I wish I could always be as spontaneous as my dog when she’s on a walk. One moment, she’s strolling down a path, happily enjoying the exercise. Suddenly, a furry being with a bushy tail appears. Squirrel! She needs a gentle tug on the leash to remember to keep walking. We continue a block or two, when she hears a chirp. Bird! If not for the leather connection to the human behind her, she’d be off, trying to catch the bird. That is, of course, until she sees…rabbit!
I believe spur-of-the-moment decisions add excitement to life. However, when it comes to adding content to your website, don’t be like a dog.
Successful inbound marketing means being strategic instead of spontaneous. Keep reading to learn the benefits of various types of content and how this content can and improve your SEO.
Videos! Blogs! Webinars!
There are so many forms of content you can add to your website it can be hard to decide which to use. Before we talk about strategy, let’s look at the numbers:
- Video: 93% of marketers who use video say that it’s an important part of their marketing strategy, which is an increase from 92% last year.
- Blogs: Companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites.
- Webinars: Many companies use webinars to generate leads, with 73% saying they can get high-quality leads from webinars.
As these statistics illustrate, there is merit to using all of these forms of content. So, which content should you add? It depends. Using just one type of content isn’t the best strategy. If you want to meet prospects at different stages of the buying cycle, you need different types of content.
For example, a webinar showing the applications of your product could bring a prospect who’s in the awareness stage to your website. A blog that shows a comparison of your product against your competitors would appeal to someone in the consideration stage. A video that demonstrates the unique features of that same product would appeal to a person in the decision stage.
Take the time to look at your overall business goals and develop content that aligns with those goals. And remember to pull in people from other departments. For example, a conversation with customer service can help identify common questions they hear, that your content can answer.
SEO Benefits of Videos and Blogs
Whatever your business objectives are, increasing the traffic to your website can help you meet those goals. So, let’s look at how the two most popular forms of content—videos and blogs—can enhance your SEO.
Videos
Video content keeps people on your page longer. This helps you rank higher on search engines since Google and other search engines look at what’s called your bounce rate.
If people come to your website and quickly leave, that means they ‘bounced off’ your website because they didn’t find what they were looking for. On the other hand, if people land on a webpage and stay, it tells the search engine that you have good content, which increases your ranking.
Adding videos to your website helps attract visitors, keep them engaged, and can turn them into a customer. Then, since video can help you rank higher, you can potentially attract more visitors which puts the whole cycle on repeat.
Blogs
According to Semrush, there are 89,409 Google searches per second. Per second! If a person has a question, their first inclination is to “Google it” to find the answer.
That’s where your blog can help.
The problem is too many companies use their blogs just to sell their services. Remember what we said earlier about your bounce rate? If a person clicks on your blog, sees that you are selling your services instead of providing helpful content, they will quickly leave.
Instead, write informative blogs with keywords in the headline, subheads and text. This can be a powerful way to give people the information they are looking for and help you rank higher on search engines.
The combination of content, such as videos and blogs, plus SEO is part of inbound marketing. If you’re too busy to create your own inbound marketing campaign, contact us. We’d love to help.
