In the following 17 lessons we will take a look at nearly every different type of digital content. We will provide suggestions on how when and why to use that this type of content as well as the typical features and functions of that type of content. We will provide an SEO checklist for ensuring that the content is well optimized. And lastly, we will discuss the various strategies that can be used to market that content through syndication, distribution, link building and social engagement.
Select A Content Type From Below To See It’s Playbook
- Static Content: Static content is simply written content that is not going to dynamically change. Static content is the core of every page in the eyes of the search engine. If you create a page that does not include static content, then search engines will have a very difficult time understanding what that page is about.
- Navigation Pages: Navigation pages typically consist of the homepage, category and sub-category pages, blog rolls, search results and sitemaps. These pages help visitors find the right path to explore your site and find the content they are most interested in.
- Product and Service Pages: A product page and a service page are really the same thing. If something is being offered for sale, then it requires a product page. Product pages are all very unique based on the product that is being offered for sale
- Location Pages: Location pages are necessary for every brick and mortar location associated with you business regardless of whether or not you expect customers to come into your store/office, these offer important TrustRank signals to Google and give you credibility in the eyes of your users.
- Blogs: Blogs typically should combine verifiable facts with credible opinion. While blogs are often used as an outlet for people to rant online, over time those rants tend form a consistent perspective. However for legitimate businesses, blogs give a company something that is truly amazing. Blogs are a vehicle that allow you to create a massive multi media channel with the ability to consistently reach a massive audience. Blogs are the cornerstone of a good social strategy.
- Bulleted and Numbered Lists: Bulleted and numbered lists are not so much a “type of content” but rather a feature that can be easily added to most other content types. But, they are worth calling out specifically because bulleted and numbered lists tend to be some of the most popular content online. Blogs that utilize this format consistently produce greater engagement and viral tendencies. A big reason for this is that lists naturally include two elements of successful content. Lists are specific and easily consumable.
- News Articles: News articles are used to disseminate information that is timely and of particular interest to a target audience. The big question here is newsworthiness… what makes something newsworthy? If the term “breaking news” applies, meaning that something of significance is happening at this moment and you can supply news coverage of the event as it unfolds, that can create newsworthiness. If the story features something of impact or consequence to the target audience, or if there is an interesting conflict involved, that can supply newsworthiness. Other themes of newsworthiness include: Loss of Life or Property, Proximity (closeness to audience), Prominence of People or Organizations involved, Novelty or deviation from the normal. The most important thing is that the facts of the story are interesting enough, without added opinion, that people will want to know about it.
- In Depth Articles: In 2013 Google introduced in-depth articles as a type of search result that is often included in queries that indicate the user is looking for either a broad overview of a topic. Therefore these results tend to show up most often for very general queries. When these results do show up, they typically appear in a block of three articles within the organic search results. While this can give publishers an opportunity to gain exposure for longer and more in-depth content, this particular type of search result seems to be (at least at this time) very difficult to achieve. However, creating content that could be seen by Google to qualify as “in-depth” could add significant credibility to your site. In numerous studies conducted on this type of content so far, some very strong correlations have been drawn and can be used as guidelines to having success with in-depth articles. Also, the majority of in-depth articles tend to be between 1-4 years old. This shows that in-depth articles may be exempt from Google’s freshness update, instead opting for content that stands the test of time. Therefore, this is not a strategy that one should use expecting immediate results, but rather as a way to continue building upon a solid SEO foundation that will reverberate for years to come.
- Press Releases: Press Releases were once among the top link building strategies you could utilize to build lots of highly optimized links to your website, and that is what many online companies used them for. However, in 2013 Google changed the rules and it is now against Google’s guidelines to include “transactional” links that point back to your site within Press Releases. “Transactional” means that the anchor text used for the link is optimized to match the term that the page is trying to rank for. While this makes sense because Press Releases were clearly being used for link building to manipulate Google rankings, it was a real bummer for SEO. Many companies have stopped using online Press Releases because of this change. However, that is a mistake because almost nothing spreads your message like a great press release.
- Aggregated and Curated Content: Curating content is an important strategy for any blog, media outlet or thought leader. By staying on top of the most important stories in your industry and sharing those stories and your thoughts about those stories with your audience, you become a resource for disseminating information and helping people understand.
- Reports: Reports are used for the in-depth presentation of information, which often includes unique and original statistical data. Reports that contain original and compelling data can act as incredible lead magnets in the first stage of a conversion funnel.
- Case Studies: Case studies are most often used as an in-depth testimonial. Essentially this is a story of how one person or business has used your product or service and includes their experience, the results and a particular emphasis on the results and benefits. It is much better for a case study to focus on one specific area of improvement rather than to convey that the results have been generally positive.
- eBooks: For our purposes, when we talk about eBooks we are strictly talking about non-fiction such as practical guides. eBooks can be a fantastic marketing, promotions and credibility channel for most companies. With the rise of table computers and Amazon Kindle, eBooks have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years. Any business or professional that is able to say that they “wrote the book on ____” gets an instant credibility boost in the eyes of prospective customers.
- Images: The old cliché of an image being worth 1,000 words should be taken literally. Images are content. They convey a story. They convey a message. It is far better to have one or two great images than a bunch of mediocre images.
- Infographics: Inforgraphics are just images that combine information and imagery, typically in the form of a PDF, JPG or PNG. Infographics are an incredibly popular medium for everything from summarizing reports to providing instructions.
- Videos: Videos are the most engaging and popular form of entertainment content online, and have the ability to provide the most engaging information type of content online, if done well.
- Landing Pages: Landing pages are typically used in conjunction with paid marketing campaigns through ad networks like AdWords, Facebook and many other ad networks. The purpose of a landing page is to get the user to perform some desired action (convert) whether giving you their email address, signing up for something or purchasing a product or service (typically at an advertised discount).
These Lessons Are Your Step-By-Step
Path To Content Supremacy!
Next If you would like to continue through each of the specific content playbooks, you can click the links above, in the sidebar or simply go to the first one in the list
One Last Thing
Once you have written and posted your content and you are ready for the content syndication and link building, check out these lists of syndication and link building sites. It’s taken a long time to curate these lists, and you can probably find many more to add to it, but these are an incredible start!