Recently I participated in a LinkedIn discussion that started as follows:
"OK, I have a website. Now how do I get people to visit?"
As one participant put it, "With all due respect, probably a question you should have asked before you built your site."
Not taking your content strategy into account when developing a web strategy is equivalent to what I call the Random Road Trip. "What's that," you ask?
Shortly after graduating college a few of my friends and I started an annual tradition of rolling a die that would indicate North, South or West (notice we removed east from the equation because no one wants to travel east out of Denver because east=Kansas). Based on what the die said, we chose a destination in that general direction and would head out. An adventure for sure, but the reality is that sometimes it didn't work out too well. It would seem that, all too often, businesses start their web marketing strategy with a roll of the dice and just hope they end up somewhere half-way decent.
Many of the responses to this start-up's dilemma involved developing a social media presence via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. This is an easy way to at least get some curious visits without spending a small fortune on pay-per-click ads or traditional advertising. But when they get there, what do visitors see, why should they stay and why would they recommend your site to their peers? There are a lot of reasons one may give, but ultimately we are all looking for answers to our questions. These answers (solutions) may be presented in pictures, videos, headlines or the main content (body text).
As a copywriter, I recommend people start with content for a few reasons:
1) Content is the main driver for pulling Google your way. Just make sure you research keywords to pull in the right audience and optimize your site accordingly.
2) While graphics, etc. will lead people to the answers they are looking for, the content spells it out and establishes you as the expert.
3) YouTube has accustomed us all to low-quality video again, which is great for a small business. Videos are a great way to allow users to passively receive information, but videos still won't attract search engines so they can't be your primary method for transferring information.
4) If you're a decent writer, content is free...if not, it is relatively cheap and won't turn into an ongoing expense.
5) Ultimately content is the substance of your site, so the site should be built around it - not the other way around.
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