PJ's Internet Marketing Blog

Its been said time and again, to search engines, “content is king”, but when it really comes down to it, many companies say they don’t have the time, patience, or budget for content creation. It begs the question; why then should they be ranked high in the search results? Maybe, just maybe, they’re not thinking about it logically and aren’t considering all the options at their disposal.

Here are 12 different types of content (not necessarily mutually exclusive) that when implemented properly, can drive tremendous volumes of visitors, links, and even business:

1. widgets/badges - for those unfamiliar with widgets, a widget is typically an interactive tool, that can be embedded in a web page. Since they’re interactive, often they can help potential clients find solutions quicker than they otherwise might have, making them a very powerful online marketing tool. Sometimes widgets are also made available for download to other websites, making them a powerful link acquisition tool too. Below is an example of one such widget.

2. videos - a good video is difficult to beat. People like to hear and see things for themselves, as opposed to reading about them, or being told about them. Video makes this possible, and accordingly is very popular. At the same time, video can be instructional, entertaining, and/or informational. When well done, videos will drive tremendous volumes of traffic, links, and/or potential clients to a site … and offers additional opportunities to appear in the search results

3. images - if a picture can say a 1000 words, then its also possible for images to generate 1000 visitors or links. We’ve seen many client sites, who’s images drive 20%+ of their overall website traffic volumes. In many cases, images are the reason people visit websites … they need to see what they’re buying! All that to say, do not underestimate the power of good quality images!

4. research - people often buy from websites they’ve heard about before, because familiarity breeds loyalty and trust. One means of breeding familiarity and trust is to perform and publish unique research that others in your industry or potential clients will find useful. When well thought out, timely, and topical, such research can generate thousands of links, visitors, and potential clients. Good research also helps to establish you as an authority in your space.

5. awards - everyone likes to receive cudos, or acknowledgement of a job well done! Now image that you as a site owner offer the ability for others to take those cudos, and post them on their site for all to see. Its a powerful tool, often generating thousands of visitors and/or links.

6. contests - while not for every business, contests can generate alot of relevant links, and accordingly help a site rank much better. The key is to ensure that the contest somehow relates to your business.

7. news - sites that are routinely first to publish industry news, are often visited more frequently, generate more links, and are viewed more as industry authorities. Alternatively, those running news stories after the fact, typically don’t experience all these benefits, unless they add some value or unique intepretation angle. Of course, one way to ensure the news is new and fresh is to make the news (aka a publicity stunt) … so get creative!

8. blog posts - perhaps one of the most popular techniques to create content, and one of the most poorly done! Most don’t understand the subtle nuances of creating blog content. I’ve posted about it previously (12 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid) as have many others, but the majority still continue to write blog content as if it were for another form of offline media.

Blog content generally consists of one of the four types listed below:

The type you choose should be based on your objectives.

9. do something “remarkable” - if a company truly does something remarkable and unique, and publishes it on their site, the content will take on a life of its own. What does this mean? Well, if you’re a sausage manufacturer, manufacture the largest sausage on the planet. If you own a burger joint, offer a $2700 burger on the menu. Even if no one ever orders it, its something to mention on your website, and something interesting that others will notice and talk about (which results in links, visitors, and often clients). Consider this term alone “most expensive martini” … there are 1200 mentions on it in Google, and presumably a good number of those mentions link to it!

10. create an ebook - much easier said than done, but creating a ebook can result in perceived authority, visitors, links, and …. business!

11. make and distribute applications - if you can find a way to make potential clients lives easier (online or offline), it can have a profound impact. Creating an online application such as a WordPress plugin, a calculator, or industry software, and hosting it for download via your site, can increase awareness of your site, your perceived authority in the industry, attract large volumes of visitors, links, and yes, even business.

12. user generated content - content added by others, is content that you didn’t have to add yourself. With most business owner’s arguing they don’t have the time or budget for content, user generated content (UGC) would appear to be a logical solution. Although, most business owners then become concerned with their inability to control the content. Precautions can be taken however in most situations, making UGC a solution worth investigating.

If you know of other types of content strategies not encompassed in this list, please let me know, and I’ll gladly add it with proper attribution to you.

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As posted in Blogging, Branding, Content, SEO, Tips on March 25, 2009.

7 Responses:

Greg (1 comments.), March 25th, 2009 at 8:54 am :

With regards to the widget-bait, surely the Offshore Accounts link (in this example) will get you banned?
Blog Expert (1 comments.), March 25th, 2009 at 9:26 am :

Creating an ebook is my favourite. Works like a charm.
Jeff Quipp (82 comments.), March 25th, 2009 at 12:32 pm :

@ Greg … thanks for noticing, its gone now!

@ Blog Expert … it does work well, but not in all situations.
Remote Data Backup (5 comments.), March 25th, 2009 at 5:05 pm :

I’m not sure that content is king per se. There’s no doubt that links are king as far as SEO is concerned.

Sure, great content as a way to get links is a valid strategy, but great content without great promotion is a dead end.

Number seven is an interesting one. I don’t necessarily think that you need to break the news, or be the news, you can also aggregate the news, or find a new way to present it.

If you can aggregate all the news on a particular topic, from all the available sources, in one place, that can provide outstanding value to your users.
Michael Murdock (1 comments.), March 29th, 2009 at 11:02 am :

Actually, content is king. Video, audio and written. links from youtube or vimeo back to your site will help. Adding keywords helps as those ARE used by the search engines contrary to popular myth. Submitting on a schedule helps as does blogs, press releases and articles. All combined into a cohesive strategy work.

The rest is just crap meant for you to waste your money on.

Michael Murdock, CEO
DocMurdock.com
Nick Stamoulis (3 comments.), March 30th, 2009 at 8:41 am :

basically if you utilize every factor to be successful online you should be in good shape.
tv (1 comments.), March 30th, 2009 at 1:47 pm :

Great list. For those that think it’s too much work, don’t go complaining when you don’t get the rankings!

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/12-types-of-content-strategies-seos-should-know-and-use.html

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If you want your website to be indexed by search engines, it is important that your site has a good link architecture. The link architecture of your website is the method that you use to link from your website pages to other pages of your website.

How search engines find the web pages on your website

Search engines use so-called spiders or robots to index web pages. Search engine spiders are relatively simple software programs. When they visit your web pages, they follow all links that they can find on the page to index the other pages of your website. Most search engines follow only text links.

JavaScript menus, Flash menus and search boxes cannot be accessed by most search engine spiders. That means that search engines will only index the web pages of your website that can be easily found by their spiders.

Five internal linking tips that will improve your search engine rankings

Most search engine spiders do not type into your search boxes and they do not use pull down menus. The following tips will help you to make sure that search engine spiders will index your web pages correctly:

Use simple text links to link to your web pages

Most search engines cannot index fancy Flash or JavaScript menus. Some even have difficulty with image links. If possible, use simple text links to link to your web pages. You can make text links prettier by styling them with CSS.
Your most important pages should not be more than one click away from the index page

Web pages that can be accessed with a few clicks from your home page are considered more important than web pages that are buried deep inside your website. It's easier to get high rankings for these easy to access pages.
Use descriptive link texts

The text that you use to link to your web pages helps search engines to better understand your content. If you sell shoes on your website, do not use links such as Click here but descriptive link texts such as business shoes.

That makes it easier for search engines to put the page into a context and it will be more likely that the page gets high rankings for the keyword "business shoes".
Create a sitemap

A sitemap is a simple web page that contains link to all important pages of your website. You could add a link to your sitemap in the footer of every web page. By doing this, search engines can find all important pages with two clicks.
Check the validity of your HTML code

Errors in the HTML code of your web pages can prevent search engines from indexing your web pages correctly. For example, an HTML error might indicate the end of a web page before the actual content begins. That would mean that search engines would skip the content and any links of that page. You can access the official W3C HTML validator in the Tools menu in IBP.