6 Easy Wins to Double Organic Traffic and Conversions
These days, business cannot thrive without great content. You may have invested time and resources in creating a great content strategy, and published a few blogs and an ebook or two. If the results of this venture didn’t produce the success you were hoping for, you can get around this problem by setting up a solid content production process. With this, you can increase the rank of your business and generate more sales. We can narrow it down to six easy goals to accomplish:
Overhaul Your Introduction
Consider your blog’s introduction as the window to the content. A well-structured intro can stir a prospect’s curiosity. It encourages them to read the entirety of the post before you can push them further down the pipeline. Most importantly, the intro is your chance to let the reader know that you have the solution to their problem.
Here’s what it takes to create a compelling introduction to your blog:
Tease the problem
You will need to outline the value of the post in your introduction. People will want to read content that matters to them. Typically, it’s a problem or a question they need answers to.
Take time to learn your audience’s goals. From there, consider how these relate to the content you are creating. If you are writing a blog about the tips to a better work-life balance, your intro should talk about how stress can affect a person’s life at home.
However, a relatable problem is just a small part of your intro. To keep people reading, you need to talk about a solution.
Offer the solution
After you have teased them with a problem, they will be curious about how to solve it, and your solution should excite your readers.
Your intro should include a smooth transition to the main body of the text. Using the previous example, you can talk about how attaining work-life balance is possible. You can lead them towards the tips that will help them resolve their problem with an imbalanced work and family life.
Incorporate a personal story
If you want the post to have a more personal vibe, you can start it off with a brief anecdote. This works well if the post intends to inspire or motivate your readers. You will want to draw them in by talking about your experience. On top of that, giving yourself a small part in the piece enhances your storytelling and immerses your audience in the post.
Avoid stating the obvious
Your intro needs to be impactful and provide a fresh and compelling perspective in order to get readers hooked. Stating the obvious in the intro will only serve to turn readers away, so it’s best to give them specific information from the start.
Using the same example above, we all know that stress can affect your physical health, but your audience will probably want to know how stress impacts their relationships at home.
It’s a good rule of thumb to research the topic prior to starting the draft. That way, you can choose an angle that will grab a person’s attention.
Optimize the 3 Kings
Coined by Matt Diggity, Founder and CEO of Diggity Marketing, the “Three Kings” refer to the most important on-page SEO elements. It’s important that every post you publish is visible online. Remembering the Three Kings ensures that your content gets search traction and helps your business rank higher:
Optimize Your URL
Keep your blog URLs short and sweet. This will make them more memorable and easier for search engines to index. At best, opt for a maximum of three or four words in the slug. Here’s an example of a proper format for a URL: website.com/lead-generation.
Moreover, make sure that you don’t repeat words. This will give you less room to send targeted anchor text. Another good piece of advice for optimizing your URL is to include single words that appear frequently in the post.
You might want to read through the post and find frequently recurring words. If you are drafting an article about work-life balance, the URL should include these three words.
Optimize Your SEO Title
When you search for content, the SEO title appears in the search engine results pages (SERPs). In HTML, it appears between <title> and </title>.
You can fill this out easily using Yoast or the All-in-One plugin for WordPress. To add strength to your SEO title, consider these optimizations:
- Limit the title to 64 characters without making it appear generic.
- Include key phrases at or near the beginning.
- Write the title in proper English, no matter the keyword you are using.
- Use unique words and avoid repeating phrases.
- Avoid clickbait titles unless the post is intended for the first page.
- Optimize the page title
Optimize the page title
Although used interchangeably with the SEO title, the page title is a different animal. While the SEO title appears in the SERPs, the page title appears within the post.
You place the page title in the WordPress edit page. Most website themes use the H1 tag for page titles. Since your page title informs your audience about the main topic of the post, it is the first thing your audience sees. You will need to make sure that it does its job of getting people to read the post in its entirety. Here’s how to optimize the page title:
- Use the same rules as the SEO title.
- Make sure it is different from the SEO title. You can revise your SEO title and use it as the page title.
- Include the same keywords and key phrases that appear on the SEO title.
Let’s take the SEO title “5 Tips to a Healthy Work-Life Balance.” The key phrase is work-life balance. You can mix this up into “Your 5-Point Plan for Better Work-Life Balance” as your post title.
Include an Original Take or Idea
What’s the difference between a generic post and an amazing post? The former talks about what your audience already knows. The latter injects fresh perspectives.
Which of these do you think gets more engagement?
Original, well-researched articles that add new knowledge perform better than generic posts. When you are working on a post, give your take on the topic. It would help to find someone within your company who can provide expert information. Interview this person and choose specific angles to focus on.
If the post is about a new trend or strategy, you can talk about how your company is riding it. Value comes first, so spend more time adding unique information to the post. The least you could do is to write around a keyword or keyphrase. This seems practical from an SEO standpoint, but it only waters down the quality of the content.
Tie Your Product or Service into the Post
Your post provides an effective means to promote your product or service. If your main goal is to generate more conversions, it would be best to relate your business to the topic.
This gets tricky, since there is a thin line between getting people to buy your product and your post being too much of a sales pitch. The only way you can mention your company is when you are talking about a related topic. When you are giving your original take, mention your product or service in passing.
Include a CTA
You can’t wrap up your post without a call to action. For this, you will need to think about the purpose of your post in the context of your marketing funnel. From there, determine what you want your audience to do next.
If the post is intended for top-funnel goals such as brand awareness or lead generation, have readers check out other content. Recommend a related post at the end in order to nurture their knowledge about your brand.
If the post is published at the bottom of the funnel, you can include a call-back button or a free trial button. This will depend on the conversion goals of your sales process.
Interlink Your Blog Posts
The last but equally important step to creating a highly converting post is interlinking. Within the body of the post, add links that direct readers to a related post. This will help keep visitors reading your blog. The longer they stay, the more likely they are to convert.
Make sure to use a keyword of another post as the anchor text. The linked post should also be relevant to the anchor text. In addition, take care not to add too many internal links to the post. Two to three links will suffice.
The Bottom Line
Improving your content production process is serious business. While it seems complex on the surface, it only takes a bit more effort to create posts that drive more traffic and conversions. Focus on these elements for placing your brand at the top.
