How to develop content for your website that drives traffic

Developing content for your website is crucial to driving more traffic to your site and engaging your audience with your brand - it also really helps your Google ranking. This isn't just a numbers game though, generating endless reams of content that maintains your voice in the market but adds no value is pointless. Here are a few tips to ensure you're not just clogging up the internet with unnecessary dross to keep Google happy.

  1. Write content that your customers might actually be interested in.  Seems obvious but it is all too easy to develop content that interests you but not your customer.  Use your content to position your business as experts at what you do and give away valuable insight into your market. For example a travel agent should be talking about the hidden gems in particular resort or the best times to visit particular locations. Great content about locations and properties is a given but talk about the best local restaurants, local sights, festivals, weather conditions and guide book style insights.
  2. Make sure you understand your keywords and use them as much as possible but don’t forget it has to read well and hopefully entertain. Try picking 10 keyword phrases and concentrate on developing content around them. Google’s algorithm actively looks for up-to-date content and relevance and ranks your site accordingly. Underhand tricks like hiding keywords within an image etc. no longer works so dark arts won’t help you in the future just quality hard work.
  3. Implement a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy to include new articles and blogs. Having the flexibility to change content quickly is a real help in responding to changing consumer needs and to develop your content further. Technology should not constraint your content authoring so speak to your digital agency who should be able to advise you on the best options and will also guide you with content.
  4. Use different media. Although Google concentrates on text it also likes video, links and sound. Try and get even a simple video together and put it on Vimeo or YouTube and then embed it on your site. Again make sure it’s relevant and searchable by including keywords in the title and hopefully people will share your video around and look at your site. Who knows it might even covert them to customer!
  5. With all this new content don’t wait for consumers to find it, push it out there. Social networks are a great place to tell your likers, followers and network about what you’re up to or what you have to say on a topic.

Above all have fun, it’s a marathon not a sprint and if you don’t have the time, inclination or skill then get someone who can and see the positive results develop over the coming months.

About the Author

John Williams avatar

John Williams, Sales and Marketing

John was once a client who joined the Gibe team for several years to help us with sales and marketing. He left Gibe to return to the world of freelance marketing and is once again a wonderful client for Gibe.