Why Blog Posts Must Add Value, Answer FAQs and Help Customers
Content is king, and the future of the internet is a marketplace of content. This famous quote from Bill Gates really sums up why content creation is so important for online businesses. From blog posts and on-page content to ebooks and FAQ sections, without content, the internet would be a confusing and pretty dull place.
If you have a brand new website, you’re going to need to populate it with interesting information about your business, products and services. This on-page content helps to inform potential customers about your brand, as well as guide them on how to use your website and purchase online. Once this is complete, you’ll need to move on to your content marketing strategy. This is the process of optimising your website to increase traffic, improve sales and create a great user experience. In this article, we’re going to explain how to write blog posts that add value, answer FAQs and help customers online.
The Importance of Content Creation
Blog posts are an invaluable resource for online businesses. Able to attract relevant traffic to click through to a website, blog posts can update and refresh your website with valuable content designed to entertain, educate and delight users. When done well, a creative content marketing strategy will combine SEO, customer FAQs and well-written content to help move customers further along the sales funnel.
However, if you fail to put in the time and effort needed to create valuable content, you aren’t going to get the results you’d hoped for. In fact, that’s why many companies hire a content creation department to work full-time on blog posts, develop FAQs and design downloadable ebooks. Quality and consistency is key when it comes to writing blog posts that add value.
Whether your goal is to make more sales online, improve conversion rate, increase brand awareness or position yourself as an industry leader, content creation is going to be your new best friend. So, let’s start with FAQ content and how this type of blog post can significantly improve your conversion rate.
FAQs SEO Gold
SEO or search engine optimization is a digital marketing strategy designed to help businesses increase traffic and appear higher up in the search results. One main aspect of SEO is finding keywords and search terms that your customers are using online. Search queries and questions are one way of optimizing your website for SEO, and creating valuable blog posts likely to convert users.
There are two levels when it comes to FAQ development. The first involves a user searching online with a specific problem, question or dilemma, and the second relates to a potential customer already browsing your website.
Level 1: Google Search Results
5.6 billion people in the US carry out a Google search every single day. That’s 63,000 searches a second. We’re all guilty of taking out a smartphone and Googling an answer to a question, problem or dilemma. Having instant access to unlimited questions is what makes Google so powerful, but as a business, this modern-day behaviour also provides a unique opportunity to target customers. By providing clear, detailed blog posts answering common FAQs that involve your industry, or the products and services you provide, you can enjoy a piece of the Google search pie.
Level 2: Convert a Customer
If a customer is on your website, this is great news, but your hard work doesn’t stop there. You need to make sure that they convert and buy your products or services. If a customer isn’t sure about your check-out process, return policy or has questions about your products, for example, if you don’t answer their questions, they have a high chance of clicking off your site. To stop this from happening, you should create a detailed and easy to use FAQ page that answers customer questions and includes contact information, should their question still need answering. This helps build trust.
Creating SEO Blog Posts
Now we’ve discussed the importance of content creation and FAQ blog posts, let’s take a look at the important elements that make a great piece of content.
Keyword research
This is the initial research phase that will help you find a topic or idea for your blog post. You can use tools such as Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner and Google Search Console to identify some great keywords that your customers might be using to find your business. Common questions will also be included within this data and should help you to start planning some ideas for content. You can also ask someone who has never used your website before, to try and buy something and see if they have any problems or voice any concerns. Once you’ve got some blog post and FAQ ideas together, it’s time to move on to the content creation itself.
Title Tags
Title tags are what will be the headline to your blog post when shown in the search results such as Google. The ideal length of your title tag should be 50 to 60 characters and will include the FAQ you’re trying to target, or a couple of keywords. Your title tag should be clear, easy to read and eye-catching. This is what will help encourage people to click through to your blog post.
Meta Descriptions
The second way of getting someone to click through to your blog post is by writing a great meta description. Your meta description needs to keyword-rich and attract people to click through. Consider phrases such as, discover, find out, how to, top reasons why. An ideal meta description length should be around 160 characters.
Image Alt Tags & SEO
To break down your SEO blog posts into easier to digest pieces of content, consider adding images with alt tags. Alt tags are an important SEO element and should describe the image or the topic of the blog post.
The Ideal Length of a Blog Post
A blog post should be around 750 to 1,500 words and be easy to read, contain SEO elements and image or graphics. Use H1s, H2s and H3s to break up paragraphs and help guide the reader through the content. A H1 title tag relates to your main title, H2s should be used for sub-headings and H3s for smaller paragraph titles within a H2.
Internal Linking Within Blog Posts
To help guide a customer from an SEO blog post, through to your product page, service page or contact information, you’ll need to add interlinks. By linking to specific pages on your website where relevant, you can help a customer to navigate your site. If they have a problem, that your products or services can provide a solution for, you need to take this opportunity to direct them to the right page on your website. This is how you’re going to significantly impact your conversion rate and sales online.
Distributing Blog Posts & Facebook Groups
When you’ve created a blog post that adds value or answers a common FAQ, you still have some work to do. Distributing content is one of the most neglected parts of content marketing, and it’s actually the best way to increase traffic. Rather than wait for someone to search on Google and find your blog post, you can start to seek out customer questions online and through social media, and direct them to your blog post. Facebook groups are a wonderful resource, that businesses can use for free. Find a Facebook group that relates to your business or target audience, and position yourself as an industry leader. Facebook groups are often used to share tips, information, advice and guidance, and people will ask the community within a Facebook group for help if they have a problem or question. This is where you can add value. Comment, provide some information and a link to your blog post and start generating traffic to your website.
Content Marketing Help
A winning content marketing strategy can take your business to the next level. If you would like help with the creation of SEO blog posts and content for your website, feel free to reach out to Hazel Miller, an experienced SEO content writer.
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