When it comes to creating content most marketers will emphasise the importance of developing content that is both evergreen and able to be repurposed.
When creating a marketing and communications strategy it’s impossible to ignore the SEO benefits of good quality long form text content on your website regardless of what consumer and audience trends there are across the digital space.
It’s absolutely vital that, if you want to create a lasting online impression, you ensure your website content is a priority in any content, copywriting, publicity, PR or marketing strategy.
One simple concept that’s worth considering is that if you create enough content, Google won’t be able to ignore you.
Social media isn’t everything
In today’s Instagram obsessed world where influencers are reported to be the “be all and end all” it would seem that most people are missing a trick.
Yes, social networking sites are an incredible way to reach out to your customer base, but, if you’re looking for lasting, searchable, evergreen results then it’s time to look beyond and consider the volume of the social only content you’re creating.
Those live videos and cute memes you’ve been creating on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and LinkedIn might be massaging your ego as your clients, customers, friends and family scramble to “like”, “love”, “comment on”, “retweet” and “share” giving you that so-called all-important reach. But the reality is the Google spiders are pretty much blind to most of it.
These so-called spiders are little pieces of code and algorithms that scour and read the internet, but they aren’t really trawling much of social media in the grand scheme of things.
While social media is still an important tool in your content creation and general marketing arsenal you shouldn’t ignore it, or dismiss it – but it’s not the only tool or tactic you should be using.
Make your content searchable
Google now has access – albeit limited – to search social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. It is important to keep in mind that Google is still a competitor to all these social platforms so this access isn’t likely to expand in the coming years.
After its less than successful run of Google+, the company launched Google My Business in 2017 which has since become an indispensable tool for businesses.
Besides posts, it’s now possible to add news items and offers and more to your Google My Business listing. These all give something for those “google spiders” good quality content to examine, in other words, making your content searchable.
Drive your traffic to where it matters most
Taking a very close look at your business and figuring out where you want your content to take you will help you harness your potential in a much more efficient way than just looking at the surface.
With a direction in mind, you can start creating your content, generating your online and offline strategy and harnessing your market more effectively.
When you’re creating your content, news and general updates about your business will help keep everything fresh and up to date, but for a long term, consistent online strategy, you need good quality evergreen content that will drive traffic directly to your website.
The goal of promoting your content on social media and building your following, increasing your reach is to drive people to your own, branded website where you can turn them into buying customers, add them to your mailing lists, and collect valuable information.
Do you need to go live?
Love it or hate it, live videos on social media are here to stay. While it is a great way to give you a confidence boost and potentially increase your reach, it is not for everyone and they require some preparation to guarantee success.
If you want to try and incorporate live content into your social media strategy you must make sure it gives your audience value.
Many social platforms now prioritise live content so if you are willing to put yourself out there, make sure you create awareness before you plan to start streaming, engage with your audience, encourage comments and lead them to your website.
Publish your video on your page after you are finished, add relevant tags, transcribe it and distribute it on other platforms and maximise your content as much as possible. The more people talk about your brand online the more likely Google will pick up on the buzz.
The importance of YouTube
Youtube is the second biggest search engine in the world, which means if you can, you need to make use of it.
Google not only “reads” but it also listens. Of course, the algorithm can crawl through your video description, pick up on keywords in your title and tags, but the technology is now advanced enough to listen to what is being said in your videos with up to 85% accuracy.
So, from now on when creating content make sure you’re considering where you’re going to upload it. Certainly, get it up on your social platforms but don’t ignore the importance of ensuring it’s available on other searchable platforms too and never underestimate the value of long form text, video and audio content.
By Tina Calder, Excalibur Press
Tina Calder is a journalist and publicist of 25 years and the founder of Excalibur Press, a publicity management, content creation and copywriting agency in Belfast specialising in brand storytelling throughout all aspects of marketing and communications.