By Kelly Whelan, Content Marketing Manager, Higher Logic
As an affiliate marketer, keeping your finger on the pulse of your industry is essentially a job requirement, and chances are you’re pretty good at it. But while it’s okay to use prior knowledge to brainstorm content internally, you shouldn’t assume you know everything.
Instead, eliminate preconceptions by putting yourself in your members’ shoes. Find out where they are: Are members active in your online community? Are they present on social networks? Are they part of a certain group and follow specific people? What blog posts and web pages are they visiting on your site?
Once you’ve determined where the members are meeting, listen carefully to their conversations. You may see a lot of engagement with a blog post or thread on social media, indicating that you could produce additional content on that topic. Or, if several people in your online community ask the same question, you can interview the members who answer that question to provide an in-depth exploration of the topic.
Get into the habit of checking with your members and finding out what’s important to them. Monitor online community discussions and check your blog and website traffic. You can also do topic and keyword research to determine what people are searching for and what questions you need to answer.
If you have a specific question, poll members or hold discussion groups to learn more. Not everyone will have the time to get involved, but those who do usually appreciate the opportunity to tell you what they need.
Take advantage of SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is exactly what it sounds like: optimizing your website and content to appear in search engine results. In addition to making sure your audience finds the content you’ve created, certain pieces of an SEO strategy can help you focus on your audience’s needs.
Keyword research, for example: You can and should monitor what people are searching for online, right down to the formulation of their questions. Let’s say you work in an association of marketing professionals. You might do some keyword research and find that people often search for “How can I use SEO?” or “How can I create engaging content?” To meet their needs, you can create a guide on using SEO to create engaging content.
Also, keep in mind on-page optimization: A process that helps ensure that the content you create to address your audience’s interests is actually presented to your audience. At a basic level, doing keyword research helps you determine which words and phrases to include when writing or creating content.
For example, in my previous work at an association, we referred to a particular topic in an internal way, but later learned that other people in the industry were using a different phrase. Because the words we were using in our content did not align with the words our audience was searching for, our content may not appear in search results and receive the traffic we expected. Solving this problem brought more attention to the content we had worked so hard to create.
On a more technical level, make sure you create pages and content in a way that encourages search engines crawl, index and rank pages. This can also make your content more user-friendly; make sure the structure of the copy you’re writing is clear and includes at least some SEO-friendly aspects. For example:
Use target keywords in your first paragraph. Organize your content so it’s easy to consume: break up your text with informative headings (try to include keywords in these headings); keep vocabulary simple; Use short sentences, use bullet points and lists, etc. Write headlines that can be uncreated. Include visuals, but be sure to compress them and use alt text.
A 2020 SEMRrush blog post describes content marketing and SEO as “natural complements to each other,” and that’s a good way to think about it. SEO helps your content strategy and good content improves your ability to appear in search results.
Starting
Even small organizations with limited resources can carry out abbreviated SEO-based content strategies. A free one Google Trends Analytics, for example, provides insights into top search queries, while tools like Ask DB, Also askedi Respond to the public lets you explore questions people are searching for.
There are many tools on the keyword front. Browser extensions like the free Everywhere Keyword Tool for Chrome they are useful for quick SEO analysis and daily keyword research, including monthly search volume, cost-per-click information, and trend data. In addition to providing information about how often certain words are searched for, Google Keyword Planner shows how these searches have changed over time.
Finally, tools like this on-page SEO checker help you optimize your site for better search engine positioning.
Remember to periodically check keywords and audience behavior. It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it process; you need to regularly assess what the hottest topics are, what your members are looking for, and whether or not you’re optimizing your site so members can find what you want. you are offering yourself To this end, a bit of trial and error goes a long way.
Higher Logic Thrive is a member experience solution that provides a powerful yet simple approach to community, marketing and member engagement. To learn more about how Higher Logic’s years of experience, research and feedback can solve your challenges, visit thrive.higherlogic.com.
[ad_2]
Source link
