much information about their demographics as possible. Then create content based on these factors and allow them to interact often. Utilize the astonishing power of social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to research and identify potential prospects. =The bottom line is to offer content that will connect with your audience and establish a relationship that will motivate them to visit your site every time you post a new article.

Just solve the problem
Your content has an ultimate goal: to identify common problems and provide answers that will provide a solution for the problem and address concerns that readers may have.
By taking on a teaching role for your readers and making your content actionable, you can do exactly this. Be sure to include some examples of your research and results to establish credibility and allow readers to fully understand the information you provide. Use visuals such as videos and screenshots to illustrate your lessons. As mentioned earlier, your readers will learn faster and fully comprehend the lesson when they are able to view the actual steps in action. Visuals guide the reader to take action and perform the task.

Lastly, provide some additional resources as it’s difficult to cover the entirety of necessary information. Let your readers know where to go if they want to read further, and provide links to the content. By proving your investment in them learning the lesson and understanding it, you gain their trust.
If you’re posting just to rank on Google without prioritizing offering real value to your readers, it’s time to re-evaluate your content strategy. For public relations firms, this is a unique opportunity to master the tricks of content writing. It’s time to turn up the quality!

Elizabeth Lampert is President of ELPR and known for her a trend spotting and strategy skills. Taylor Welsh is an intern who excels in writing and learning how to get it done!