Introduction to Content Creation
When learning how to create content for your website, there are a few things that are important to remember.
The most important aspect of creating content for your website is quality. People can get little quotes and soundbites anywhere. They are looking for information they have not seen elsewhere, and they want it to be useful and informative.
The content you create needs to be people-first content. This means that you are creating content for the people consuming it FIRST, and
not just to be noticed or ranked by search engines. Ideally you learn how to do both, but don’t just stuff your posts with keywords that aren’t going to be helpful to the people reading it.
By now you may be familiar with the E.A.T principals – Expert, Authoritative and Trustworthy. If you keep these principles in mind as you are writing, you will be well on your way to creating quality content for your readers.
The E.A.T principles also come into play when it comes to SEO or “Search Engine Optimization”. SEO is helpful because it helps the right audience find your content. When the right audience finds your content and uses your affiliate links, then you will be well on your way to making your online business successful.
Identifying Your Audience
Who is your target audience? You will need to have a clear idea of this as you start building out your website. When you understand who you are writing for, and what they are looking for, then content creation will be a breeze!
Do some research to find out what age your demographic is, where they live, what their jobs are, what their online activity is, and more. You can do this through Google, your own online polls, asking people you associated with, or social media. Whatever you are most comfortable with and provides you with the best understanding.
When you follow an audience first approach, you will form a bond with your audience. They will start to trust you, and be loyal to you. That trust and loyalty will make your business thrive in the long run. You just have to put the time into finding your people!
Also, when you know who you are writing for, you will know what kind of language to use, how to organize your writing, what sort of information to present, and where to progress from there. It will really make your life easier to know all that!
Designing Your Content Strategy
You have figured out who you are writing for. Now it’s time to set clear content goals. What type of content are you going to proceed with, how often will you be putting out new content, etc.
Taking all of these steps that seem boring in the beginning will help you down the road when you are stuck, and feel like you have no new ideas. Your content goals will keep you on track, and if you have to add and remove from these goals once in a while, that’s ok!
What type of content does your audience consume? A website is a necessity, as that is what all other content will eventually point to. You may post on Facebook or Instagram, make a video on You Tube or Rumble, but that will only give a small amount of information. Eventually, your audience is going to want a website with all of the information they are looking for.
Don’t get me wrong, social media is very important to your business and will help you succeed and bring your business to new heights. But your website and content on there is the foundation of your business.
Take the time to sit down and plan your content calendar. This again will take the guess work out of your business when you are busy with family and life, but know you have to put content out to be consistent.
Make sure you have a good amount of evergreen content that is relevant now or 6 months from now, but also put out some content with trending topics, or more personal posts if you like. This can help your website get noticed by people who might not normally look for your website. They might see something they didn’t know they needed!
Crafting High-Quality Content
Make sure what you are creating with your content is trustworthy. Research your topics well, get your information from reliable sources, and write with a clear and engaging voice.
Practice using active voice instead of passive voice. When you write in active voice with strong verbs, your audience will connect with you better, and be motivated to take action. It will also be easier for your audience to remember your point.
You want the people reading your content to be able to follow along easily, to read easily, and to remember what they are reading.
One way to do this is to make lists. Lists, either bulleted or numbered, are your friends when it comes to creating content! It breaks up the content into easier to consume bites, and prevents your audience from falling asleep while reading.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE HIGH QUALITY CONTENT FOR YOUR SITE!
Use titles to so the reader has an overview of what’s to come. Sometimes they are looking for something specific, and you want them to be able to easily find it.
Make sure there is enough white space on your page with good spacing. This provides balance to your page.
Always add visuals of some sort! Whether it is graphs, pictures that help your audience visualize what you are writing about, or whatever else you can think of. This helps break up your content, and make it more memorable. People do not want to be reading a textbook like article. And most textbooks even have pictures to make it easier to remember.
Practice storytelling. This comes easier for some people than others. I feel like I am a better story teller than a technical writer, but it’s good to incorporate both into your writing. People love to read stories, but want to get useful information out of the content as well. So practice finding that balance where the reader will feel connected to you, that they can relate to you. This will foster engagement and loyalty, and therefore long term success in your business.
Maintaining and Updating Your Website Content
Schedule time every month or every couple of months to do a content audit. This will help you understand what’s working and what’s not. Review how much time is spent on your site, and which posts are converting well.
Sometimes you will find new content in old posts, and sometimes you will be able to tweak previous posts to make them more SEO friendly, or more readable. You will also find areas or posts that you can update to make sure it is accurate, and to keep it fresh.
When readers leave feedback or comments, use it to improve your content! If there are areas you are getting positive feedback, keep doing what you are doing. But if you are getting negative feedback, don’t feel offended, just use that to improve the areas you need to improve on!
Keep Learning
When you are building an online business, there is no end date. There is no date that you are finished, where you have completed your tasks.
You need to always be growing and learning. Join community groups or online forums. Learn new skills. Follow trends. Experiment with different formats.
Stay up to date on new things happening in the online world, and you will never get bored and will always have new content.
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