How do you attract more visitors? There are a few ingredients that go into the mix. Consider the following tips when crafting your next blog post or web content.
Seek Quality, Not Quantity
The idea that posting regularly to your blog or updating your web content frequently has gone out the window. People are not looking for quantity. They seek quality – something they have never read before or something that otherwise stands out.
This means you simply just do not talk about the same things everyone else is talking about. You have to do something different, and that is:
Create Original Content
The best way to reach people is to create content that nobody else has. Search engines tend to punish websites that simply just copy and paste from other people’s articles.
So be original.
You can create new content by:
• publishing original research you have done
• interviewing other experts and by using their quotes
• talk about news that is trending and connect it to what you are doing with your website
You will also need to:
Have a Great Hook
Attract users’ attention from the very first line of your content.
You can:
• say something humourous
• rile people up
• start with an interesting fact
• start with a question
• mention a popular brand
Once you have that, you will need to:
Have Great Transitions
Make your users hungry for what is coming next. Do not be afraid to be a bit of a tease. Suggest to users what is immediately coming. That way, when you do get to your point, users will feel that they will have uncovered a mystery. They will be incredibly satisfied that they now know what they know.
That also means that you will need to:
Have Varied Content
Users do not like the same type of content when they visit a site regularly. Do not be afraid to change things up a bit.
Different types of posts that you can use are:
• ask the expert posts, where readers submit questions that you can answer
• success and failure stories
• webinars
• lists, such as this article
• whitepaper or report posts
• guest posts from other bloggers or experts in your field
Once you have your content, you should:
Punch Up Your Headlines
Your headline is the first thing users will see when finding your content through:
• search engines
• e-mail
• social media
The best headlines:
• address a user’s problem
• have numbers in them
• are personalized with the words “you” or “your” in them
Remember that 80 percent of people will read your headline. Only 20 percent of those people will read your article or post. So the punchier the headline, the more likely people will read you.
Another way to attract more visitors is when you:
Link Out to More Articles
People love to click links. If you want to give people deeper information or want them to follow up on something, have a link. You can also link to older content on your website to get people to stick around longer. If you do link to an external site, make sure it pops up in a new window.
A good piece of advice to follow, too, is never put a link in your opening paragraph. You want readers to stay on your topic for as long as possible.
Once you have written something, you will also need to:
Promote Your Content
You need to tell your social media audience that you have a new post or content. Post it in relevant forums. Where appropriate, submit it to Reddit, Pinterest and StumbleUpon. Tell people you have something new to share.
Have any other ideas? Leave a comment!