Content Development

5 Features of Results-Driven, Creative Content

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We all know we need to develop quality, creative content. It creates traffic, conversions and ultimately, sales. However, knowing content is necessary and understanding the type of content that drives results are very different. As the owner of an SEO company, I get that results-driven content creation isn’t always instinctive. By integrating a few basic features, you can produce the kind of content that will help your business grow and thrive.

1. Strong, Compelling Headlines

The adage “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” rings true with content as much as it does with face-to-face meetings. What is your first impression? Your headline, of course. This is your one and only chance to let your audience know what you have to say and why they need to listen.

power of words web design

A few simple principles will help you create attention-grabbing headlines. First, keep it short and sweet. Today’s attention span is even shorter than it was when that adage was first coined. Second, make it catchy with power words that invoke the reader’s curiosity. This can be formatted in many ways, some examples include:

  • Posing a question remains one of the best ways to engage a reader
  • Adding benefits to your headlines – make an emotional appeal
  • Eliciting feelings that help prompt decisions
  • Quotes from a speech or interview that provides a great introduction to good content

Finally, avoid sensationalism at all costs – the age of yellow journalism is over, and readers are looking for authentic, honest content stuffed with usable information.

2. Readable, Shareable Content

Quality content is easy to read. It is straightforward, interesting and even humorous when appropriate. Your reader should get to the end of your article without putting forth an exorbitant amount of effort to understand what is written. The best content has a personality that allows the reader to engage directly – as if they were enjoying a conversation in a local coffee shop with an expert on a topic.

Readable content performs well. Even better – readable content is more likely to get shared. Shared content expands its reach, gets seen and earns results.

creative content analysis

3. Unique, Useful Information

The digital age has brought a myriad of information to our fingertips. Some content is helpful – other content, not so much. If you want to stand out from all the online noise, you need to provide information that is both unique and useful. Hook readers in the first paragraph by stating what your content is about and why they should care. This is no time for fluff, so keep your content relevant, interesting and valuable.

One of the best ways to help your content stand out from the crowd is to become a master storyteller. Gone are the days where an audience just wants to absorb facts. Today, the reader is looking for a way to engage with everything they read. Open with a problem your reader can relate to and then lay out your solution. This formula for creative content is simple but highly effective.

4. Visually Appealing Imagery

No matter how good your content might be, if your audience sees nothing more than words on a page, it is unlikely to get read. In a world where GIFs and infographics rein, content’s kingdom has expanded considerably. Stop thinking of content as just text and expand your horizons to visuals designed to get and keep attention.

Visuals are a proven way to improve the performance of your content. When images are inserted about every 75-100 words, content is twice as likely to get shared. Videos are another valuable resource, increasing organic traffic, shares and time spent on a website.

5. Targeted to the Right Audience

Good content won’t get you results until it gets to the right audience. Think about what the purpose of your searches should be:

  • Navigational: Searchers are on the hunt for a specific site to get information about the company. This is a website a user and wants to visit directly.
    navigtional search query
  • Informational: Searchers are looking for websites that offer specific information around a certain subject matter. For example, step-by-step instructions to complete a task or basic facts about a medical condition.
    informational search queries
  • Transactional: Searchers want to perform some type of function, such as to receive rates or purchase an item.
    transactional search query

Knowing the intent of your audience will help you pinpoint your content to your precise target. Not only will you attract those that are interested in your business, but you will also find the audience most likely to take the appropriate action.

Great content development does more than showcase your business – it gets results. Whether you are crafting blogs, e-commerce or social media posts, when your content drives traffic and increases your conversions, it is worth every word.

Content and UX Web Design Go Hand-in-Hand with SEO

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Marketers today put a heavy emphasis on search engine optimization (SEO). While it is a vital piece of any marketing strategy, many inexperienced marketers believe that proper SEO only applies to content.

While that’s not wrong, it isn’t entirely accurate either. Marketers place a substantial influence on SEO essentials such as keywords and meta information because their end goal is to rank high on Google. These teams are always looking for ways to outsmart Google algorithms.

While the algorithms may change frequently, our web design team in Austin knows that two things will always remain constant:

1. Good, quality content
2. Designing for user experience

Tips from an Austin SEO Firm: How Content & UX Design Work Together

 Good SEO work only gets better over time. It’s only search engine tricks that need to keep changing when the ranking algorithms change.” – Jill Whalen

Marketing teams today know that Google changes its algorithms hundreds, if not thousands of times throughout the year. In fact, in 2018 alone, Moz reported that Google made 3,234 “improvements” to its algorithms.

Therefore, keeping on top of your SEO game is crucial, meaning every aspect of SEO, not just to your content creation. Believe it or not, user experience plays a massive part in your ranking. This means designing for SEO, a task our web design team in Austin is prepared to help you with.

Good Content for SEO

When it comes to SEO basics, content is what most marketers tend to gravitate towards. Yes, when it comes to ranking on search engines, content is vital.

As of April 2019, nearly 56% of the world’s population is online and using search engines to find solutions to their everyday needs. With over 1.6 billion websites currently online, getting consumers to your website is no easy feat.

This is where proper search engine optimization comes into play. If your marketing team is creating top-quality content and applying SEO best practices such as optimized keywords and other meta information, then you are sure to see increases in your website’s overall traffic.

To help you better stand out from the crowd, here are a few pointers on creating good content and implementing SEO best practices:

  1. Good content = unique content
  2. Make use of enticing, keyword-rich headings
  3. Make your content actionable
  4. Make your content relevant to readers and address their pain points
  5. Engage readers by asking them for feedback, questions, and encouraging them to share the content with their fellow consumers. This also requires having an informative yet engaging tone and personality so that readers can relate.
  6. Good SEO = optimized for a specific keyword
  7. Build authority by linking to top-quality, expert sources
  8. Use optimized media, such as images and videos with appropriate ALT titles and descriptions.

UX Design for SEO

While having a high traffic rate to your website is essential, that only gets consumers to your page. The next step is getting them to spend enough time on the page to encourage conversion. Good content is one way to approach this. However, our web designers in Austin highly encourage utilizing UX design for SEO.

UX design is web design created for the user experience, not for the aesthetic pleasure of your company. While having an aesthetically pleasing site is essential to UX design, it is vital to remember, your site is a tool, and it needs to be user-friendly to encourage visitors to make the conversion from consumer to customer.

This leaves many marketers wondering exactly how they can combine UX design with SEO best practices. It’s not as complicated as your web design team may think, and, in fact, many web designs already incorporate some of the most vital pieces of the puzzle.

Some essential pieces of this puzzle include:

  • Your Site ID/Logo – This needs to be prominently placed at the top of your page and not surrounded by unnecessary clutter.
  • Navigation – Users need simple and easy navigation options to find what they need on your site. An overly complicated navigation system will instantly put off users and send them somewhere else.
  • Content Structure – Prioritizing important information takes more than applying chronological order or a cause and effect structure to your text. Making use of subheadings and breaking up your content into various sections help guide readers to the information that is most important to them and their needs. While flow is still vital, properly formatted subheadings can make finding the right information easy for skimmers.
  • Optimized Images – Just like content, images can be appropriately optimized for SEO using title tags, ALT titles, and image descriptions.
  • Calls to Action – Having excellent content is great, but you need to have prominent calls to action that direct your readers to the information they want. These CTAs should be creatively placed and stand out against the rest of your page. This ensures that users don’t need to guess if this button will take them to your download or purchasing options.
  • Page Speed – Unfortunately, this is often an afterthought for many web designers because they are so focused on the design and usability of the site. Page and overall website speed need to be considered as part of the overall usability because if the site is too slow to load, users will get impatient and turn elsewhere to have their needs fulfilled in a timelier manner.

Good Content & UX Design Will Always Thrive Together

With search engine algorithms continuously changing, marketers often find themselves stressed out over having to alter their marketing strategy to suit the new changes. What most neglect to remember is the fact that having quality content and good UX design will always trump changing algorithms.

Need help getting your SEO strategy in line with current marketing standards? Let us help!

Our professional SEO strategy includes not only website analysis and content research, but also speed testing, mobile website optimization, and more! Reach out today to learn more about our SEO and web design in Austin.

Want SEO? Create Quality Web Design and Content

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Former SEO guru Jill Whalen said, “Good SEO work only gets better over time. It’s only search engine tricks that need to keep changing when the ranking algorithms change.”

While breaking the secret Google code can boost your ranking, nothing can replace quality when it comes to engaging visitors. SEO is more than just a few tricks to beat the latest algorithm. It is a commitment to quality that is reflected throughout your website.

Follow along to learn how to improve your web design in Austin with optimized content and design.

Integrating SEO into the Web Design Process

Because SEO and web design are closely intertwined, it makes sense to incorporate best SEO practices into the design process. A flashy website won’t mean much if people can’t find you in the search engines.

To make your site search engine friendly, include the following elements in your design:

  • Consider speed: Users aren’t the only ones who don’t want to wait for your content to load. Search engines also rank according to navigation. If your site can’t be crawled quickly, it won’t show up as high in the rankings and every second of delay will result in lost customers.
  • Implement SEO basics: Get your site up with the basics in place. No site can thrive without effective keywords, title tags, and content. When you incorporate these elements from the start, your site starts working for you from the minute it goes live.
  • Don’t limit content to words: Quality content is about more than brilliant writing. Supplement your message with video and images that are loved by search engines and boost user experience.

How to Kill SEO with Your Website Design

At the same time you are adding search engine friendly elements to your design, avoid features that can turn off potential users before they start to explore your site:

1. Not Mobile-Friendly

It’s hard to believe that in today’s digital age there are still websites that do not integrate well with mobile devices. Since most users today consider their phones their primary source for information, your ability to adapt to mobile is essential.

2. Unreadable Text

What your words look like on the page is just as important as what they say. If you use a font that is uncomfortably small or otherwise difficult to read, users will be likely to give up and move on without putting forth the extra effort to understand your business.

3. Too Many Pop-Ups

When a pop-up is the first thing a user is greeted with when they click on your website, it can be a major turn-off. Use pop-ups wisely to encourage action without detracting from your message. Your first goal should be to establish a trusting relationship with a potential customer before going in for the sale.

4. Auto-Play Video or Audio

Loud sounds when a user clicks on your website can be even more irritating than a pop-up. If you are going to play a video automatically when someone clicks on your site, mute the sound to prevent users from exiting your site as soon as they find you.

Let’s Talk High-Quality Content

Once you have scored with both the search engines and the user experience, keep your visitors wanting more with high-quality content. You can produce the content potential customers want by focusing on these three key elements:

  • Know your audience: Content isn’t just about educating your customers – it’s about connecting with them. In order to make those valuable connections, you need to know who your customers are. Beyond basic demographics, focus on the problems your customers have that your product or service can address.
  • Relate to your audience: Don’t rely on Google to direct your customers to you. Know the questions they ask and the solutions they are seeking. Form your content around the language they use to make the connections more readily available.
  • Focus on your customer: It’s easy to look at your content as a selling tool, but this is not where high-quality content starts. Instead, think about creating a relationship with your customer that builds trust and loyalty. When you do this successfully, the sales will follow.

JS-Interactive offers Austin SEO and web design services. Contact us today to find out how we can help you build a site that works for you.

Good Content Marketing Works

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Like the Ace Hardware Brand

The results are in – content marketing is here to stay.

  • Content marketing has been shown to cost less than half as much as traditional marketing and generate as many as 3X leads. (DemandMetric)
  • Those leads, in turn, convert as much as 6X more often – at a rate of about 2.9% to 0.5%. (Aberdeen Group)
  • Good content delivers bottom-line Return on Investment (ROI) and great content compounds over time, just like interest in a savings account. (HubSpot)
  • 20 more reasons you should be making content.

What is content marketing?

That’s a great question and I’m glad you asked. I once did a deep dive into the etymology, psychology, sociology, and half-a-dozen other -ologies of content marketing. I’m going to try to boil it down here.

When you put something new and worthwhile into the world for the benefit of your customers, prospective customers, and extended audience, that’s content marketing.

(How’d I do? You can compare my definition with the standard-bearer’s definition at the Content Marketing Institute.)

What’s new?

There’s no such thing as new under the sun. Don’t worry. As we learn from Ace, that’s No Big Deal (NBD).

What’s worthwhile?

Like beauty and utility, worthwhile is in the eye of the beholder.

Know your audience. Know their questions, concerns, and pain points. Address those well and you’ve shared something of worth with them. Possibly something they’ll share with coworkers, friends, and family.

The grand promise of content marketing is that your customers know who’s taking care of them and that they’ll return the favor.

Finish this jingle: “Ace is the place for the _________.”

“ … helpful hardware folks.” In case you’ve missed it, here’s one of their 30-second spots, part of their new spring ad campaign from agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul. “It’s unmistakably Ace,” says John Surane, Ace’s exec VP of merchandising, marketing and sales.

You have a list of things. None of those things say, “Wander around a warehouse looking for somebody to help you or walk out not knowing if you got exactly what you need.”

Been there, done that, right? How frustrating.

No service? No sale.

You’ve got the money to spend but precious little time in which to spend it. You need help, and you need it now.

What you don’t need is to get lost in another big box store under dusty high-up flickering fluorescents like a scene in some B-grade horror movie. How is it that the parking lot is full but now that you need help, it’s like you’re the last person on earth?

Helping the customer, though? Sales all day.

Here comes the Ace Hardware brand rep, a friendly knowledgeable store owner-associate – they’re a retailer-owned cooperative – to “ask the right questions to make sure you get everything you need.” Because at Ace, they have a list, too, and “great service is at the top.”

Take my money, Ace. Take it.

The Internet is like a never-ending warehouse store.

Remember the good old days? When you used to need a star chart, a trail of breadcrumbs, at least one pagan ritual, eye of newt, a fully outfitted team of sherpas, and a bag of Cheetos to find what you wanted online, when you wanted it, and find your way back out.

Finding what you need online has gotten so much easier.

Thanks to the visionary work of the big search engines – and the co-evolution of web developers, SEOs, user experience and interface designers, and, yes, content marketers – the experience of directed discovery (“finding what you went looking for”) has become so quick and painless, it’s almost magical. Automatic. Instantaneous.

(You’ve almost forgotten the trauma of the dial-up and handshake sounds, right?)

Good content is like a warehouse sherpa, a red-vested store associate.

There are people searching the great wide web for what they need – sometimes, it’s what you have! Even if they don’t know specifically what they need, or how to phrase it for an exact Google keyword match, but they have a hunch. They know how to describe it. And, so do you.

Your content marketing – well planned, crafted, and executed – acts like a beacon, a funnel. You’re assuming the role of a friendly store-associate who finds the customer in the aisle and asks, “How can I help you today?”

Your content acts as an escort and a good listener, and says to the searcher, “So, you’re trying to do this project but not sure where to start? We can definitely help with that. I’ve done that several times and we stock everything you need over this way. Follow me. I’ll show you how I’d put it all together.”

Ace Hardware’s Content Marketing Takeaways

As Ace’s Surane says, “With this campaign we set out to accomplish something that no other retailer or brand can do, showcasing our three greatest differentiators — our people, our brand and our jingle — in a truly authentic way by featuring real Ace customers in real Ace stores, getting real problems solved by real Ace associates.” [My emphasis.]

  1. New = what no other retailer or brand can do

    Anytime you get stressed about the content marketing imperative to develop new content, think about Ace in the marketplace of home improvement products and services.

    It’s a crowded space. In cities and suburbs, Home Depot and Lowe’s locations seem to pop up in pairs every ten miles or so. Then there’s specialty stores that take a piece of the consumer construction and home renovation market – paint at Sherwin Williams; flooring at Floor and Decor; appliances at Sears and so on. Obviously, Target and Wal-Mart overlap the home improvement footprint except for the largest, most technical projects and products. Wal-Mart doesn’t have a lumberyard. Yet.

    And, that’s just brick and mortar competition – for brick and mortar projects. That’s so meta.

    Takeaway: Ace isn’t doing anything new, as such. They’re unique sales proposition (USP) is a level of personalized service unavailable elsewhere.

  2. Worthwhile = getting real problems solved

    Listen to your customers and prospective customers. Learn what they know, what they don’t know; their affinities, interests, motivations, pain points.

    Takeaway: Educate them, help them do better, make their lives easier. That’s the point of content marketing – and sales – in one sentence.

  3. Authentic = unmistakably on brand

    Even if you’re in a competitive space, there’s only one you. You and your business operate in the market in a way and with a style and approach that is uniquely yours.

    Takeaway: If you haven’t done the deep dive work on your brand, your differentiators and USPs, it’s time. Good content is best when it’s aligned with marketing, messaging, branding, and other advertising and PR efforts.

  4. Service = your audience, your clients, your community

    Again, even a crowded field has room for you. That’s why sometimes you’ll find one Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks. One catches the inbound morning commuters and the other catches outbound traffic.

    Takeaway: Your audience is one of your differentiators. Serve up content to answer their specific concerns and, the next time they have questions, they’ll come back.

Take heart. You can do content marketing.

If you’ve started and stopped, it’s time to recommit. If you haven’t gotten around to it yet, it’s time to start. And, it’s easy enough. Start with our takeaways from Ace Hardware – Who are your customers? How do you serve them? What do they need from you? What can they get from you that they can’t get elsewhere? Mix in the rest of the W’s from high school – The When? Where? Why?

Show us, don’t tell us, what is that voodoo that you do so well?

[It’s simple like art or meditation is simple. Doesn’t mean they don’t take a lifetime of practice. In an upcoming post, we will look at the more nitty gritty details of the practice and how to make the content happen.]

What the heck is a writing style guide? (And why do I need one?)

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I’ve fielded several questions from clients recently about writing style decisions – when to capitalize job titles, the number of spaces after a period, when to use numerals vs. spelling out numbers, whether to use an Oxford comma, things like that.

Questions like these are especially common when a piece of writing goes through numerous individuals during the approval process. When it comes to writing, everyone has an opinion on what’s right and what’s wrong.

In many cases, the comments shared aren’t necessarily wrong – they are just different viewpoints based on the individual’s education and experience. This is because there are many different writing styles – Chicago Manual of Style for general publishing, AP Stylebook for journalism, and APA Style for social sciences, to name a few.

The problem arises when a company or organization has not adopted a writing style guide.

So … what’s a writing style guide?

A style guide is a set of standards a company or organization adopts for their written communications. In other words, a style guide lays down the rules of the road for everyone involved in written communications for your company. Capitalization, punctuation, tense, spelling and word choice are some of the common areas a writing style guide can address.

And why do I need a writing style guide?

The lack of a writing style guide can easily open the door to a never-ending, circular debate about commas, capitalization and so forth. It can cause confusion and frustration for your writing contributors. And, ultimately, it results in inconsistencies in your communications materials.

Inconsistencies are likely the worst consequence, as readers will see these as mistakes or just plain sloppiness. This can be very damaging to your company’s reputation, as well as to the brand image you are working to build.

The good news is that it can be avoided. And perhaps more significant than avoiding unwanted consequences, your writing style guide can help build and support the brand image you want to portray.

Get started on your writing style guide with these five simple steps:

  • Step 1. The first step is to adopt an overall writing style. With my journalism background, AP Style has been my go-to resource. (And it’s easier than ever to double check myself or get questions answered with their online style guide!)Your chosen style guide will be the foundation of your writing. It does not mean that you are 100 percent tied to this style, or that you have no flexibility. But when a question arises, this is the guide you will refer to.
  • Step 2. The second step is to develop an organization-specific writing style guide. This guide will include common style questions that come up within your company. It will also include any organization-specific deviations from your primary style guide, or provide rules for any writing needs not addressed in your primary style guide.There are online resources and templates that can help you develop a style guide for your organization. A professional copywriter or marketing consultant can also help you create and consistently utilize your style guide.
  • Step 3. The third step is to introduce your primary and company-specific style guide to your organization as a whole, as well as to your writing contributors. To get buy-in, it will likely be important to share some background on why a style guide is important and the process you went through to develop it.
  • Step 4. The fourth step is to use your style guide consistently. Make the guides easily accessible to everyone who will be writing for your organization.It is also extremely helpful to have a final set of eyes – a person tasked with doing a final review of the articles, with an emphasis on ensuring all the pieces use a consistent writing style. Many clients find it helpful to have an outside person – a copywriter or other consultant – complete this final review.
  • Step 5. Combine your style guide with your company’s fresh, relevant, easy-to-read content and you are well on your way to building deeper relationships with your existing audience and developing valuable new leads to grow your business!

Rachel Grenier has been happily having conversations with clients about capitalization, commas and content as an independent copywriter and marketing consultant for 11+ years.