It wasn’t all that long ago when plenty of people still viewed business online marketing as something that was optional. However, now that so much of what we all do on a daily basis has moved online, just about everyone agrees that online marketing is essential for any business that wants to continue to grow and succeed. This shift in mindset has created an interesting situation.
In the past, an average Omaha business could simply put up a website and start attracting some customers through it. The reason things were so easy is because a lot of businesses didn’t have any type of online presence. But because so many more businesses are now online, competition for targeted rankings has grown a lot.
Increased competition is why many businesses that have a website but don’t actively market it end up very frustrated with the lack of new customers that their site generates. Since business online marketing has become a standard practice across countless industries, hoping for results without actively pursuing them won’t help a business get anywhere.
Instead, businesses need to commit to an effective marketing strategy. If you’re ready for your Omaha business to start performing better online but aren’t sure how to get started, Big Red SEO has the answer for you. All you need to do to find out is keep reading.
Why Content is So Important for Business Online Marketing
Even if this is your first time looking into the topic of business online marketing, it doesn’t take long to learn that there are many different channels that fall under this term. SEO, social media and paid advertising are the most common online channels that businesses use to connect with potential customers. While each channel may seem very different in nature, there are a few links that tie them all together.
One of those links is content. Specifically, quality content is an effective way to connect with potential customers through just about any online marketing channel. Whether you want your Omaha business to rank well for a specific search phrase in Google or you want more people to engage with your business through social media, content is what drives those types of interactions.
While content can help a business do very well online, it’s important to understand that simply adding more posts or pages to your site isn’t going to deliver compelling results. In fact, that type of strategy can have the opposite effect. The reason is several years ago Google made a significant update to their algorithm. Nicknamed the Panda update for the engineer who led this initiative, the update decreased the rankings of sites that had lots of pages which were deemed low quality.
Why did Google make this big change? Prior to its implementation, sites could rank well for targeted keywords simply by publishing a low quality page around that keyword and ensuring that it was properly optimized. Since this strategy was very effective at the time, it didn’t take long for Google’s results to become polluted with pages that were nothing more than advertising spam.
Since the business model that has made Google worth hundreds of billions of dollars centers around providing their users with the best possible experience, linking users to countless pages that weren’t very useful was a significant problem. To remedy that problem, Google took swift action. And to this day, any site that starts pumping out lots of low quality pages is likely to see their rankings take a hit.
What Great Content Means in 2015 and Beyond
As explained in the previous section, properly utilizing content for business online marketing means that the content needs to be really good. So, what does the phrase great content actually mean? Although it’s definitely somewhat subjective in nature, there are several traits that can be found in great content across a wide range of subjects.
The first and most important trait is that great content provides value to the people who read it. Whether that means teaching them something new, answering a question or simply entertaining them, great content offers value in some form. Not only is this trait important for getting people to stay on a site longer, but content that provides real value is also the type of content that attracts links and social media shares.
The second trait of great content is that it needs to be well-written. That doesn’t mean content should be written like an academic paper. On the contrary, businesses should strive to publish content that resembles what you might read in a respected publication like Newsweek or the New York Times. By striking a conversational tone and breaking content into sections that are easy to digest, businesses can maximize reading engagement with visitors.
Finally, great content needs to be easy to read on devices of all sizes. Since Google recently released an algorithm update focused on ensuring that sites have a mobile-friendly design, it’s important that the design of a business site that’s publishing content makes it easy to read that content on desktops, laptops, cellphones and tablets. If an Omaha business site publishes great content but doesn’t have a responsive design, they’re not going to see optimal results until they update their design.
Big Red SEO Makes Consistently Publishing Great Content Easy: (402) 522-6468
While content is a key part of business online marketing, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to publish great posts on a consistent basis. If you’re ready to start utilizing content but concerned that you’re not going to be able to keep up with a consistent publishing schedule, you’re not alone. Since this is an issue that numerous Omaha businesses face, Big Red SEO has a service that directly addresses it.
We make it easy to ensure that your site is consistently updated with great posts that are specifically written to appeal to your target customers. If you want to learn more about how we can help you with this and any other elements of your online marketing strategy, be sure to give us a call at (402) 522-6468.