There is no question that creating great original content is what Google wants you to do. The question is… what is great content?
Great content is what people want to click on.
Great content is what people want to read.
Great content is what people want to share.
Great content is what people want to link to.
OK. Those are the actions that people take when confronted with great content. Those are the benefits that you get from great content… but it still doesn’t quite tell you enough to prepare you to create great content. While the course Highly Optimized Content is all about creating great content, when it comes to link building here are a few content tips to ensure that the stuff you produce delivers the links that you need!
- Cater to a very specific audience: Know who your audience is. Know their interests, struggles, fears and motivations. Then, create content that uses that information to create irresistible interest.
- Create controversy: When you take a hard stand on a controversial subject, it is going to attract attention. That attention will turn into shares and links.
- Create compelling headlines: Some of the most popular content creators on the web spend more time working on their 60 character headline, than they do writing the 1,000 words in the actual article. It’s true! They do this because it’s the headline that gets clicks and the number one job of any content is to get someone to take the time to look at it. Check out this lesson on Page Titles and Headlines for some awesome headline formulas that consistently drive traffic.
- Create original research, infographics, videos and images: This is type of stuff is fantastic link bait! Encoruage the reader to share them with their social networks. Unique reports that gather fresh data and provide unique insights are without a doubt some of the most valuable content on the web. And, while collecting all this data can sound like a daunting task… it’s not! The truth is, the majority of reports that are widely promoted and referred to about any subject you can think of, utilize actual statistical data based on anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred responders. This means that you can run a survey on Facebook and if you promote it, perhaps even offer a prize that’s worth $50 or $100, you can quickly and easily gather enough responses to create a statistically relevant report. The other big key to making these reports really stand out and get noticed is to collect that information on a controversial topic and utilize the data to support what sounds like a surprising result. It is shocking how good this can work. This strategy can easily be delivered in a manner of hours and consistently deliver dozens of links, thousands of shares and tens of thousands of likes. The ultimate result? Real brand growth and a nice boost in Google’s rankings.
- Get key influencers to give you either quotes or praise for your content. You might not be the most well known person in your industry, but if you reach out to some people who are super well known, and stroke their ego a bit, they will gladly give you quotes and praise for featuring them in your articles. This is huge for you because people who don’t know you, but do know these other big personalities, are going to be much more likely to read your content to find out what those key influencers had to say.
- Promote your content everywhere! What good is great original content if you don’t promote it? Your website isn’t a “Field of Dreams”. You have to push your content out to the world in every way possible. Post links on every social network profile you have. But, don’t just post it to your Facebook page, spend $5-$15 promoting it on Facebook to your target demographic. Don’t just tweet it. Create a promoted tweet and make sure it gets exposure. If you will put just $10-$20 into social advertising for every piece of content that you create, your reach will skyrocket and the results will be impressive. Before long, the true organic links that we have been talking about will just start growing out of every piece of content you put out. As long as you keep following through with the first 5 steps.
At This Point You Have All The Knowledge Nessary
To Build A Solid Link Foundation!
Next But, if you really want to become one of the top companies in your niche, you need to build upon that foundation and take your content to the next level. So, in the next lesson we will talk about one of the fastest ways to gain massive notoriety and build an enormous audience. It’s time to learn how to