Locally informed, globally inspired

Taking Your Content to the Next LevelMy Destination

Kirsty Brown, Head of ContentKirsty.brown@mydestination.com

Session Plan

• Intro - What is Content?• Editorial: Producing Content to Engage Users:

- Knowing your Audience- Understanding Influence - Implementing an Editorial Strategy- Using Narrative

• SEO & Content: Using Content to Drive Traffic• The Future

Session Plan

What is Content?

• Articles • Company Profiles• Regional Information• Useful Information• Events• Multimedia – Photos, Videos and Virtual Tours• Social Media feeds: Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn

What is Content?

Main Content Areas

Regional Info: How to inspire and encourage people to visit your destination.

Useful Info: Giving practical information that users trust.

Profiles: How to do an engaging business profile in 30 minutes!

Travel Articles: How to write attractive and compelling articles that will get users clicking.

Main Content Areas:

Why Should I Write Travel Articles?

To inspire readers to your

destination.

To entice visitors to your

site!

To make your destination

stand out from the crowd!

To display your local

knowledge.

Help build your credibility and authority as a local expert in

your field.

They are perfect for sharing on

Social Media!

Why Should I Write Travel Articles?

“The Travel Articles Page and Travel Blog are the 1st and 3rd pages site-users visit after the homepage”

Did You Know?

The Travel Decision Cycle

Inspiration

Decision

Purchase

Experience

The Travel Decision Cycle

Key Elements of a Company Profile

Comprehensive written text Practical Details Map

Social Media Links Cross Links Local Tip/s &

Tagging

Images Multimedia

Key Elements of a Company Profile:

Company ProfilesA Good Company Profile has ALL the Elements:

MyD Science Centre, Amsterdam Vs *NEMO Science Centre Amsterdam

What would YOU want to know?

Profile Text: What it should include:

Location Bit about it’s history / owners

Overview of the exact service it offers

Opening TimesAn example of what you

can get there (e.g. a dish if a restaurant).

Who it’s ideal for

Other insider information: When to

go, where to sit, special menu’s, theme nights.

Profile Text – What Should it Include?

Making an Engaging Company Profile (in less than an hour…)

10 mins – research business

20 mins – write 150 to 250

words

5 mins – upload photos

1 min – plot it on a map

5 mins – add the social

media links

5 mins – add cross-links

5 mins – write your local tip

and tag

3 mins – to proofread it TOTAL: 54 mins

Making an Engaging Company Profile (in less than an hour…)

Absolute BEST way to get a flavour for

a business

This is what will make your profiles stand out and help grab

peoples attention…

Multimedia: The Piece de Resistance…

“Engagement is communicating well enough that the audience pays attention…”

Absorb, understand and possibly even

remember your content.

Converse, comment, share or like what they see.

Continue their journey with you.

Click through more pages.

Come back!Convert their

browsing into a commercial action.

An Audience that pays attention is more likely to…

… But HOW do I get an audience’s attention?

1. Know your Audience

2. Know Yourself

• Inspirational• Collaborative• Progressive• Keep it Simple• Go the extra mile

My Destination Brand Values:

• Passionate• Globally Aware• Supportive• Agile• Creative• Fun

“Locally informed, globally inspired”

My Destination Brand Personality:

3. Be Original

1. Curiosity2. Highlight the Benefit3. Elicit Excitement / Emotion4. Make it Tangible5. Appearance and Length6. Sound7. Expectations

7 Step Recipe to Seductively Clickable Titles

4. Be An Authority

LOYALTY

… then you will build:

Your content needs to resonate with your audience and you need to become an authority

Understanding Influence

Authority gives you the power of INFLUENCE

5. Create an Editorial Strategy

Content is King

“If people are to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information”

Bill Gates, Content is King, 1996

Content Is King

Headline Story

Additional Stories and Features

Imagery

Expert Tips and Local Knowledge

Nod to economic climate

Inspirational

Variety and depth

What You Can DoWhat You Can Do

“Good content takes time and effort to create and maintain. So content on high quality pages should be edited, reviewed, and updated.”

(Search Engine Watch)

Producing the Best Content

Taking Your Travel Articles to the Next Level…

Easy Travel Articles to Write

1. Top 10’s / Top 5’s / Top 50’s.

2. 24 Hours in XXX / 48 Hours in XXX.

3. A review of an attraction or event that you have just been to.

4. Seasonal Events.

5. Luxury / Budget travel in XXX.

6. Be traveller specific.

E.g. what to do with the family in XXX, Romantic weekend away in XXX.

EASY TRAVEL ARTICLES TO WRITE

• Be Original• Use catchy titles & taglines• Use your local knowledge• Check spellings and grammar• Use keywords and cross-links sensibly• Include QUALITY images• Be Engaging!

Tips For Article Writing

1. More in-depth topics. E.g. local history.2. Tackle controversial topics in your local area.3. Develop your storytelling abilities. Entertain

your readers.4. Start article ‘Series’5. Interview local characters.6. Increase your multimedia and / or make the

photos a talking point.

More Adventurous Article Ideas

GOOD CONTENT isn’t cheap

Tell Stories: Use Narrative

“People respond to stories”

“Make the story relevant

to your business”

“We are hard-wired to respond to the ‘beginning, middle,

end’ structure because it’s how we understand the world around us”

Narrative in Advertising

“Appeal to their emotions not their rationality”

The Perfect Formula for Content:

Surprise Emotional response

A little bit of happiness

The Perfect Formula For Content:

Brand Story

Customer Story

Using Narrative

Pick your online medium - TEXT,

PHOTOS, VIDEO:

Understand them all but

pick your favourite and go ahead and

excel…

Pick your topic - YOUR

DESTINATION!

Share your stories – LOCAL KNOWLEDGE!

Speak to What’s Broken

– FILLING IN THE GAPS!

WHAT’S MISSING IN

YOUR DESTINATION?

Finally…Dig Inside and BRING SOME

PASSION!

You have the ingredients for highly sharable online content – the rest is up

to you…

How to Create Engaging Online Content:

• Does your content cover what YOU would want to know?

• Ensure ‘Evergreen’ content is updated.• To engage your audience you need to

understand them.• You need to be original, build authority and

have a strategy.• Use narrative & draw on emotion to sell your

content.

PART 1 - In Summary

PART 2: Using Content to Drive Traffic

(…with a little help from SEO)

How to Drive Traffic:

• Commercially: Special offers, great value deals.• PR / Marketing: Raising awareness

(incl. social media)• SEO: Getting pages appearing on

SERPs• Content: Inspiring and engaging

content - articles

How to Drive Traffic

Your Content Should Be…

UNIQUE

ENGAGINGHIGH QUALITY

Your Content Should Be…

“High quality, original, engaging content is the key to any web-based business”. (Bill Gates)

How Does Google Define Quality Content?

“High-quality content is anything that is very satisfying, useful, or helpful for its purpose.”

1. Would You Trust The Information Provided in This Article?

2. Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?

Ask yourself:

3. Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?

4. Does this article have spelling, stylistic or factual errors?

_____ ___

Ask Yourself:

5. Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in the search engines?

Ask Yourself:

6. Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?

7. Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

Ask Yourself:

8. How much quality control is done on content?

9. Does the article describe both sides of the story?

10. Is the site a recognised authority on its topic?

_____ ___

Ask Yourself:

11. Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get much attention or care?

_____ ___

Ask Yourself:

12. Was the article edited properly or does it seem sloppy or hastily produced?

13. Would you recognise this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?

G o o gle A sks: 1 2 & 1 3

Ask Yourself:

14. Does this article give a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?

15. Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?

Ask Yourself:

16. Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?

17. Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?

G o o gle A sks: 1 6 & 1 7

Ask Yourself:

18. Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopaedia or book?

19. Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?

Ask Yourself:

20. Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?

21. Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

G o o gle A sks: 2 0 & 2 1

Ask Yourself:

• So Remember…

Building High-Quality Sites According to GOOGLE…

“Our advice for publishers continues to be to focus on delivering the best possible user experience on your websites and not to focus too much on what they think are Google’s current ranking algorithms or signals. ”

Still unsure?Still Unsure?

“Search is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users”.

SEO Vs. CONTENT

The SEO Camp:

Remember:• Over optimising destroys quality content.• Fixation on keywords and links destroys

quality content.• Being motivated by one link to write 500

words is never going to be a good recipe for engaging content.

• Google penalises those playing the system…

The Die-Hard SEO Camp

The SEO CAMP…The SEO Camp

The Content Camp:Remember:• Ignoring keywords and links reduces the

chance of content appearing on SERPs. • Failing to include any links reduces the

usability of your content.• Ignoring popular topics that people are

clicking on makes you less relevant.• Failing to use Social Media to promote content

reduces it’s chance of success.

The Die-Hard Content Camp

The Content CampThe Content Camp

…Working TogetherWorking Together

The Solution: Working together

Good Content• Includes relevant keywords &

links.• Is engaging and relevant to

your audience.• Is well-written, original and of

a high quality.• Informs or entertains.• Contains excellent spelling and

grammar.• Is creditable.• Is promoted and shared!!!!

Good SEO• Optimises content to get it

seen on the SERPs but not at the detriment of usability.

• Includes a sensible number of keywords and links.

• Doesn’t try to outplay the system, i.e. GOOGLE.

• Enhances your content (instead of destroying it!!!)

Working Together, The Result:

What You Can Do…

• Go back over LOW QUALITY CONTENT.• Analyse previous pieces of content.• Update old content.• Invest in a good writer.• Build credibility and authority.• Provide opinion.• Keep up to date and topical.

What You Can Do

The Future…

The Future…

Remember…Remember…