10 Tips for Great Online Content

If you’re committed to growing your business, then you already know that content marketing is key.

Over 91% of businesses use content marketing.

But why does it work so well for other businesses and not your own?

Anyone can create content. Creating high-quality content that engages and converts your audience is more difficult. 

But it doesn’t have to be!

Here are ten tips for great online content to help grow your business.

1. Know your audience

With so much content available online, readers are becoming more and more selective about what they consume. 

To stand out in the sea of content, you really need to know your target audience.

You should focus on just one persona and make it as specific as possible. Many businesses try to target at least three personas, thinking it’ll increase traffic. In reality, the more people you try to target, the less relevant your content becomes. 

When creating your persona there are a few things you need to consider:

• Who your target audience is – and not just the demographics either. Think about the nitty-gritty information, as if they were a real person
• What type of content they like –  otherwise they won’t read it!
• How they like to consume it. This isn’t just the platform, but the type of content too, whether it’s in the form of a blog post, podcast, photos, or video

It’s integral that you know who you’re writing for and what it is they want to see. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time and the time of your readers. Having a clear persona in mind will help you plan and create content that really connects with them.

2. Know your goals

Content marketing with no goal is a bit like trying to build a house with no plan.

Knowing your goals and target audience is the foundation of good content. Without this, you will struggle to write content that connects with your target audience.

Before you publish anything, make sure you’ve set a realistic online content marketing goal.

3. Incorporate multimedia

Too many businesses avoid content marketing because they don’t think they’re good writers. But content marketing isn’t just blogging. It can be anything from videos, podcasts, images, and infographics, or written content, or for optimal engagement, a combination of these.

With podcasts becoming more and more popular and mobile video consumption rising by 100% each year perhaps it’s time to change the way you think about content.

Choose a format that works best for you and your audience and try to incorporate more than one type. Bold infographics and video content can really liven up an otherwise dull blog post – and it adds to your shareability factor too!

4. Master content writing

No matter what type of content you create, there’s always writing involved. While you don’t need to be an author to create great content, there are a few things you should keep in mind to improve your content writing skills.

• Consider your readability. Keep sentences and paragraphs short and simple
• Make sure you have proper spelling and grammar
• Let your personality shine. Humanized content is easier to connect to
• Include relatable examples
• Create actionable content

5. Provide value

In order to create content that your audience will love, you need to provide genuine value. 

This means publishing content because it’s what your readers are searching for, not just because it’s a Thursday.

But what is valuable online content?

Valuable content is high-quality content focused on helping the reader. It provides information to your readers, it is engaging, and answers their questions. It’s the type of content that leaves your readers excited to take action and wanting more.

6. Optimize for search engines

Writing for SEO will help ensure your content ranks well in search engines. 

For first impressions, make sure you have an enticing title and clickable meta description. After all, these are what get people onto your website in the first place! 

For written content, include keywords often but avoid keyword stuffing. If you’re getting stuck on what keywords to target, using a content ideation tool like Google Keyword Planner can help. Also, be sure to cite your references and link to other reputable sites where relevant.

It’s important to optimize your multimedia too. Add alt tags and use descriptive filenames for images and transcribe your videos. That way, search engines will get the same value out of your content as your readers.

7. Make it mobile-friendly

One-half of all online traffic comes from mobile devices. With more and more people viewing your content online on the go, it’s essential to publish mobile-friendly content.

It’ll also help to improve your SEO. Since Google’s Mobilegeddon update in 2015, mobile-friendliness has become a ranking factor for search engines, and since 2019, Google introduced “mobile-first indexing“, meaning Google indexes your mobile site first.

Making sure your content is responsive and provides a good experience for mobile users is essential.

8. Include a call to action (CTA)

Getting lots of views but no conversions?

Your visitors won’t know what to do unless you tell them to do it. 

Whether it’s signing up to your email list, sharing on social media, or dialing your number, you need to include a call to action.

9. Analyze and adjust

Remember your goal from earlier? You won’t reach it if you don’t track your progress!

Analyzing your content helps you understand what is and isn’t working and provides valuable feedback to help you plan future content.

While it’s difficult to track indirect conversions, if you see your conversions moving up along with traffic, your online content marketing strategy is probably working.

10. Create a solid content calendar 

Plan your online content a month in advance with a content calendar so you don’t end up wasting time struggling to come up with ideas at the last minute!

You should plan out exactly what content you’re going to post and when. Here are a few places you can find content ideas online:

• Check Google Trends for particular searches in your niche to see what’s trending.
• Look on Reddit, or whatever other platforms your customers use to ask questions and discuss topics.
• Check your analytics to see what type of content your audience already loves.
• Check your competitors’ most popular content for inspiration, but make sure you give credit where it’s due!

As your content gains popularity, your readers will tell you what new content they want. This will not only take the difficulty out of coming up with ideas, but it’ll help you create tailor-made content and better engage with your audience.

The bottom line

Content is the face of your business online. 

Great online content raises trust in your business and converts visitors into customers. Poor content will have them running towards your competitors, and could tarnish your reputation.

There are many things you can do to help improve the quality of your online content. But every business is different, you need to consider what works best for your audience and goals.