In the case of a transactional website, more traffic does not necessarily mean better results. When the wrong people show up on your website, their behaviours could adversely affect your sites search engine ranking (SEO) by increasing bounce rates and decreasing the average time on your site. It is more advantageous to have less traffic that will stick around, explore, and convert by completing the transaction. To determine the best way to get the right people to your website, I asked people who actively work on improving website metrics and create content for their companies, here’s what they said.
Before you Create Content List
Research your competitions content
Determine how your audience talks
Know questions people ask
Know the kind of content they want
Know the searcher’s intent
How people use the Internet
What topics are people searching
Assign keywords to specific pages
Create a content plan based on keywords
Determine channels, PPC, Social, SEO
Install a heat map on your site’s pages
Find Influencers to work with
Take a survey to find. the platforms they use
Know where your touch points are
What do you need to know about your target audience before you create content for your website?
There are plenty of channels available for targeted content marketing including podcasts, blog posts, videos, e-books and more. To help get the most out of a content marketing budget, Zib Digital advises businesses to keep their end-goal in mind, remembering that every piece of content should contribute to a specific business goal.
Zib Digital explains that it's important for a business to know their target market as the point of content marketing is to attract the right audience and then convert them into loyal customers. Therefore, the first step to getting the most out of the content marketing budget is to establish buyer personas and understanding what makes the audience tick and the specific pain points which the business' product or service addresses.
To ensure a business gets the most out of their content marketing strategy, it's critical to keep the buyer journey front of mind. Content should be created to match every stage of the journey from 'least aware' to 'most aware'.
Additionally, Zib Digital says content should be updated regularly and repurposed to suit various platforms. Employing both these tactics will help stretch the content marketing budget further.
You want to know what your target audience is looking for. If someone wants to find a gym, they're not going to search for sewing classes. You want to know what your ideal customer is searching for and how that specific keyword phrase indicates buyer intent or educational intent.
If you want the right traffic, you need to focus on the right intent. So if you sell dark chocolate, you want keywords such as "best dark chocolate" or even something like "dark chocolate vs milk chocolate". These type of keywords have a high commercial intent, which will drive the most profitable traffic possible.
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The process of getting visitors to your website is not always an easy task.
Most businesses will have to deal with SEOs, content, social media, and other marketing strategies to get the right visitors on their site. But this can be overwhelming for both new and established businesses.
First, you need to do your research on how your competitors are doing in terms of traffic. You should try to figure out the keywords they are using to get visitors through search engines.
The next step is creating content based on what you found out about your competitors' strategy for SEOs and write content that is relevant to the target audience.
The last step would be finding influencers that can help spread your message that you've just created through content marketing or social media marketing campaigns.
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"It is very important to know your target audience before you create content. Ask yourself these questions:
· What problem am I trying to solve with my product or service?
· What is my edge over others that offer similar products/services?
Answers to these would help you know what content to create, how to stand out and those you are putting out content for. You also must know these about your target audience:
· Their pain points and the ideal results they desire before using your product or service.
· The results they get after using it (can be gotten from feedback, comment sections, email correspondence etc."
Lily Ugbaja believes a woman should never have to choose between ambition and motherhood. Her blog shares how to get both.
Most SMEs are overcomplicating things.
It is important to understand your customer, so talk to them about what they were looking for, look at Google Search Console to see what keywords were relevant to find you and try to get your Long Tail Keywords right.
So, when you are in Real Estate then define the regions or even the services for real estate in the region for specific people. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to create content.
Don't try to aim for generic keywords like "real estate", as there is too much competition. Once you understood your customers, analysed what already worked and focused on a niche, then content writing becomes easier.
More Than Digital's goal is to provide as many people as possible with the knowledge of what digitisation is and how they can do it themselves.
Want to create content that works for your website?
MarketAPeel's Guided DIY will help you
create content targeted to your audiences.
To get the right visitors to your website, you need to create compelling, helpful, and meaningful content. If you are creating content for your audience that helps to answer the question they are searching for, or solve a potential problem, your website will be considered a resource for them.
This is when you start to build your website and your brand as a thought leader. The more helpful content you create, the more of the right website traffic you will start to receive by creating content that is most helpful to your buyer personas.
Prism Global Marketing Solutions helps clients achieve marketing success through a combination of inbound marketing best practices and HubSpot expertise to deliver world-class results.
You need to know how your audience uses the internet. This includes what they search for and how they search for it. Otherwise, you cannot create content that will attract your target audience.
By creating content that specifically targets the ideal user for your site, you ensure that you're reaching the right audience and bringing them to your site.
Energy Sanity helps people in the UK save money on their energy bills
Before creating a content marketing plan, you need to dig in and spend some time defining your customer avatar. You need to know how they think, what they look for online as it relates to your offering, and where they hang out online. You also need to familiarize yourself with the pain points of your audience.
Once you understand your target audience, only then can you create an effective content marketing plan.
Clicks Marketing is a professional digital internet marketing company who provides clients with services designed to benefit clients and boost their business to new levels.
The popular keywords your target audience uses when searching for information Keywords and phrases that your target audience would likely use when looking for products or services like yours can be a great place to start researching topics and developing content.
Tools such as Google Trends can help you determine which terms are most searched for in specific regions and how those search trends change over time. You should also consider what questions your target audience may ask when they're trying to learn more about your products or services before reaching out to you directly, such as
· Is your product the right fit?
· What do I need?
· How much does it cost? or
· Which package is best for me?
Low Offset is a website dedicated to driving and driving games, publishing stories about driving in the real and virtual worlds.
Search engines and users alike care far more about how valuable your content really is.
· Does it answer the search query?
· Does it incorporate the keywords in a natural way?
And so, your best bet in making sure you're constantly creating the best content is mapping your keywords to individual pages of your website. Keyword mapping which consists of mapping your keywords to specific pages of your website is a strong on-page SEO strategy that lets search engines know exactly which page is relevant to the user’s query.
It doesn’t involve much — a simple spreadsheet with all your website URLs and primary keywords can get the job done. This can save you a lot of time in your content planning process and prevent keyword cannibalisation (where multiple web pages on your website are competing for the same keyword).
Dialed Labs is an SEO agency helping clients get the most out of their website.
The short answer (that doesn’t involve search engine optimization) is everything.
You need to know as much as possible about your potential audience before you even begin to think about writing the first paragraph of your first feature. Ideally, the site you build will be geared toward a subject that you’re familiar with so that you’ll know the sort of content that you need to create to draw traffic, that is your potential audience, to your site.
Once you’ve established who your audience is, you’ll need to sit down and do some research or as I like to call it, a lot of reading. Familiarize yourself with competitor sites and the types of content that they are creating, discover the keywords that they’re using in their articles and once you know the keywords that work, start planning your content around them so that it uses those keywords so that when your audience searches for them, Google will start directing your target audience to you.
Planning and research are the hard parts, and with both in place, you’ll be ready to start writing.
CEO NetLocal is an SEO agency focused on helping small businesses optimise their local search results to show up in the searches of local consumers.
It’s important to account for audience characteristics such as age, gender, and location when it comes to creating content for your website. You should also consider how much knowledge your audience is likely to have of your products and/or services. Such factors should have a bearing on everything from your choice of language to the level of detail that you opt to include.
Slang might be appropriate for a Gen Z fashion brand, while a male grooming business might choose to ensure their tone and language use sounds typically masculine.
You should also have a good think about the visitor’s intent. They could be searching for answers to a simple question. Therefore, they want the answer quick and simply. Users could also be looking to buy straight away after having done some research prior, therefore, you need to make sure your page is set up to help make the purchasing process as easy as possible. Intent should play a key role when deciding your target audience on your site.
SEOClarity is an AI-driven organic search and content optimisation platform, we focus on the user search experience for enterprise brands
You typically should be bringing in about 60-75% of your ideal client on your website. This would be reflected on your bounce rate. You'll of course bring in competition, spammers, and people trying to sell you to your website but that is just how it is. The more traffic the more you'll need to weed out some of the inquiries that don't match.
Jessica Rhoades creates High Converting Websites with Design, Strategy, and SEO for businesses through our personalised process.
Based on statistics, approximately 80% of internet users take advantage of Google and other search engines to find accurate local information.
You can also use pay-per-click advertising to drive local traffic in your digital marketing campaign. This is a more targeted approach to advertise your business since it automatically considers the location. In Facebook Ads, for example, you can choose the demographic profile of your audience including age, gender, and location.
Whether you’re well on your way to becoming wealthy, or struggling to climb out of debt – Wealth Awesome will have some answers for you.
The most important point to consider is search intent.
· What type of information is your audience looking for?
· Are they trying to solve a particular problem?
· Do they want a short answer or is a more detailed step by step answer more appropriate?
You can learn more about your customer by using tools such as AHREFS to see what type of content is ranking. Alternatively, you can put heat maps on your site and see which parts of your article garner the most interest.
Luv Me Kitchens is a website for smoothie lovers looking for a new recipe or the right blender for their kitchen.
One of the most important things to know about your target audience before ever thinking about creating specific content is what kind of content they’re searching for. Because you can craft a brilliant, well-written article, and if no one searches for the specific topics addressed in it, you won’t be any closer to capturing that segment.
Instead, initial keyword research is paramount before even writing a single sentence.
VTR Learning provides people who want to up-level their career skills courses to teach them how to make it happen.
In my opinion, as a businessperson, when creating content, the target audience should be the first one to consider. Know your audiences’ demographic and preferences then it will be easy to create content that is suitable for them. Determine their demographic and preferences through conducting an online survey. Identify which platform they like and publish your content on that to ensure traffic on your website.
The main data is obviously your audience's interests - what is the main reason why they would engage with your content in the first place? Is it a passion, a hobby, knowledge about a specific subject? The second thing is more data-related: age, gender, social status, and location. This will help determine not only the subject to be discussed but also the content's tone of voice.
Even the greatest marketing strategy of all time could be brought down into pieces if it's aimed at the wrong people; thus, defining and developing your buyer personas is a must if you want to attract the right traffic to your website. You need to understand precisely who your target customer is (their age, profession, likes, necessities, etc.), and once you have done
so, aim all your efforts at that person.
Before creating content for your website, you need to learn your target audience*'s general demographics (eg. geographical location, age range, sex, vocations), psychographics (eg. attitudes, behaviors, interests, lifestyle, personality), relevant problems they are looking for solutions to, and possible touch points where you can engage with them.
The age of your audience is important because older people have a harder time using online
resources, and the site would need to be simplified. If you are selling something like life insurance, make sure the site has simple graphics that communicate the point of your company with minimal distraction and self-explanatory web design.
People looking for life insurance may not understand the complications of a site with frills and fancy graphics because they are older and inexperienced online compared to younger people.
Avoid references and hyperlinks to social media that skews younger, like Tik Tok.
Shannon's Rebuttal
As an older person, I have to step in here because I think we can learn something from this last quote that was sent in. I've included this submitted quote because it has a lot to teach us about how we assess our audiences and the mistakes we make when we don't use data to verify our perceptions.
What this quote gets right.
Knowing the age and generation of your market can give you some insights
Know where your audience is hanging out online is important
Keeping the information on your website simple is important
There are other lessons here that were not intended but are just as valid
Don't assume everyone in a generation is the same
Don't judge other groups based on old stereotypical assumptions
Don't make "All or Nothing" statements when analysing your audience
Don't forget, the people who made all this wonderful technology that we use today are from the baby boomers and X-gen age groups.
Know where your audience is and how they need you to communicate with them. For some, online communication works and for others, they need a face to face in the real world.
Shannon’s two cents on What to Know Before
You Create Content for Your Website
Your brand story funnel needs to lead people to the close section of the funnel, which is usually on your website. When your audience gets to this point in your funnel the goal is conversions. You want visitors to take the next step and open their wallets.
The best way to increase your conversion rate is to ensure the people who are landing on your website are the right people.
Look to your current customers to find out who they are, where they hang out, and what they talk about on social media. Run a report to determine who your top customers are and then Google them to find common threads between them.
Do they mostly hang out on one social media platform over the others, do they post about similar activities or topics?
Once you understand what your top customers have in common, you can create content to speak to them and others like them.
Your clients who love you so much they wrote reviews about your business or products, have given you more than some stars, they’ve given you the reason why they buy from you. With this knowledge you can redefine your brand storytelling to create content highlighting those reasons and attract customers who will choose you for those same reasons.
Marketing experts consistently tell people to know their target market, this is nothing new and there are no short cuts if you want to increase your conversion rates and improve your websites search engine rankings – You have to do the hard work.
How to Choose Keywords to Create Content
There are plenty of tools to help you find the best keywords to write about, some with free options. SEMRush, Moz, and Alexa are comprehensive SEO programs to help web designers and SEO specialists to research keywords and backlinks to improve a website's organic traffic. Google Search Console provides data to help you understand keywords your site shows up for, which clicks you receive, and where your site is showing up throughout the Internet. Google Trends helps you understand how keyword searches are used throughout the world to find those keywords that are gaining popularity and the ones that are losing traction.
By the time you are done doing the research you may be more confused than less or disillusioned about your chances of success getting traffic to your website.
This is why it is vital you understand the keywords you want to use to tell your brand story to the marketplace. When you understand your personal brand or business brand message you can keep your branding focused on the keywords on all your marketing channels. This way no matter where your audience finds you, they will know what your brand story is about.
I'll use my brand as an example of brand storytelling:
The objective of MarketAPeel: To create content to give brands market appeal.
How MarketAPeel full fills it's objective: Tell brand stories on digital platforms and publications
Platforms MarketAPeel utilizes: Publishes digital magazines, a blog, a podcast, and show
MarketAPeel's Brand tag line: Peeling the layers to get to the core of your brand story
Types of brands: Personal brands, small business brands, and leadership brands
From this information can you decipher the keywords I need to write about on the MarketAPeel website to help drive the right traffic to the website?
Next Step - Do the exercise for your brand to help you clarify your brand story and start your keyword research.
Whether you are telling a brand story for your career, business, or life, you first need to understand which keywords people are seeking out, which will also reflect your brand story.
I can write about brand storytelling, personal branding, and digital magazines as much as I want, however, if people aren't using these keywords to find a solution to their problem, they will not understand how I can help them. In other words, your brand story is more about what others are searching for than the story you want to tell.
Case in point - When I research the keywords Brand Storytelling and Digital Magazines, both do not have much in the way of traffic. Other words, like digital marketing, have higher numbers of people searching for information. Though what I do lives within the bubble of Digital Marketing, the right people for my website want to define their brand story or a custom digital magazine to help them connect with their customers, employees, and marketplace.
The more niche I got in my website's content, the lower the bounce rate, the higher the amount of time spent on my sight, and the more pages visited. All of which, improve my site's ranking.
MarketAPeel's Guided DIY will help you create content targeted to your audiences
The BrandAPeel Guided DIY Brand Storytelling Program
Become a BrandAPeel member and Join the Create Content Guided DIY Program. Members get benefits - More than that - They get guided step-by-step instructions to help them get stuff done.
The BrandAPeel program is meant to help DIY people who are overwhelmed by all the information, get clarity about where to start and what to do. Each program has the following:
A Blog Post, like this one
BrandAPeel Show Episodes
A step-by-step program to join
Worksheets
Instructions and links to tools
Questions to ensure knowledge
Accountability Milestones
Community for peer feedback
Access to BrandAPeel only content
Discounts to ebooks in BookAPeel
Programs available:
SEO: Building your digital footprint
Brand Storytelling: Create Content
Social Media: Content ideas & Tips
Who is Create Content Guided DIY for?
People who want to tell their brand story to the marketplace to attract opportunities for their lives, careers, and businesses.
Those who are overwhelmed by the amount of information out there and don’t know where to start.
The program works best for those people who like to have a plan they can follow and want someone to guide them through the process to get things done.
If you struggle to complete projects and need someone to hold you accountable - There are resources in place to motivate you and inspire you to get the job done.
Brand Storytelling in the Digital Age can be overwhelming because there are so many options and moving parts. Not to mention the amount of information and unfounded advice out on the Internet.
Get started on your first Brand Storytelling project, click the button.
Shannon Peel is a brand storyteller, digital publisher, content creator, novelist, and the creative entrepreneurial owner of MarketAPeel
Other Article you may be interested in on APeeled Blog
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