The short answer is anything and everything that you can because...Content is KING! No I'm not kidding. Whether it's a blog entry, an update on your "Latest News" page, a video (hmmmm, here's an interesting one), a white paper, a new landing page, well I think you get my point, there is no doubt that creating content should be your top priority for your website. Why? Because it's your content that will determine whether or not your site is relevant to your prospective clients and being relevant and engaging is what will convert site visitors to prospects to clients. That is the kind of result you want from your website right? Anything else is a waste of your valuable time and resources.
OK, so is there some sort of magic formula? Is there some preferred content you can create to generate the best results? Not really, but there are some key fundamentals that are going to ensure that the content you develop achieves the desired outcomes. To illustrate this let's look at two examples one good, and the other...well not so good. First the good. In Marketing Voices , a weekly podcast, Jennifer Jones speaks with a variety of people involved with the marketing world about what they are doing, what trends they see, what's working (or not) and you're invited in to access these insights. Why is this good content? It's relevant to her audience, interesting, well optimized and provides the visitor with the information they are seeking and opportunities for that audience to engage further. This kind of content development achieves all of the desired outcomes.
For the "other" case, consider this blog...yah, you heard me right, my blog! You have to understand, I started this as an experiment, and it's working. More and more people are coming to read my blog entries, but we are still just speaking of "10's" of people monthly which I'm not unhappy with I intend very shortly to launch a website for my new company, but in the meantime I use this blog as my platform to try and share some insight for the small and medium sized business people. OK, so what is the problem with this blog? Sorry, what are the problems with this blog? Well, the one good thing is I pretty regularly add content, so readers are getting new information from their reading, and I focus on giving readers information I know will be helpful to them if they truly want to improve the results they are achieving from their online initiatives. Where this breaks down is that the content isn't optimized and there could be much more offered, for example a video, pictures, more links etc. But as I said this has always been an experiment and this blog is a way to get my feet wet in this environment. I can't wait for my new website to launch where I'll be spending considerable time to deliver a great example of content development!
OK, time to wrap up. What is my point today? Once again, content is KING, so if someone is offering you a quick fix to generate traffic to your website there's a better (much better) than 50% chance you're money or resources are being wasted. Make certain that as you consider your online development that whoever you engage to help you understands that there is a process involved and that after you've evaluated your current situation thoroughly, content is where the process begins, anything else...is costing you money, not creating an ROI!
We're at the edge of the future!
Andy Xhignesse
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