Social media don’t give too much away.
So if you want to go and do it yourself then you need to produce good quality content.
If you are raising articles to prove you are the “voice of authority” then just think about what you are doing. If you are giving a way free advice is that going to be appreciated by the end user. Will they appreciate it and return the favour and grab and be gone.
(My experience its the later). We have a free downloads section which I hadn’t realized till much later was our most popular page (over 2000 downloads) yet no response. In order to at least get some engagement with users we put in a request for membership page with most downloads still at no fee. Traffic dwindled to 5 a month, this is the reluctance for customers handing out their details. (probably hate the spam). Keep em teasing or get them to respond to know more is always the best option.
Writing good articles, don’t panic over the word count.
The other one is the panic of “you got to keep it under 350 words”, otherwise people get bored and move on. In have found the opposite is true. If you write well on a topic, they are interested in they will stay and get through it till the end. One of our most popular articles that still has tractions after 5 year since release is over 1100 words and people don’t drop off. This also helps with Google popularity stakes it shows engagement on behalf of the visitor.
Current articles aren’t necessarily the best. Go for classic.
The other is the emphasis on writing about what is current at the time as that is what people will be looking for. Umm isn’t that what everyone else will be blogging about so isn’t that going head to head with your competitors not mention the national newspapers and professional associations? Even it is noticed it will be gone with yesterdays news. We have found that writing on a topic that is not event specific has a longer shelf life and adds to the number of visitors over time which increases the rankings as shows on going relevance. It also implies more niche areas which we specialise in so we are more likely to get to our target audience. The advantage of publishing on-line as compared with traditional print Media is that it can be accessed for all time and from anywhere, so it’s potential reach is much higher than something written on paper which is limited in terms of geography and degradable.
You are up against an army of bloggers.
The other bigy is “we can get you to the top of google” whoopee do. Just getting to the top of popularity mountain doesn’t guarantee a sale. It depends on what the person is looking for whether they are ready to buy and even if they are your demographic. Keep your eyes on the prize of generating income and use the aspects of on-line Media that are relevant for your sector.
The reliance on the content blogging army may also be misleading. If you are going after the “voice of authority” then there will be a conflict between unbiased advice and going for the sale. The difference between a journalist and a content provider is that one should be striving for the truth of something, the other is to promote the business. Those two goals maybe at odds and ultimately the end user may “get wise” and not see blogs as being a reliable source of information. Fine line between truth and a sale.
In conclusion.
So why am I writing this article? It’s not an area I’m going to go into or get direct work out of. In a sense I’m venting my spleen but I hate it when business’s get sucked in to ventures that aren’t productive. Ultimately when a company engages our services of software implementation and information security we need to have an overview of everything that is involved in running that business. An appropriate use of SEO is part of that picture.
