Everyone makes them and everyone hates them. Typos are the bane of the Internet’s existence, creating turmoil for grammar Nazis and fodder for those who like to mock typos. Facebook understands how many typos are made and they created a way for users to correct their mistakes, but what happens when it comes to writing your content? You probably will not have the Facebook users who will comment and make sure you know just how many typos your content has. It can be pretty embarrassing if you notice them days later. It can also be detrimental to your search engine ranks. This blog will explore how typos can impact your rankings, how to avoid typos, and some of the most commonly misspelled words.
Is it Really Detrimental?
Unfortunately, it is. While the occasional typo will not be a detriment, if you consistently have typos it will begin to hurt your rankings. As Search Engine Land points out, Google and Bing have begun ranking posts that not only use specific keywords, but also are high quality. If your posts have many typos all the time, they, logically, will not be considered quality. You probably think that sucks, but would you trust a site that always makes errors in their posts and content? No. You would find them unprofessional and you would not believe them when they stated they were the leaders in their field. Make sure your content is free from errors.
Thankfully, though, you do not have to worry about user comments dragging you down. Matt Cutts of Google put everyone’s minds at ease by saying that as long as your content is grammatically sound and free from error, user comments will not change your ranks. In fact, those comments reflect on the commenter, not the writer of the blog.
Avoid those Typos!
We know that you think that it will be difficult to spot all of those typos, but we are here to give you a few tips on how to avoid typos in your future content.
1. Read Out Loud. Reading your content out loud is a great way to find errors you have made. When reading silently, our brains do something amazing, yet annoying – they fill in the errors with the correct word. Reading slowly and aloud will help you come across the times you use “you” instead of “your” or use “it” instead of “if.”
2. Take More Time. Don’t rush your writing. We understand deadlines, but if you rush, you will find that your content is sloppy and filled with errors. Hurrying makes you use “their” instead of “there” or other groan-worthy mistakes. Schedule out your writing assignments so that you do not have to do a lot of rushing on the day it is due. This will give you the ability to take all the time you need to research and properly write your article or blog.
3. Get Fresh Eyes. Brafton.com suggests getting fresh eyes to read your content. You can only find so many typos before you begin to go blind to others. Fresh eyes will find things you didn’t find and can tell you if your post makes sense or is redundant. In addition, fresh eyes will read the article fully, whereas you are probably beginning to skim your writing. Skimming is a big no-no when it comes to proofreading! A great place to start with getting fresh eyes is by hiring copy editors. They are specially trained to work with all kinds of copy. Copy editors can offer amazing suggestions for corrections to be made. They will catch all kind of mistakes and typos, saving you from embarrassingly publishing something chockfull of errors.
4. Grammarly. While it does not catch every mistake, Grammarly is a great tool to help writers proofread their content. It tells you when you misspell a word, use a commonly confused word, or it will correct basic grammar and do many other cool things. It is important to note that it is not foolproof and it will not catch everything, and sometimes it makes some wonky suggestions! Always proofread and make sure their suggestions fit with your writing.
Commonly Misspelled Words.
When you make a mistake, it is natural to feel ashamed and embarrassed, but remember that a lot of other writers and editors make similar mistakes. This doesn’t mean you can slack off on your proofreading; it just gives you a sigh of relief that you aren’t the only one to make blunders.
Here are a few of the most commonly misspelled words on the Internet (how many of these make you groan and shake your head?):
Definitely – Definately (our fingers just felt terrible typing that!)
Receive – Recieve
Occurrence – Occurence
Government – Goverment
Regardless – Irregardless (ouch!)
We should also mention, “could of” and “should of” as being a common mistake made in the majority of writings. Do your best to stay away from these and always double check that you haven’t fallen into typing terrible typos. You might even pop on over to The Oatmeal and check out their list of The Top Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling.
Remember
Everyone makes typos at some point and everyone publishes said typos. It is something we will all do, but you have to take measures to make sure you do not publish typos consistently. By following the steps listed above, you will be able to stop those typos from being published and your search engine rankings will not suffer.
You create a headline that’s unique, urgent, and ultra-specific.
Like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel, you carefully craft your content with gentle but passionate effort.
When you’re done, your blog is flawless.
In fact, it’s beautiful.
It answers your audience’s needs, questions, and problems. It’s entertaining. There’s nothing like it online.
So why are people still clicking the back button like it’ll save their lives?
The answer is you may be doing something wrong that hugely affects your blog’s readability – and that is writing dull subheaders.
Your Essential Guide to Creating Killer Subheaders for Web Content – Table of Contents
Why Amazing Content Isn’t Enough to Prevent Your Readers from Running
How Subheaders Can Attract More Readers to Your Blog
10 Mistakes That Weaken Subheaders for Web Content
Five Easy Steps to Compelling Subheaders for Web Content
Are Your Subheaders Good Enough to Reduce Your Bounce Rate?
[bctt tweet=”You can call your web content the best one you’ve made so far. But why is your bounce rate still high? You might have missed polishing your subheaders! Read this essential guide to creating killer subheaders by @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”]
Why Amazing Content Isn’t Enough to Prevent your Readers from Running
The web isn’t your local library.
And people don’t go online to ponder upon beautifully written sentences.
For instance, imagine yourself clicking a website and seeing a huge block of text like this.
Source: Amazon
Jeet Thayil’s novel is a deep, thought-provoking work. However, it requires a quiet corner and hours of time to read and ponder on.
Online, it’s not about reading for pleasure. It’s about finding a solution to a problem in the shortest time possible. So no matter how helpful your content is, people won’t read it if you present it in a long block of text.
This is why amazing content isn’t enough to keep readers from bouncing. You need amazing content and an amazing way to present it.
The solution? Divide your text into sections with attention-grabbing subheaders.
[bctt tweet=”An amazing web content allows people to find the solution to a problem in the shortest time possible. They don’t have the time to scan through a huge wall of text! So it’s important to use subheaders. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
How Subheaders Can Attract More Readers to Your Blog
Here’s the cool part.
Subheaders can do more for you than just prevent your readers from running when they see long blocks of text on your page.
Users search for information, products, and help on Google using chosen keywords. What crawlers do is come up with relevant sites that have the content these users are looking for.
On your part, it’ll help when you add relevant keywords to your content. But did you know that where you put these keywords is as important as which keywords you use?
That’s right. Google crawlers pay extra attention to website headings and subheadings. When you plant your keywords in them, you improve your SEO ranking considerably.
The result? More people finding your blog and reading it!
[bctt tweet=”Besides making your content more readable, subheaders can bring more readers to your site – especially if you’ve added the right, relevant keywords.” username=”ExpWriters”]
10 Mistakes That Weaken Subheaders for Web Content
While your first instinct might be to cut up your content and slap on any keyword-rich subheader you can think of above each section, don’t do that.
Why?
Your subheaders are the glue that will compel people to read your whole post.
Think of them as your mini headlines. While your curiosity-piquing headline sucked people into your blog, it’s the job of your subheadings to suck people into every section of your blog.
Subheadings have the power to compel your readers to keep reading until the end of your post.
That is if they’re done right.
But a ton of things could go wrong with your subheadings. Here are 10 of them.
1. Forgetting Your Blog’s Promise
Readers come to your blog because your headline promised them something.
For instance, take a look at this headline from Healthline.
Readers click on this headline because it promises them something specific: They’ll get relief from a toothache without visiting a dentist.
Now, see the subheadings listed below? Each one of them is in line with the blog’s promise.
Imagine what would happen if you wrote a subheading like The History of Toothaches. You got it. Readers won’t go that far on your blog.
2. Turning Subheadings into Content Spoilers
Subheadings can be tricky.
You want to keep them in line with your blog’s main promise.
BUT you don’t want them to give too much away.
Look at this example:
When readers see this subheading, they won’t need to read the content you write under it. They already know everything it’ll say.
Now, what about this subheading?
This subheading still delivers on the promise of your blog. However, it’s just a sneak peek that encourages readers to get into your content. When they continue reading, they learn that the secret ingredient for outstanding subheadings is uniqueness.
3. Being Too Dry
Putting emotion into your writing always works. Why? Because readers come to your blog with their own complex feelings.
For instance, think of a small business owner who’s going bankrupt. What emotion is he feeling? Maybe it’s fear, hopelessness, or desperation. When he goes online and finds your blog, he takes these emotions with him.
What you need to do with your subheadings is to offer alternative emotions. For instance, “The Unexpected Lifeline That Saved My Doomed Business” is full of hope, courage, and optimism. These emotions will keep your businessman reading until the end of your post.
This line is taken from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. What does the chapter title say about the chapter itself? To answer that, it’ll take hours of pondering and even debate.
Now, if your goal is to win an award for literary fiction, you should go ahead and be as deeply creative as you can. But for your blog? An overly creative and confusing subheading will have readers running.
5. Confusing Subheaders with Labels
When you think of subheadings as mere “labels” for new sections of content, you turn them dry and yawn-inducing.
For instance, let’s say you’re writing a section on your blog about how to craft amazing content. You can craft the subheading into a boring label such as “How to Craft Amazing Content.”
Or you can inject a drop of life and intrigue into it. For example, you can make it “10 Hacks for Amazing Content Most Writers Don’t Know.”
6. Missing Out on the Guidance Your Subheaders Can Give
Your subheadings are powerful guides that will help you create better content.
Imagine you’re writing a blog dealing with how to write online content. You prepare your outline, including a number of subheadings.
Now, let’s reuse the two examples of subheadings for web content in the previous point. If your subheader reads “How to Craft Amazing Content,” you’ll do some research and come up with a few tips. The result? A generic piece that only scratches the surface of your topic.
But what if you choose “10 Hacks for Amazing Content Most Writers Don’t Know”? You can’t settle for generic. You need to dive deeper and find unique, uncommon writing secrets most people don’t know.
See where subheaders can lead you? Great subheaders will always result in great content.
7. Not Being Relatable
When you write subheadings for web content, make sure they resonate with relevant questions in your readers’ minds.
For instance, take a look at this subheading.
This subheading works because almost all human beings ask this question at some point. It’s relatable and what’s more, it’s interesting. You want to know why the question is really three questions.
8. Creating a Weak Subheading for Conclusion
After you’ve come up with powerful subheadings for your piece, you might be tempted to slack off with your subheading for the conclusion. Don’t do this.
Your concluding subheading precedes the summary of your blog. Get it right, and readers will leave your site feeling satisfied.
The subheading for the conclusion shouldn’t be a last-minute label for the final part of your blog. It’s a title for one of the most important parts of your blog: your conclusion.
9. Leaving Out SEO
As mentioned earlier, planting killer keywords into your subheadings will help you rank better on Google.
Here’s how to do it for more success:
Use your focus keyword in your first subheading.
Use synonymous keywords in the following subheadings.
Use variations of your keywords if your grammar sounds awkward.
Here’s an example of subheaders that optimize the keyword “tone of voice.”
Source: The Write Blog
10. Limiting Yourself
So, how many subheaders should you use within your content?
[bctt tweet=”Are your subheaders too dry? confusing? or missing a keyword? Know the rest of the common subheader mistakes and how to avoid them in this guide by @JuliaEMcCoy ️” username=”ExpWriters”]
Five Easy Steps to Compelling Subheaders for Web Content
Here’s a simple exercise you can do every time you need to write subheaders for web content.
Step one: Open the blog you wrote. Go through it casually and take note of the subheaders you used.
Step two: Go over the blog again. This time, separate each subheader and the following text from the rest of the blog.
Step three: Study the text under the subheader carefully. What’s its big idea? What’s the main purpose of the section?
Step four: Imagine that section of text was a stand-alone article. If so, what would you title it?
Step five: Craft your subheading as carefully as if it were a headline. Study it to make sure you haven’t made any of the 10 mistakes mentioned above. Are you merely using it as a label? Giving away too much information? Confusing readers? If your answer is no to all 10, you’ve come up with a killer subheader.
Are Your Subheaders Good Enough to Reduce Your Bounce Rate?
When readers land on your blog, you have around eight seconds to capture their attention. In such a short span of time, how do you convince them to read everything you’ve written?
You got it. The magic starts with subheaders that work like headlines to pull readers into every single section of your blog.
And when you have subheaders for web content that are unique, targeted to solve problems, curiosity-piquing, and promising? Your bounce rate will decrease.
Your content is written, but your funds are limited. So what do you do? Clearly you would think that you should start looking for marketers to market your content, but those limited funds come right back up. This is a chance for you to save some money and begin marketing on your own. You can still utilize the services from other companies, but this blog is going to help you learn several nifty ways to market your content without breaking your bank account.
To Market or Not To Market
Believe it or not, there are people who wonder if marketing is important. In fact, you might be one of those! We can tell you that marketing is of the utmost importance when it comes to getting your content and product out there. How else will people find you? How else can they learn about your amazing products and services? Just because you have published your content does not mean it stops there. You have to market or else your other efforts will fall flat and you will notice your site going downhill fast. There are many ways in which you can market your content and according to Convince and Convert, some of these are:
Emailing employees on an internal network. If you do not have an internal network, you can still do this via Google+ or sending out an employee newsletter.
Social Media news release.
Traditional news releases.
Appearing on local news stations.
YouTube demos for apps and other products.
These are based on what one company did when creating a nifty app to help parents find the best car seat for their children. The app was successful because of the marketing this company did. Instead of treating the release as the end of the line, they advertised their product as much as they possibly could. While some of their methods may not work for your business, following some of what is listed above will help you. Do not neglect marketing or you will live to regret it.
Now, we are sure you are wondering how to market your product, content, and services. We will discuss a few handy tips and products that can help you immensely as you begin your marketing campaign.
1. Great Strategies and Strong Foundations. In order to market your content, you need to have solid content foundation. You cannot just jump into the content marketing game, you need to have a plan and follow it. Strategy is the best way to make sure your content will be noticed. If you do not have a strategy for your content and your content marketing campaigns, you will see it slipping. Once you have a strategy and a strong foundation, you can begin to publish great content and market it wonderfully. A good strategy will help you keep up with your marketing needs, but bad strategy will make you lose more customers and money. Never underestimate the power of great strategy!
2. Street Teams. These have proven to be pretty effective for a lot of groups and companies. Street teams rely on clients to give out information regarding a company or group. These can be done in numerous ways. For example, the International Geek Girl Pen Pal Club (IGGPPC) has several street teams throughout the world. Their teams give out postcards, pins, stickers, pencils, and other things that relate to letter writing. This is a great way for people outside of the IGGPPC friend circle to hear about this group. Because of the street teams, this group has approximately 45,000 site views a month. The street teams combined with social media get the information out there to a huge audience, creating a tremendous success for this year old group. Utilize your social networks and start creating a street team that will be appropriate for your business and content, you’ll be amazed at how much your name will get out there by getting clients to give out information around their towns!
3. Social Media. One of the biggest helps in marketing your own content is social media. It is so important that you have read it a thousand times over, but we keep saying it because a lot of people are ignoring this. Social media is a great marketing technique. A big help in social media is that share or retweet button. When you have an active social media marketing campaign, you will see more and more of your information being shared on the basic social media sites. It is really great when your info starts being shared a lot; it means you are one step closer to going viral, which is absolutely perfect in the world of the Internet and marketing!
While Facebook and Twitter are great ways to market, there are some other social media sites and tools that will help you in your marketing campaign. It is time to start thinking outside of the generic social media box. (And do not worry; we will be discussing these awesome tools in this blog!) As we have said and will continue to say, social media is the greatest way to self-market and promote your content and product, as it gets to a wider audience and can be shared many times over.
4. StumbleUpon. This is a great resource for marketing. StumbleUpon users will “stumble upon” various webpages that have been added. They then rank the web page as being something they are interested in or not, which will help StumbleUpon streamline the web pages the user sees most. This is a great opportunity for your marketing campaigns. Firmology gives a few examples of how StumbleUpon can be used in your content marketing:
Add a Page. This is an easy way to promote your page. Go to the drop down menu beneath your profile photo and locate the link that is appropriately titled, “add a page.” From there, you can add links to pages from all over your website. Be sure to add applicable tags so users can find you quicker! Make sure the content you add is engaging and do not overwhelm users with a lot of information from your site.
StumbleUpon Plug-in. You can add this to your Google Chrome or Firefox browser to share your content quickly. Just click the little thumbs-up button and you are good to go. If you see that it is already green, that is a great sign! It means it has already been shared on StumbleUpon. That would be an appropriate moment to do a little happy dance.
Badges. Yes, badges. Badges are cool. Using a StumbleUpon badge is a great way to get your content shared. The more people who like your content via the StumbleUpon badge, the more other people will see your site. This will assuredly lead to going viral. (Remember, that is what you want!)
Payment. The above listed items are the free ways to get your content noticed, but you can also pay StumbleUpon to share your content. This is another excellent way to get your content noticed, but you should keep in mind that it will show as a sponsored post on StumbleUpon, meaning some folks might ignore it.
We can personally attest to StumbleUpon being worthwhile. We have found that certain blogs and infographics are shared quickly. It has really helped to bring in more readers. In fact, our infographic The Era of the Content Beast received 91 shares on StumbleUpon! Pretty nifty, huh?
5. HackerNews. HackerNews is a great way to get your information out there if you are just starting up and you are in the techie and entrepreneurial world. Before you start thinking this is yet another social media platform, it is actually a news source for all in the technological and entrepreneurial realm. If you make it onto the home news feed, you will find your content receives thousands and more visits to your site. It is a great community that is dedicated to a niche topic.
6. Reddit. Following in the same vein as HackerNews is Reddit. It has the potential for a wider variety of topics, so it does not just have to be for tech related companies. Mashable discusses the various ways in which marketers can use Reddit in their upcoming campaigns and points out that this simplified format also gives consumers and readers the ability to discuss the elements they like or dislike. It is a great format to receive client feedback, as many will be able to stay anonymous and will feel freer letting the company know how they feel about certain aspects of the business.
7. HootSuite. You will start to feel really overwhelmed with all of these social media platforms and keeping them up-to-date, but never fear! There is a great app to help you keep all of those social media platforms together in one central location and make sure everything is adequately updated. This is an app called HootSuite. It allows you to add up to five social media accounts for free so that you can monitor them all and update them, as you need to. You can schedule an automatic RSS push to go out from HootSuite to all of your social networks, effectively covering all of the bases. It is a great way to make sure you do not forget about one of the social networks you are using, which is highly possible the more you increase your social media presence.
Be Sure to Use DIY Marketing With Paid and Earned Promotions!
These DIY marketing tips will be very helpful because they will save you a lot of money. They are also perfect ways to interact with your clients on a personal level and make them feel involved with your company. People who feel involved are more likely to share your content with others. However, according to Marketing Land, you need to use your own marketing in connection with paid and earned promotions. In the marketing world, you cannot rely specifically on one form of marketing, because you will miss reaching a lot of different viewers and potential customers.
Let’s take a look at paid and earned promotions and how they will help in connection with your own form of marketing:
Paid Promotions. This strategy is a good way for your content to be seen by a wider audience. You can do paid promotions by paying for sponsored tweets or Facebook posts that will show up in people’s news feeds. While some people might skip over the promotions, you will find that many people will start coming your way due to this sponsored item.
Earned Promotions. These are simply when you go viral; hence having the title “earned” promotions. Viral content means you have a lot of viewers and readers, it also means that your viewer and readership will grow with each new share. You can also obtain earned promotions by having a visually appealing website, as well as having an easy to navigate website, by writing for your audience and not the search engines, and by making your content easy to share on social platforms.
By combining your own marketing, paid promotions and earned promotions you will see that your content is being viewed more and that your company is beginning to be a tremendous success. Marketing is vital to getting your company running and keeping it going like the Energizer bunny!
In the End…
You cannot forego marketing, no matter what others might be saying and no matter whether you feel awkward or silly marketing for yourself. Self-promotion does feel strange to many people and you may feel like you are constantly trying to make yourself look good, and that is what you want! That is what marketers do already, why not do it for yourself? Go on and begin that self-marketing journey and you will see a significant amount of success for your company in 2014!
Are you a new business, a mid-size to large business, or any other size business with a stagnant online marketing campaign? Do you feel your online presence is not really going places yet? Let’s talk about how to get you on the road to success!
Here are a few ways to stop stagnating and come up with new, fresh material that will make readers love you:
1. Don’t Stop Your Yapping
We’ve all heard someone, somewhere say “stop your yapping” but when it comes to content marketing strategies, if you aren’t yapping you’ll start drowning. Talk about your content with other marketers within your company and start sharing ideas. Someone will have at least one idea, but are too scared to share. Opening up a sharing ground will be a great way to begin getting out of the stagnant content marshlandand beginning to create new content strategies that will be the bee’s-knees, the cat’s pajamas, and the best darn content out on the Internet.
2. Spot Those Problem Areas
Get your magnifying glass out and get ready to find those problem areas in your content. We know you really love what you have published and you just cannot understand why no one is reacting to your wonderfully crafted content. While it may be amazing and well written, if it is not bringing people in, there is a problem and you have to find it to move on.
When you begin to correct the problem area and find a new, impactful way to create content, Moz suggests that you create a small list of goals you would like to accomplish. They urge writers and marketers not to spread themselves too thin when creating these goals. If you are trying to juggle twenty semi-important goals instead of, say, five important ones, you will find yourself burning out quickly and the content will continue to be stagnant and not have any sort of impact whatsoever. Once you have found the problem, it is time to make a strategy.
3. Ender Didn’t Beat the Buggers With Luck
He beat them with strategy. If you do not know the story of Ender Wiggin, check out Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. In this story, Ender is chosen to be the leader of humanity in a war against an alien race referred to as “buggers.” Ender had to do a lot of strategizing and learning from his mistakes before he finally beat them at their game.
This goes for your content. You can’t just whip something up and expect it to go viral in an instant. If you constantly just write or create stuff and throw it out there without a strategy, you will see your content marketing campaign going stagnant and you will watch as your viewers back away with looks of consternation. Do not let that happen! Start working on that strategy and learn from your mistakes. Your mistakes are your best teaching tool. You will learn what needs to change if you are willing to open up your mind to take those mistakes as learning aids and not failures.
4. Everyone’s a Critic
The Internet is a lovely place of opportunity, but can turn into a stinking quagmire of criticism quickly. Many people say, “Avoid the comments!” because this is where most of the horrible criticism is but you should not let that bring you down and stop you from producing great content. Just because someone says it is awful does not mean it really is. Take a lesson from some famous, classic authors. One critic of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn said the book was, “No better in tone than the dime novels which flood the Blood-and-Thunder reading population.” Did that stop him from continuing to write his amazing novels? No! So, do not let those comments stop you from promoting your company and producing your content.
However, by avoiding the comments section your content will become stale. Within those horrible comments are some real gems of information. You will be able to learn what people like or dislike and can implement that into your new content strategy. Many authors have used negative reviews as a way to grow their writing, hence becoming national bestsellers.
5. You Do Not Have a T.A.R.D.I.S.
So stop acting as if you do. If you spend all day in meetings, chat with coworkers over lunch, and work through your mountain of emails every day, you will find your content is beginning to stink like a disgusting swampy pond. Swat those mosquitoes away and start managing your time. No time machine will be here to take you back and, according to the Doctor, you can’t cross your time stream anyway. Business2Community points out that humans tend to be more alert in the morning. Sure, we all may be groggy without our morning cup of coffee but we also do not have a whole days’ worth of worries and to-dos floating around in our brains. We can think much clearer in the morning and, in fact, many people come up with some of their best ideas in the morning. The first thing to do when you get to work is to carve out about 30 to 45 minutes to sit and think. Start brainstorming and you will see that you come up with some pretty epic ideas!
6. Become a Lurker
Lurking is creepy when done in real life but it can be very beneficial on the Internet. We aren’t talking about Facebook stalking, rather going to the different social media sites and looking at what is trending or what articles Buzzfeed and Upworthy are currently posting. Apart from Buzzfeed and Upworthy, HubSpot also suggests listening to new TED talks. TED talks are really interesting and provide amazing inspiration on a variety of topics. Gaining web inspiration is an excellent way to learn new information and to begin to spruce up your content marketing. While you’re at it, how about looking for inspiration from your competitors? We know you wonder why they are doing so well and now is the time to become Sherlock Holmes and find what they are doing. This will help you discover neat tricks for talking to clients within your niche market and you can also see what mistakes your competitors are making. This will show that they are human and give you a heads up about things that will not work, before you ever make that mistake. Pretty nifty, huh?
7. Try On a New Format
Sometimes, new clothes help make people feel amazing and buying new clothes gets them out of whatever rut they find themselves in. The same goes for a new format for your content. While text content is great, it is becoming boring for many readers. Try out a few new formats and see how readers react.
Social Media Today suggests a few formats that you can try to change up your content:
Videos and Photographs. Changing your content into a video or photo format, will standout to your readers. It is not something they’re used to so their attention will be grabbed and they will be more willing to stick with you.
Infographics. Infographics are at the height of fashion and you would be silly not to use this to your advantage. Create some content and implement it into an infographic. This format is easy to share and the more people that share it, the more readers you will acquire.
Question and Answer Sessions. People really like question and answer sessions. Let readers and clients submit questions to you and do a live webcast or do a video recording of you and your company answering the questions. This will help your clients feel like you are actually listening to them and this is a great way to encourage them to share more information about your company. Of course, always read the questions before doing anything live, some people really like submitting strange or inappropriate questions to sidetrack speakers.
Micro-Content. All that long content you have been working on might be your problem. Sure, lengthy blogs are great for in-depth discussions, but most readers want to make choices. Do they want to read something long today or do they just want a tiny bit of information? Utilize things like Twitter where you are limited to 140 characters and start putting out micro-content. You can share links, photographs, or tips/facts of the day. This will help engage your readers and keep them interested enough to read your lengthy content when you publish it.
8. Shift Your Focus
We see you over there with your nose glued to your computer screen. That’s cool. We understand that you are crafting content and are dedicated to making it the best content ever, but you are focusing on the wrong area. Yes, writing and creating content is important, but one of the most important things is building a relationship with customers. You may have started out with quality, compelling content and you now have a great client base due to this.
However, the reason you are “stagnating” and losing customers might not be just about the quality of your current content but how well you are relating to your clientele. Start focusing on your existing clients and make them feel involved. You are reading this because you feel stuck in a rut, so how about when you are finished reading you go and ask your customers what they would like to see. You will gain so much inspiration simply by asking people what their interests are and you will watch your clients feel appreciated to the point that they start saying, “You’ve got to give this company a shot, they are incredible!” Once you’ve shifted your focus, you will begin seeing just how much inspiration you are gathering and you will get out of the rut. Do not fear your customers – learn from them.
9. Reading Creates Creative Content
People do not want to see bland content when they go to a website; they want to see something that is creative and fun. If you are trying to be creative and are stuck, how about reading some new-to-you books that are full of imagination? Books are great at promoting creativity and many writers find that if they have not read in a while, their writing reflects it. They also realize that their ability to come up with new topics suffers. Even if they are writing on how to install a kitchen sink or about some other construction project, they find that books are huge sources of inspiration. Try branching out of your comfort zone when it comes to reading, as this can give you new ideas or help you look at things in a new way.
“What if I’m not a reader?” you ask. Never fear, movies, television, music, and video games are other awesome ways to gain inspiration. Don’t listen to the naysayers who say all of those things dumb people down, because they really don’t. In fact, many newer video games have some absolutely amazing in-depth stories. Try playing a game like Mass Effect or Dragon Age where your choices affect the outcome of the game. This keeps you on your toes and stimulates your brain similarly to the way reading a book does.
Let’s Not Forget
We all get into content ruts, so do not feel discouraged that it is happening to you. Google will show just how many artists out there feel creatively stuck and you will notice that many copywriters are the same way. One last tip before we go is that while your company might be your passion, writing may not. Find people within your company who have a passion for writing or hire copywriters to help you. You’ll see your content improve significantly and watch it blossom into something beautiful. Getting a professional writer will turn that stinky, stagnate pond into a flourishing pond that is teeming with life.
Do you have what it takes to create and distribute stellar content in the form of press releases without terminating your friendship with Google? It’s no secret that search engines work around the clock to ensure a flawless web experience for all categories of web users. This means that Google is constantly plotting against content creators who rely on less orthodox search engine optimization to bring their websites on page 1 in search engine results, boost their online visibility and fill their own pockets the easy way.
Why Is Google Constantly Blocking Your Way to SEO Success?
Unfortunately, the never-ending string of sneaky changes sometimes manages to puzzle even the most experienced webmasters and stop them from getting a good night’s sleep. What seems acceptable today becomes intolerable tomorrow. Google, can you please make up your mind and surprise us with a little bit of consistency? The bad news is that it is not in our power to control Google, its plentitude of algorithm updates and its endless list of surprises, which is probably longer than the one that Santa prepares for us on every single year. The good news is that even though we cannot anticipate or correct Google’s independent spirit, we can adapt to these new challenges and breathe new life into our old content marketing strategy.
The Good, the Bad and the Dangerous of Content Distribution via Press Releases
You may be aware of the fact that Google has a real problem with bad link building strategies. And by “bad” we mean deceptive and designed to manipulate search engine results to the webmaster’s advantage. According to Search Engine Watch, Google may also be bothered by press releases that are created and distributed to help a certain website occupy a better position in search engines without actually doing readers any favors.
The same source mentions the fact that Google seems determined to squeeze every single drop of SEO juice from press releases; this appears to be a diabolic master plan that was rolled out quite some time ago. The most pressing problem that has recently come to our attention is this: Google is actually cataloging links in press releases as “unnatural”. As a result, it is compelling webmasters to nofollow them. So what does this major change mean for companies and organizations that depend on properly optimized press releases to highlight their mission, vision and purpose in business?
Search Engine Watch reveals that in 2006, press releases were a real gold mine for SEO experts who knew how to give wings to an inspired marketing message and optimize quality content for search engines at the same time. 8 years later, press releases are no longer considered the Holy Grail of search engine optimization. On the contrary, sloppiness and your refusal to comply with Google’s rules and guidelines while writing press releases can get you in serious trouble and expose you to considerable penalties. Don’t say you haven’t been warned: according to Search Engine Land, press releases won’t help your rankings. This statement is supported by Matt Cutts, who revealed that press releases cannot and will not improve your current position in Google.
So what’s the best method to keep risks at bay and still profit from the good that still lies in every single well-written press release? People who want to rely on press releases to spread the word about their companies by publishing their content via article websites or paid wire services such as Marketwire, Business Wire or PR Newswire are advised to nofollow their links, especially if they represent optimized anchor texts.
In this particular context, the rel nofollow attribute seems to be a life preservative that is your one and only hope when you are just about to sink in an ocean of gray hat SEO tactics and uncertainties. When in doubt, just use rel nofollow to stay in Google’s good graces. Rules may be created to be broken, but this is certainly not the case. The nofollow tactic seems a simple, easy to implement preventive measure that could enable many content creators to avoid penalties. But older press releases that have already been distributed and republished by countless sources are the real concern in this case.
Rel Nofollow: A Life Preserver That We Should Hold On to When It Comes to Optimizing Press Releases
In this particular context, one question is on everybody’s lips: will the ghost of already archived press releases that are all over the Internet haunt its creators and distributors? How much time will paid wire services need to clean up this mess and implement new sets of rules to avoid mishaps that could make Google really angry? At this point, nobody can provide an accurate answer to these 2 pressing questions that are on everybody’s mind.
What we do know for a fact is that nothing can stand in the way of clients who want to share their newsworthy facts with the whole world; not even Google’s mood swings. Businesses depend on press releases to boost their visibility, promote lines of products or new services, diversify their clientele and improve brand awareness. From this point of view, press releases are undeniably powerful allies and nothing can change this. There’s only one alteration that should be factored in at this point: links should be handled with gloves.
The rel nofollow alternative represents a viable option at hand for people who don’t want to let Google stop them from creating and distributing first-class press releases that have what it takes to inform and educate a broad audience. In other words, content creators shouldn’t exclude links from their strategy. On the contrary, they should include one or two to help readers land on a company’s blog or website and stimulate them to take action. However, the new changes made public by Google, related to link building strategies in press releases may bring us back to an old-school form of premium PR work, which is not necessarily a step back. After all, PR Newswire reminds us that we should write for living, breathing people, not for machines.
After all, press releases are the bread and butter of most journalists and respectable publications like The New York Times, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, for instance. According to Search Engine Watch, excellent press release wire services, like PRWeb for instance, feed the content hunger of more than 8,000 websites and give millions of people something to talk about. This is only one reason why press releases are truly irreplaceable.
Breaking News: Press Releases are So Much More Than Mere SEO Tools
Truth be told, we can’t imagine how gigantic, prestigious newsrooms like Reuters and AP would manage to function without healthy feeds of quality press releases in their system. The problem is that some content creators craft and distribute content just to generate inbound links, which is precisely the thing that drives Google crazy.
To overcome this obstacle, writers, marketers and SEO experts should refresh their memory and remember that press releases are not mere SEO tools used to push a certain page on a privileged position in Google. Press releases should be perceived as high-value content pieces designed to generate authentic reads and clicks and enhance the online visibility of a brand in a natural manner.
Engaging, informative content is the key to success in what press releases are concerned. First-hand newsworthy facts are mandatory, not optional. The one or two links accompanied by the rel nofollow attribute are just the icing on your cake. If all this fuss created around links has made you feel confused, just take a closer look at the 5 foolproof ways to optimize your press releases without exposing yourself to any penalties coming from search engines.
5 Risk-Free Ways to Get theGold Medal While Optimizing Your Press Releases for Google and SEO
1. Keep the Essential Links to Drive Traffic. The nofollow alternative sounds like music to our ears. Let’s be serious: you cannot ban the usage of links in your press releases. This radical decision would basically defy the purpose of this type of content pieces. How would users be able to spot the company behind the amazing technological breakthrough, the new affordable line of products or the innovative concept that you’re describing with so much enthusiasm in your press release?
2. Convert Press Releases into Useful Inroads to Killer Content Posted on a Blog or a Website. Raise the curiosity of your readers by creating short, concise, compelling press releases that represent the bridge between readers and a company’s blog or website.
3. Come Up with an Intriguing Story Idea. When it comes to stories that could be easily assimilated by the media, new is good. But new and memorable is always better. Try to present a certain fact from a different perspective. Thinking outside the box always pays off. This doesn’t mean that you should feel encouraged to lie or exaggerate facts listed in your press release. It just means that you have craft a compelling story around the news that you are getting ready to serve on a silver platter. Journalists have a nose for interesting facts that could capture the attention of their readers and boost their engagement. This is precisely why they are more likely to pay attention to press releases that come up with a genuine story with a twist, while avoiding dull content pieces that are mostly based on fabricated facts and nonsense.
4. Perfect Your Distribution Strategies. If youalready count on an amazing wire service, like PRWeb for instance, to distribute your press releases, this doesn’t mean that the job is done and you can just cross your arms and wait for miracles to happen. You may not like the news that you’re about to hear, but here it goes: in order to connect with a large segment of readers/prospects, you have to play on multiple fields.
If you rely on a wire service, this means that you are already one step ahead of your main competitors. Keep up the good work by expanding your content distribution strategy. Post your press releases on some of the most popular social media platforms, where they could be read, filtered, assimilated, liked and shared by your fans and followers. Don’t neglect the enormous power of social networking websites. They are extremely valuable channels that enable you to interact with your targeted audience, inform and educate your readers, become a leader in your field of activity and build and maintain solid relationships in the long run.
5. Rely on Multimedia Content to Broaden Your Horizons. In an era in which the Gangnam Style clip managed to go viral and raise almost 2 billion views on YouTube, it becomes more than obvious that press releases based solely on text fragments are so yesterday. Step up your content creating strategy a bit by including multimedia elements in your informative piece. Videos, infographics and images correlated with well-balanced, short paragraphs increase pageviews and keep your readers on your side for the longest period of time (yes, even the ones with a very short attention span).
Create and embed stunning video content to convince journalists and bloggers that what you have to say is actually important, relevant and newsworthy. Remember that the Internet is highly polluted by junk and overly optimized content with very little substance. This is precisely why you have to rely on 5-start multimedia elements to prove the worthiness of your press releases and let the readers know that your content pieces could become the nucleus of high-quality, reader-oriented articles and blog posts. Furthermore, inforgraphics are hotter than ever. Turning your press release into an infographic will only support your content distribution efforts. Many newsrooms are crazy in love with this type of content, so they won’t hesitate to use it and link back to its original source.
These 5 suggestions reflect the fact that press releases are still alive and well. They may no longer be able to help you generate inbound links, create and implement more or less shady link building strategies, boost the link juice of your current optimization campaign, but this doesn’t mean that press releases are useless artifacts. On the contrary, optimized keywords, great attention-grabbing headlines, proper social media strategies, hashtags and stellar multimedia content can and will reward your legitimate SEO efforts and bring your message in front of a large audience who is ready and eager to take notes.
