How To Create A Content Strategy

How To CreateA Content Strategy

Presented by:

Expansion Plus

© 2009 Expansion Plus Inc All Rights Reserved.

Purpose of the Exercise To prepare an

Internet marketing strategy to maximize your web site's search visibility and conversion rate

Content Is King

Top ranking sites consistently have well writing content as a feature in common. The old saying “content is king” has never been more true than it is today.

Copywriting

Good copywriting can help change your website focus to address your visitors’ concerns and help you out-perform your competitors’ websites.

Generate Content

• Thus a major effort must be made to generate and syndicate content that contains links back to your web site.

• Searchers believe natural search results produce the most relevant information.

Think Like A Publisher

• Successful online marketers must now ‘think like a publisher’.

• SEO is more than making a few adjustments to the site’s page copy, or adding some extra code. It is an ongoing process that helps your site evolve over time into a viable competitor in your industry.

Search Visibility & Brand Value

Being found on the first half of a search results page increases your brand value.

Google Golden Triangle

Internet Ad Spending

• Set To Overtake All Other Media By 2011

• Will reach $61.98 billion, and will surpass newspapers to become the nation's leading ad medium

- 21st Communications Industry

Forecast.

What is Influencing Consumers and Business Buyers?

“A Person Like Me” Now The Most Credible Spokesperson

for Companies

Global opinion leaders say their most credible source of information about a company is now “a person like me.”

Edelman Trust Barometer

Consumer Reviews

Influencing Purchases

58% of consumers prefer websites with peer-written product reviews.

- MarketingSherpa

Control of Consumer Spending?

Women represent just over 50 percent of the US population but account for 80 percent of consumer spending, making women top candidates for word-of-mouth marketing.

- Trendwatching brief

Word Of Mouth

Over 25 million US adults regularly share advice on products or services online.

- eMarketer

Social Media

1 in 20 internet visits go to social networking sites.

- Hitwise

Seniors

• Internet Growth Driven by Senior Citizens

• The fastest growth in Internet use is being driven by the older age groups, starting at 55.

The Media Audit

Top 5 Media Influencers on Consumers Buying a Car

1. Word of Mouth 30.4%

2. TV Broadcast 24.1%

3. Read Article 21.3%

4. Newspaper 20.2%

5. Magazine 17.5%

Source: Ad Age Domestic Spending by

Category and BIGresearch, 2007

Top 5 Media Influencers for Consumers Buying Electronic/Home

Furnishing/Appliances

1. Word of Mouth 42.6% 2. Read Article 34.1% 3. TV Broadcast 32.3% 4. Newspaper Inserts 32.0% 5. In-Store Promo 27.2%

- BIGresearch, 2007

Organic Search

• Although social media has become important, being found on the major search engines is still vitally important.

• Aim to own the ‘above the fold’ real estate

Audit Your Site• Locate search

visibility problems and usability issues with the current site

• Review content for persuasive function and conversion

Check the Competition

Compare your site to the competition and other websites that have page one ranking on your keywords

Persuasive Content

• Studies show that the average website loses over 60% of the visitors right off the home page due to usability issues and a lack of relevant content.

• 50% of visitors spend less than eight seconds on a site.

SEO Basics

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) done well results in high rankings with the search engines

• Most people find content through search with Google leading the pack

Back Links Are Vital

• The site must be optimized

• The site must have volumes of links to it (Called back links or one way inbound links)

Keyword Research

• The objective is to find a viable number of keywords that your target audience is using to find your site or your products/services.

• Then use the keywords on the site and in the content

Keyword Research

• Look at the titles of the web pages and look for keywords

• Go to ‘View’ and click ‘Source’ and see if there are keywords in the meta tags

• Note the ones that you find

• Open a browser and go to

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Keyword Research (cont’d)

• Look up any words that relate to the site and see which ones have the highest search numbers.

• Then look down the list and find ‘long tail’ words with smaller search numbers but a more specific description of your activity or service.

Long Tail

Long Tail: low-demand products/services can make up a market share that equals or exceeds high-demand products -- if the distribution channel is large enough.

Sample Camera Keywords

• Digital camera• Digital camera

accessories• Photographic

equipment• Point and shoot

camera• Medium format

camera

Keywords

• Find all the words that you think can bring good visibility and traffic

• Open another browser in Google so you can do a search on the words you pick and see the number of competing pages

Start of the Strategy

• Note the words you will go after first.

• With correct optimization, there are several terms which can be taken advantage of that have high searches, but relatively low competition.

Home & Interior Pages

• The homepage & interior page content needs to be rewritten to utilize these keywords to the best advantage

Content Items

Note phrases that can be used in content syndication – news releases, articles and blog posts.

Competition

• Take each major keyword or phrase picked for the strategy and do a Google search on that keyword/phrase.

• See who shows up at #1, 2 and 3

Eye Track: Web Page

• This is the normal eye pattern on a webpage – where it is red 100% of the people looked.

• You can increase the way people read the site by using chunk of content and sub headings on the content.

Top Five Errors

1. Too much motion – animation

2. Slow downloads, too many graphics3. Confusing navigation

4. Not enough content or outdated content

5. Technology that will hurt Search results (Frames – no keywords in text – text in a image)

Optimized Press Releases

• Optimized (making full use of keywords and links) press releases are an excellent tool to generate leads.

• An important benefit of optimized press releases is that they create volumes of links back to your site, which is critical for search engine rankings - especially Google - and they work very quickly

Press Releases Online

News Engines

Search Engines

Journalists

Buyers

RSS Feeds

It’s the ability to access content any time of the day that’s attracting the audiences--a perfect match for RSS (really simple syndication) feeds. 

The blog and feed search sites - called news aggregators - gather syndicated content and have growing audiences who visit their sites to find new content.

News Aggregators

Blogs

• Use blogs to help tell your story

• Brings a face to your organization

• Can provide feedback to a specific question or topic

• Search engines love them

• Cross linking in your site

Strategy Elements

• Upgrade the site

• Undertake ongoing SEO (search engine optimization) especially link building

• Issue optimized press releases

• Add RSS feeds for press releases, articles, video, etc

• Utilize social media sites where appropriate

Recommended Reading

THE POWER OF A

CONTENT STRATEGY

By Sally Falkow

www.falkowinc.com/inc/ebooks.html

Contact Details

Robin ShereshevskyRobins@expansionplus.com

Expansion Plus Inc626-793-4911

www.expansionplus.com