Slide deck from Castleford Media's presentation at Online Marketer / SMX Sydney in April 2011. How to build a successful content strategy for your website.
How to Troubleshoot Apps for the Modern Connected Worker
Content Creation 101, SMX Sydney 2011
1. Content Creation
Getting your on-page copy correct:
How keyword research, link building and
copywriting go hand-in-hand.
2. About This Presentation
1. The Case for Content
2. Your Content Strategy
3. Sourcing Your Content
4. Bookmarks
3. Part 1
The Case for Content
Unique and relevant content....
...why bother?
4. Getting Discovered
• Users spend longer looking at organic
results than paid (User Centric)
• Top 10 organic results all get better
clickthrough than paid results (eight-
eleven)
• 50% of consumers prefer sites with
more than one result in SERPs
(Performics)
• 73% of consumers prefer articles to
advertisements (Custom Content
Council)
• Google says: Create unique and
compelling content on your site and
the web in general (Webmaster Blog)
• Panda favours sites with unique
content
5. Crawlability and Surfability
Investing in content enables you to create a website structure that both Google’s
crawler and your human visitors can easily navigate.
A simple, flat structure like this one makes very specific pages deep within your site
accessible within a few clicks of your homepage.
More pages means more tailored and more relevant results.
6. Link Bait and Social Sharing
Unique, relevant content gives
third parties something to link to,
which means more traffic and
better search results.
It also gives you something to share
via social media and RSS, which
increases your reach and improves
user engagement.
“…great content that naturally has
links, and some good social media
marketing so that people are linking to
it organically” (Matt Cutts)
“…first you have to have great content...
then you need to tell people about it…
social media marketing can be a great
way to do that.” (Webmaster Blog)
7. Exploiting the Long-tail
Keyword research is about
finding the middle ground
between ultra-competitive,
high-volume terms and
easy-to-win terms that nobody
is searching for.
Adding new, specific pages
populated with relevant,
unique content helps you to
exploit the long-tail.
You give Google’s crawler and
your target audience a more
relevant and useful result.
8. Dwell Time and Conversion
Related content Relevant results
I like red sports cars, so I’ll click on links When targeting long-tail keywords,
to more content about red sports cars point traffic at specific pages on your
and spend more time on this site. site to increase conversion
opportunities.
9. The Case for Content
Better natural search performance
• More fresh, unique and relevant pages that naturally
feature your keywords.
• Your site is growing and easy to navigate.
• You’re producing something for third parties to share and
link to.
+
Improved user experience
• More relevant results that can compete on longer-tail
searches and improve conversion
• Easy navigation and lots of related content to improve dwell
time
10. Part 2
Your Content Strategy
The right content mix...
...and good on-page SEO
11. Content Mix
Static and Dynamic content complement one another, enabling you to build a
high-value, content-rich website that always has something new to offer.
Static Content
Dynamic Content
Landing pages Company blog
Reference material Industry news
How to Media releases
Service descriptions UGC
Product guides
White papers
Add new pages over Add new pages daily
time
13. Writing Rules
• Relevant to your audience
• Unique to your website
• Ongoing process for adding new static and dynamic pages
• Sharing your content beyond your website
• Best practice on-page SEO
14. Part 3
Sourcing Your Content
Content will cost money wherever you get it from.
Here is our quick rundown on 3 different options and the pros and cons
for each:
• Freelancers
• Agency
• In-house
15. Sourcing Your Content
Short-term agreements, no tie-in
Established writing expertise
Restricted scalability
Limited back-up
High cost per article
Freelance Writers
16. Sourcing Your Content
Existing expertise
Complementary skills
Resilience and scalability
Degree of detachment
Contract tie-ins
Third Party Suppliers
17. Sourcing Your Content
Full control over the content
creation process
Long-term, large-scale content
strategy
Cover for sickness and holiday
Training, management, legal liability
Office space, tools, benefits
In-house Writers
18. Bookmarks
Google Analytics: http://www.google.com/analytics/
Google Webmaster Central: http://www.google.com/webmasters/
Rankchecker by SEO Book: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/
Keyword Spy: http://www.keywordspy.com/
Keyword Samurai : http://www.marketsamurai.com/
Google Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Google Wonder Wheel: http://www.googlewonderwheel.com/
Keyword Suggest by SEO Book: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
SEOMoz Blog: http://www.seomoz.org/blog
Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/
Matt Cutts Blog: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
Eight-Eleven: http://eight-eleven.com/
User Centric: http://www.usercentric.com/
Performics: http://www.performics.com/
Custom Content Council: http://www.custompublishingcouncil.com/
Elliance: http://www.elliance.com/
19. About Castleford
Custom news, blogs and evergreen content for websites and
social media.
castleford.com.au
twitter.com/castlefordmedia
facebook.com/castlefordmedia
info@castleford.com.au