Business Web Site Content Strategy
Your web content makes or breaks the profitability of your site.
Here’s how you can develop a strategy to make the most of
your site’s content.
Your content helps you get in search engines, speak to visitors,
and ultimately get visitors to buy, contact you, or follow a link.
Meanwhile, your content has to be updated at least once a month
if you want to get return visitors and search engine traffic. To
be successful, you need to have a web content strategy.
Web Content Strategy Components
There are four basic ways you can get content for your site.
1. Licensed content that you can publish on your site for a one-time
or recurring subscription fee or in exchange for putting a link
to the authors' site under the article. The main benefit of this
kind of content is that you can build up your site quickly. The
drawback is that the content is not original, which means you will
get little search engine traffic from it--hundreds if not dozens
of other sites will be publishing the same content. Also, within
a few years, the subscription fees or the value of visitors who
leave via the required link to the author's site will amount to
more than you would have paid to have original content professionally
written.
2. Original content contributed freely by your visitors, such as
message boards and guestbook-style comments. The main advantage
of this content is that it costs nothing and gives you insight into
your visitors. The disadvantages are (usually) low quality and the
constant vigilance needed to police it for misbehavior.
3. Original written content that you allow other sites to republish
in exchange for a link to your site. This content is usually informational
articles, whitepapers, and sometimes, press releases. Distributing
content is an essential component of getting links to your site.
4. Original, well-written content that's exclusive to your site.
You should have some content that you hold back from republication,
to avoid giving visitors or search engines the idea all your content
can be had somewhere else. This can include FAQs, "about us"
pages, case studies, testimonials, and other content that other
sites would not want to reprint anyway.
What Kind of Content to Use
So, which of the four kinds of content should you use on your site?
Ideally, all four. That way you'll maximize the amount of quality
content your site can have.
But, the precise ration of the four kinds of content you end up
using will depend on the goals of your site. Some examples:
* Licensed content: If you have a content-based website that draws
revenue from advertising, a large amount of licensed content can
be useful. However, if your site's primary goal is to collect leads,
too much licensed content might risk distracting visitors from contacting
you, without the benefit of bringing in significant search engine
traffic.
* User-contributed content: A website that handles support issues
may have a lot of use for a user forum. A professional services
firm would probably be better off without a forum, with all the
user-contributed content in the form of testimonials.
* Original written content, exclusive and for distribution: Any
website can benefit from original content since it draws search
engine traffic and puts your best foot forward with visitors. The
broader your potential audience and the greater the competition
from other sites, the more content you need.
Scheduling Content Updates
Search engines, especially Google, seem to give pride of place
to sites that regularly update their content.
Regular content updates also give visitors a reason to
return.
In short, if you have thirty web pages worth of content this month,
it's better to post one page each day rather than put them up all
at once. To make sure you do this, schedule an hour each day for
updating your site's content.
One way to get regular content updates for your site is to start
a blog, a "web log" in which you write your thoughts and
post news. The one disadvantage is that many web users are getting
tired of blogs, which are often not well written and contain more
opinion than information. Search engines, too, seem to be featuring
blogs in their results less often.
Identifying a Content Provider
Ever wonder how Bill Gates keeps the MSN and Microsoft sites so
content-rich? Doesn't he get RSI from writing a thousand or more
pages a day?
You guessed it: Bill Gates does not write the content for any of
the Microsoft websites. Nor should you write all your own content.
All successful website owners have someone else write a large part
of their content. This person or company is called a "web content
provider."
Your web content provider has to be a person or company with proven
experience writing content for the web, rather than just print content.
Ask to see writing samples. You might even ask if you can commission
just a single page to start with, for evaluation purposes.
In short, your web content is too important to leave to chance.
Make sure you have a strategy for getting the best content.
Contact a content provider to develop a web content strategy today.
About the Author Joel Walsh, a professional
content writer and founder of UpMarket Content, recommends you check
out their site to learn more about what you can get from a web site
content provider: http://upmarketcontent.com/website-content
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