Welcome to the sixth in my Domain Development series which will hopefully teach you how to create your own websites for your domain portfolio without having to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. Today we cover content.
Content is vital for a successful website, and well written content is something that Google loves which means that your website is more likely to rank higher for important keywords related to your domain name.
When looking to create content, you can outsource it. There are thousands of content writers of varying abilities across websites such as UpWork and Freelancer.com. Whilst there are plenty of good content writers out there, I would recommend creating your own content (at least at first.)
It's very easy to outsource content creation and never think about it again, but isn't it better to know and understand what makes engaging, useful content? It's also far cheaper to do it yourself. You'll only be investing your time into this.
Why Content Matters
Content has become far more important in ranking a website over the past couple of years. In 2011, Matt Cutts of Google's Search Team confirmed that good content is far more important than good SEO. Since then, the search giant (along with other major search engines such as Bing and DuckDuckGo) have given a far greater weight to content which is deemed to be helpful to users who navigate to the website in question.
In short, creating good content gives you a higher chance of ranking well for long tail keywords which can attract visitors to your website. If you're looking to create a lead generation site, then producing the right content can attract potential leads. Authority websites with good content are far more likely to be visited; giving your site a higher chance of producing revenue, which is really why we create websites for our domain portfolios.
Well written content can also lead to more shares on social media which is also a parameter used by search engines to determine ranking.
Rules of Writing
Writing is a skill that you'll improve on over time, but learning the basic rules of writing good website content can help you get off to a good start.
Firstly, the length of an article seems to have a direct correlation on the ranking of your web page. SerpIQ have found that a page length of around 1,500 words is a good target to aim for when constructing your content. On my own websites, I've found that 1,000 words works just as well. Yes, it takes time to produce such articles but a well written lengthy article can help with search rankings, hopefully resulting in more visitors to your website.
Aside from length, you should ensure that your articles have perfect spelling and adhere to English grammar rules. Articles with perfect spelling and acceptable grammar can be seen as being more trustworthy than an article with poor spelling and grammar.
How to find subjects to write about
Hopefully the domain name you're developing isn't too generic. Niche or market specific domain names work well (such as a website I used to own: dentalwebsitedesign.com), as do product domains. Generic industry words such as Plants.com make good authority websites with the help of excellent content.
Finding topics to write about should be fairly easy. Before writing your content, you should research topics and keywords within your niche/market. This can be done by searching on Google for specific market keywords as well as by using Google Keyword Planner to find the popularity of those keywords. Your content should be able to answer a question which a user may have, or provide vital information about a product or service. This should always be your aim when creating your content.
Taking the website above (dentalwebsitedesign.com) as an example, I found that companies in that niche provided several services - SEO, web design and social media marketing. I then went about finding keywords relating to these subjects (by using Google and Keyword Planner) which allowed me to develop a list of topics to write about.
Style of writing
Different websites will have a different style of writing. This all depends on your audience. If your audience is predominantly teenagers, you may want to create content using a simple vocabulary which is broken up with images and videos. By contrast, content directed at professionals should keep a professional tone and use terminology regularly used within that niche.
Titles
Your titles are an important part of your content. Catchy, interesting titles can improve the readership of your article and your site overall. Developing good titles can be very difficult (I struggle regularly), but there are a few guidelines to help you create your titles. These suggestions are taken from two articles from Hubspot and ContentMarketingInstitute.com.
Frequency of writing
How often should you be writing? If the website is based around a blog, then writing around five articles per week is ample for developing new content on your site. If you're focused on creating articles rather than blog posts (there is a difference), then writing three 1,000-1,500 word articles per week should satisfy readers as well as helping to improve your search rankings.
It's important to try to create a writing routine to ensure that you stick to regular posting days and times to satisfy Google's search bots and your readers alike.
--
As I said earlier, developing your own content can be a long process, but it is rewarding. It also allows you to learn more about your chosen niche/market, as producing content will inevitably mean that you gain a lot of knowledge in that field. I now consider myself quite the expert on a number of very random topics.
Domain Development is a blog series that teaches you how to create money making websites from your domain portfolio.
Content is vital for a successful website, and well written content is something that Google loves which means that your website is more likely to rank higher for important keywords related to your domain name.
When looking to create content, you can outsource it. There are thousands of content writers of varying abilities across websites such as UpWork and Freelancer.com. Whilst there are plenty of good content writers out there, I would recommend creating your own content (at least at first.)
It's very easy to outsource content creation and never think about it again, but isn't it better to know and understand what makes engaging, useful content? It's also far cheaper to do it yourself. You'll only be investing your time into this.
Why Content Matters
Content has become far more important in ranking a website over the past couple of years. In 2011, Matt Cutts of Google's Search Team confirmed that good content is far more important than good SEO. Since then, the search giant (along with other major search engines such as Bing and DuckDuckGo) have given a far greater weight to content which is deemed to be helpful to users who navigate to the website in question.
In short, creating good content gives you a higher chance of ranking well for long tail keywords which can attract visitors to your website. If you're looking to create a lead generation site, then producing the right content can attract potential leads. Authority websites with good content are far more likely to be visited; giving your site a higher chance of producing revenue, which is really why we create websites for our domain portfolios.
Well written content can also lead to more shares on social media which is also a parameter used by search engines to determine ranking.
Rules of Writing
Writing is a skill that you'll improve on over time, but learning the basic rules of writing good website content can help you get off to a good start.
Firstly, the length of an article seems to have a direct correlation on the ranking of your web page. SerpIQ have found that a page length of around 1,500 words is a good target to aim for when constructing your content. On my own websites, I've found that 1,000 words works just as well. Yes, it takes time to produce such articles but a well written lengthy article can help with search rankings, hopefully resulting in more visitors to your website.
Aside from length, you should ensure that your articles have perfect spelling and adhere to English grammar rules. Articles with perfect spelling and acceptable grammar can be seen as being more trustworthy than an article with poor spelling and grammar.
How to find subjects to write about
Hopefully the domain name you're developing isn't too generic. Niche or market specific domain names work well (such as a website I used to own: dentalwebsitedesign.com), as do product domains. Generic industry words such as Plants.com make good authority websites with the help of excellent content.
Finding topics to write about should be fairly easy. Before writing your content, you should research topics and keywords within your niche/market. This can be done by searching on Google for specific market keywords as well as by using Google Keyword Planner to find the popularity of those keywords. Your content should be able to answer a question which a user may have, or provide vital information about a product or service. This should always be your aim when creating your content.
Taking the website above (dentalwebsitedesign.com) as an example, I found that companies in that niche provided several services - SEO, web design and social media marketing. I then went about finding keywords relating to these subjects (by using Google and Keyword Planner) which allowed me to develop a list of topics to write about.
Style of writing
Different websites will have a different style of writing. This all depends on your audience. If your audience is predominantly teenagers, you may want to create content using a simple vocabulary which is broken up with images and videos. By contrast, content directed at professionals should keep a professional tone and use terminology regularly used within that niche.
Titles
Your titles are an important part of your content. Catchy, interesting titles can improve the readership of your article and your site overall. Developing good titles can be very difficult (I struggle regularly), but there are a few guidelines to help you create your titles. These suggestions are taken from two articles from Hubspot and ContentMarketingInstitute.com.
- Keep your titles accurate: Make sure that whatever is described in your title is written about in your article.
- Have fun with your titles: Use of alliteration, and use of passionate words (brilliant, hate, etc) can improve click through rates.
- Optimize for SEO: Your title should be targeted at humans rather than Google's spider algorithm, but including targeted keywords in your title can help somewhat.
- Keep it short: Titles over 65 characters get cut off in search engines, and titles over 117 characters will not fit into a Tweet.
- Use a friend or colleague: If you're stuck for a title, ask for advice. I'm very fortunate to have people within NamePros that I can call upon for title suggestions for posts on the NamePros Blog.
- Engagement: Peaking a user's curiosity can help to bring new readers to your site.
Frequency of writing
How often should you be writing? If the website is based around a blog, then writing around five articles per week is ample for developing new content on your site. If you're focused on creating articles rather than blog posts (there is a difference), then writing three 1,000-1,500 word articles per week should satisfy readers as well as helping to improve your search rankings.
It's important to try to create a writing routine to ensure that you stick to regular posting days and times to satisfy Google's search bots and your readers alike.
--
As I said earlier, developing your own content can be a long process, but it is rewarding. It also allows you to learn more about your chosen niche/market, as producing content will inevitably mean that you gain a lot of knowledge in that field. I now consider myself quite the expert on a number of very random topics.
Domain Development is a blog series that teaches you how to create money making websites from your domain portfolio.