At the very beginning, let us consider and ponder over the confusion that has been here for a while now. Content Writing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are both indispensable parts of each other.
Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Content Writing the same?
People seem to have a common misconception that if the content is written effectively, it entirely eliminates the need for SEO and vice versa. This is entirely wrong as they neither are the same nor drastically different. Their properties somewhat overlap.
While content creation serves the purpose of persuading consumers, SEO enables the content to give the Business a higher ranking. Without SEO your content won’t rank in search engines and the best way to get ranked on Google search is to focus on quality content and SEO.
Though you can still go with paid-marketing such as Pay per Click Campaigns, which will only work as long as you’re paying, the most prominent and effective approach is Search Engine Optimization. It’s a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online content in the form of videos, posts, and services that do not explicitly promote a brand. It basically intends to stimulate interest in its products or services.
Let us now discuss the importance of content.
Audience growth
Digital Marketing aims at growing your brand. The first step towards growing your brands is to increase the audience. You need to come up with content that will be attractive enough to lure the audience to buy your product and thus converting the targeted audience to your potential customers.
Creating a connection with the brand
If you look at the pages of eminent brands, you will find that their articles are polished and refined to the core and have an aesthetic appeal to them. The more your content is crisp and to the point, the more credible you appear.
Also, your trustworthiness is measured by the number of backlinks you have in the article. Backlinks act as a back up from other sites. Your increased rate of credibility will, in turn, increase your conversion rate.
Increase visibility
Without proper visibility and exposure, your content is just another insignificant drop in the ocean of other millions of articles. In this case, optimization helps in drastically increasing your visibility.
Increase in conversion rates
The importance of creating good content is immense. As mentioned earlier, a more optimized content means better visibility and more chances of people sharing it. As more people see your content, they start converting and thus there is a hike in the conversion rates and the overall productivity of the brand.
These above-mentioned statements seem to create confusion as they appear similar and the ends are overlapping. One thing is dependent on the other and both together increase your brand altogether.
Promoting your product in a way that appeals to the audience is the key and therefore your content should be Audience-Centric. Focus on what the audience wants to know rather than what you want to talk about. The customers won’t be interested in any exaggeration as they are interested in knowing about those characteristics of the product that will meet their requirements.
Let us suppose that a visitor wants to buy an oven. They come to you for purchasing a small-sized oven that fits their small household, but you keep on blabbering about this latest full-sized oven in the market that is selling hot in the market. You basically failed to understand the customer’s requirements. A large oven won’t fit their household, and here you lose a potential customer.
Now that we have focused so much on the importance of content in promoting your brand, it would be unfair if we do not tell you how to do so. Below we have mentioned seven points that are simple to follow and can have a marvelous effect on the overall visibility of your brand.
Keywords, Meta Descriptions, and URLs
These are the technical aspects of an article. If you are able to figure out how these work and implement them in your content, one-third of your work is done.
The basic requirement of the keywords is that you should focus on long keywords rather than going for more competitive ones that may give you difficulty is improving your SEO score. The word length does not imply wordiness here. It is also important to keep in mind that you should not deviate from your topic. The keyword should always match the theme.
Meta Descriptions are the small paragraphs that you see below the headings of the articles that you search for. People often ignore the importance of these. However, these are tightly knitted in increasing the visibility of your content. The Meta descriptions should not exceed 150 words and should be effective.
A URL like http://www.hdcidcokemkcejhc.com seems ridiculous which will immediately make you want to press the close button. Try limiting your URL’s to something understandable rather than an uneven mixture of alphabets that confuse people.
Photos and Videos
Nobody likes to read bland content. A way to make your content stand out in front of the audience is by adding graphics to it. Photos can grab the attention of your customer, and he/she has a sudden urge of knowing and exploring it further.
Instead of using drab colors, try posting pictures that talk directly to your audience, like a person looking straight into the eye of your audience. Videos are the tricky ones because people often post lengthy videos that fail to grab the attention of their customers. The video posted should not exceed the period of 2-3 minutes in order to be fully effective.
Short Paragraphs
We earlier discussed the length of the videos that you should post. The same applies to the paragraphs as well. It has been observed that short paragraphs tend to grab the attention more compared to the lengthy ones. Limit yourself to either 1-2 sentences in a paragraph or 3-4 smaller sentences.
When you write tedious and lengthy paragraphs, it disturbs the attention span of people, and they scroll down to the bottom or maybe exit your site eventually.
Use Bold & Formats
Now that you have added photos and videos to your content and also made the paragraphs shorter, it’s time to highlight. The use of bold should be done very cautiously. Moreover, overuse may do precisely the opposite of what you intend to do. The same goes for the use of an outline.
The two should be used very cautiously in the article to increase its effectiveness. For example, the deals that you have or the discounts that you are giving should always appear in bold in your article. This will surely be eye catchy and increase your conversion rates.
Avoid the full dictionary use
You might be an expert writer with an impeccable grasp on the language and high vocabulary. It is beyond the abilities of many people to understand such difficult terms and complex sentence structures written by you. So it would be a strict no-no to highlight your English talents in the auricle. Instead, go for simple English words and sentences that can be easily understood.
Remember content exists to serve your customer and not to dwindle them with so many foreign words in a single line. Be clear and direct in what you are trying to sell.
Backlinks
We have talked earlier on the importance of backlinks in your content. However, it is so important that we cannot end this article without mentioning it.
We know that backlinks serve to improve your trustworthiness. They are simply the links to other websites placed on your sites signifying the trust that other websites have on you and thus promoting that trust further to the visitors as well.
More the trust more is the conversion rates. So try to grab as many backlinks as you can get from other trustworthy sites to improve your visibility.
Using ‘you’, ‘I’ and ‘we’
Till now, we have talked about the different ways in which you can improve the aesthetics and authority of your content. Now we can further discuss how to directly appeal your audience.
In order to do so, you should write in a way that embeds your thinking into the mind of readers easily. You should be able to portray your trust in your company, your brand, your product through your writing. Make them feel like what it is to be in your shoes. They need to be as excited as you are about the product, and that is how you will get their trust.
For example, Instead of writing “The product is very comfortable”, write “we have trust in our product and want you to feel equally comfortable with our product.” These types of sentences tend to grab their attention. They feel like they have your word.
Conclusion
The above techniques if followed correctly will inevitably boost your visibility, your productivity and increase your conversion rates. The whole article talks about how much the content adds to your sales and thus boosts your productivity. After all, it is about being audience-centric, and you should follow this. Appeal to the audience in whatever way possible and get positive results.
