The world realized the need for original content when Google shook everybody awake with the infamous Panda update. There are many articles written about the Panda update and hence we shall not go into all that here. In a nutshell, the Panda update forces websites into pushing out new, fresh, and relevant content to engage the audience.
The sudden preference that Google offered to content was a welcome one. Content is what speaks to your audience about your products and services. So, below are a few points you must make note of to understand Content for websites:
1. Why engaging content?
Apart from the reason that Google declared war on websites with low quality content, you need to decide what your audience should do once they come to the website. Do you want them to learn something new? Or provide you information in return?
If you have a product or a service where the audience plays a major role, regardless of whether it results in a sale or not, then you need your readers to take a step after coming to your site. What you write must make contact with what the reader is already concerned about. It must compel them to take an action. Only when your content achieves this, can we say a certain level of engagement has been achieved.
The end result of these pages should to be build an efficient connection with your audience. Strong enough to make sure they return for more. Or compare products that you have to offer. Or, better yet, fill in the form for further information about the services you offer.
2. What is engaging content?
Engaging content is any element on the page that pokes the reader to take a desired action. So if you were on the catalog page for a publishing house, the desired action could be a request for information or book form to be filled out. The content written for the book, or any relevant content, should be able to drive curiosity up enough to cause an action to be taken.
Another good example would be a blog post. If you have a post about any experience or a thought as an expert of the subject, the content can be written in such a way where you invite more thought processes. Invite a healthy discussion. All this effort in turn increases the traffic to your website.
3. Who can write the content?
You can. If you have a flair for writing precise, concise, and yet descriptive, you could take a stab at it. If you have conducted adequate market research to understand your visitors, your audience will too.
If you do not want to write, there are professionals in the market who could help you out. Content writers are available at varying cost levels. You need to find someone who understands your business, your perspective, your organization, and most importantly – your vision, mission, and the goals for your site. Understanding of your products and services is vital too.
4. Long-term benefits of useful content
Engaging, useful content is, as I mentioned earlier, a very basic requirement of all search engines, especially Google. What you must understand is that the use of keywords, the presence and frequency on page, is no longer the prime factor for a higher organic ranking of a website. In fact, it is fresh content, relevant content, and content immensely useful to the right target audience, that assure a long-term high organic ranking.
Long story short, content is what will engage your audience, make them come back for more, help you rank better on search engines, and hand-hold your customers to a point of sale! So whatever it is that you do on your website, make sure you have good, interesting, and meaningful content.
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- Writing Original Content — July 28, 2014
