You’re good.
You know that.
Your writing is spot on and full of golden nuggets.
You write every post confident that people will flood your site to read it. The problem is a drought has hit; where there should be people clamouring for your wisdom, there is nothing, nada, zilch.
It’s great that you realise the importance of sharing knowledge to build your reputation and trust. The problem is that you haven’t understood that you must tell people it’s there if you want them to read it.
That means not only do you have to write great stuff, you also have to make it visible to your hungry audience.
So how do you do that?
Yoo-hoo, over here!
Writing a post, proofreading it, and publishing it doesn’t mean it will be found.
But there are a few things you can do to give your work a fighting chance of being consumed by the hungry hoards.
- Are you writing about the right stuff?
The biggest mistake people make is writing about stuff they’re interested in, but that won’t draw in readers.
It’s important to put your audience first. What type of stuff do they want to read about? What tips or advice will they find useful? What issues do they have that they might want help with?
You can find the answers to those questions by asking your team what questions they’re commonly asked by your customers, bringing new information to their attention, or creating ‘how to’ guides that will make their life easier.
By making sure your content focuses on their needs, you’ll increase the chances of it being read.
- Get them to engage with you
When people find your articles, what are you asking them to do?
Nothing?
Hmm, OK you need to rethink that.
Once you have them reading your finest nuggets of information it’s important you ask them to do something once they’ve read it.
The whole point of publishing content is to drive people to your website. Ask them to visit your site, place relevant links to further information help within your website, ask them to sign to your RSS feed or newsletter – anything so long as it builds a relationship with them that will keep them coming back for more.
- Don’t think about the search engines
Have I lost my mind? Surely you need to think about the search engines.
OK, technically you do, but if you concentrate on them, you’ll create crap writing.
The most important thing is to write for your reader. As soon as you allow the search engines to enter your head you’ll start writing stilted; keyword stuffed writing that’s boring to read.
First and foremost your writing must be natural, high quality and simple to read. After all, it’s your readers that will be (hopefully) buying from you, not the search engines.
- Keywords
No, I’m not about to contradict myself, but keywords are still an important part of your ‘getting your content found strategy.’
Placing them in your headings and subheadings will increase the chances of your content being found. Likewise, using synonyms and related terms will enrich your writing and give the search engines a better idea of what your article is about.
If you’ve been advised to include a certain number of keywords per article, forget it. Keyword density is a thing of the past because it doesn’t work. Above everything else, your writing must be natural.
- Get social
Once you’ve published your content, it’s time to let the world know.
Promote every post through your social media channels making sure you’re adding value and engaging rather than just blatantly self-promoting.
It’s also important to flag up older content too. That way you’ll increase the lifespan of your work.
Summary
Publishing content doesn’t guarantee a growing readership. To get noticed make sure you:
- Focus your content on what your readers want
- Write naturally and not for the search engines
- Carefully use your keywords
- Shout about it through social media
Sally Ormond is an international copywriter who has been writing engaging content for over a decade. Check out here work here and then give her a call.