Could finding your perfect content blend be good for your sites health?

Engaging Content Counts – Reap the benefits of Content Marketing

You’re probably sick of hearing it from web experts, but your website can be one of your biggest marketing assets. But it can only be an asset if you have relevant website traffic which comes down to search engine ranking, which in turn comes down to the right on-site content and the right web pages. (Ed: Off-site SEO is a whole different topic handled in previous posts)

We’ll explore some of the pages that you might want to consider for your site and their purpose.

Blog

A blog gives you the opportunity to create more personable content that helps your audience. To have a successful blog element to your site, you need to make sure you post regularly. For some that might be once a week, for others it might be twice a month. Whatever frequency you decide - stick to it. Be consistent and encourage engagement by asking questions.

Our blogs follow Google Authorship best practice and can be categorised with a variety of tags. In fact once we reached the milestone of 100+ articles we decided it would be easier for users to search for articles if they had a Category Filter and an Article Search, hence we changed the Inspire Blog to a Resource Library so that content could be easily filtered and searched.

A great blogging example is Blairgowrie Dental Care.
 

News

For some this is synonymous with a blog. Indeed some websites double their news and blog pages together. It’s easily done by creating a separate ‘News’ category within your blog. But, you might not have the time or inclination to blog. Creating a standalone news page can be a great way to share the latest developments within your organisation.

For example one of our clients, Blackhills Clinic were selected to contribute to a Parliamentary Review and they used their News feature to share this.

Offers

You might consider a dedicated ‘Offers’ page where you share the latest deals that you have available. Everyone likes a bargain, especially online - so make it easy for your visitors to find the deals they’ll happily snap up. And here’s a tip, don’t delete expired offer pages - it’s another way for you to be found on Google.

Here is an example of an Offers page we created for Balhouse Glazing.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a powerful way of communicating with your audience. If you have a podcast on iTunes, it’s a great idea to have a page on your site that promotes it and shares the individual episodes as well. The best podcasts have a supporting web presence where detailed show notes are shared.

For a great example see this World Series Poker client we built a site a few years back for.

White Papers

White Papers give you the opportunity to have a longer, more in-depth conversation with your audience. They work especially well for academics publishing their findings but can also work in a business to business (B2B) context. If you’ve created or contributed to a White Paper, creating a dedicated White Paper page will help position you as an expert in your field, for example see one of our recent website projects.

Video

Every year marketing trendspotters declare that ‘this is the year of video’. Without a crystal ball, it’s difficult to tell, but, it’s clear that video is growing in popularity. Creating a Video page can be a great way to showcase the videos you’ve produced. And, if you haven’t created your own videos, you can curate the best online videos for your industry and share with your audience.

Sometimes the feature can be a part of the rest of the page, here is an example of this for Reid Estates.

Products / Services Page

Your products and services pages are your most valuable pages. They are your silent sales force - a sales force that can work 24/7 for your business. It’s important that these pages have your fullest attention. There should be a clear message, a clear value proposition and, most importantly a clear call to action. These pages should be a central part of your selling process.

e-Commerce Examples
Main Product Category for Belgica

Product Listing for Belgica

Product Detail for Belgica

Service Examples
Service Category for Scotia Golfing

Service Individual for Scotia Golfing

Service Listing for Scottish Photobooth Hire

Service Individual for Scottish Photobooth Hire

Press Releases

If you work in an industry that produces a lot of press releases over the course of the year, it might be an idea to create a specific press release web page. You can use it as an archive of all the releases you’ve produced, and it can be a great resource for your media contacts.

Testimonials

Creating a testimonials page can give your prospective clients confidence in your ability to deliver. It’s your social proof that says you are what you say you are. Use individual testimonials throughout your site and have a “To See More Testimonials” link to your main testimonials pages. Share your success stories.

We anticipate 2016 will likely be the year where Client Testimonials are replaced by Client Reviews, here is a combination of both for Dental Care Perth.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Creating a repository of all the common questions you get asked about your products or services is a great way to share valuable content. Every time you get asked a new question from a client add it as a new Question to your FAQ page. An FAQ page also saves you the hassle of creating lots of small web pages to tackle very specific questions.

Example of an on page load FAQ with items collapsed

Portfolio

Testimonials work particularly well when you share them with real life examples of the work you’ve produced. Showcasing your talents with high-quality images or videos can create a compelling case for your business. If you're in the home improvements industry, a ‘before and after’ approach can work well.

You could also call it a Project page, see examples from Dualchas:
Project page example

Project Individual example

Engaging Content Counts

Regardless of the web pages you include on your site; it’s important to treat each and every one as an asset for your business. To do so, you need to ensure your content is relevant and engaging. Encourage feedback, ask your audience questions and when they respond, make sure you reply quickly.