First, the bad news. If you’re working with a website content writer, and publishing a business-related blog today, there’s a high likelihood that blog is not helping you nearly as much as it should be.
In fact, the vast majority of blogs (about 19 in 20) fail to deliver substantial results in the form of converting content to income.
Perhaps you’re not getting traffic. Perhaps you’re getting traffic but you’re not seeing any significant change to the amount of business you get.
It could be that the content isn’t high-quality. Or maybe you’re targeting the wrong audience. Whatever the reason, you need to find out, and fast.
The internet gets more competitive every year, but that’s no excuse not to get results. Results are everything. And there are people who get them… but before you can fix the problem, you’ve got to know what it is.
So what are the likely reasons you’re not seeing results?
1: They’re Not Doing Proper Keyword Research
This one should be obvious, but sometimes it’s not. Keywords are the lifeblood of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the means by which websites generate traffic.
In the cases where keyword content is ignored, the consequences are severe.
All too often, small businesses make the perfectly understandable mistake of tasking the blog to someone who is an expert in the industry. That’s a great way to ensure solid content… but if that writer isn’t also familiar with SEO, the blog runs the risk of remaining a hidden gem forever.
Quality content that no one reads.
Now, no one should settle for mediocre blog posts on their business. You want the highest quality you can get. But if the post hasn’t also been crafted to catch the attention of Google, Yahoo, and Bing… then you won’t see any increase in hits from searches.
Which means you won’t see a rise in actual traffic.
Which means you won’t see a rise in revenue.
Improper keyword research means zero results.
But let’s say you get the keywords covered, and you have quality writing. You still need a strategy…
2: They’re Not Setting Goals to Produce Results
Potential pitfall number two: not having a plan for the big picture.
Part of the way a blog works to attract attention is that it’s cumulative. When a potential customer clicks on a link that gets them to your site, they want to find information that answers their questions and is interesting to read.
But you want the visitor to stick around long enough to get a sense of what your business has to offer, don’t you? Of course you do! Which is why a couple articles just aren’t going to cut it. Not in today’s online marketplace.
One of the necessary characteristics of a modern blog is the presence of additional relevant content: other articles and blog posts that support and reinforces the first post the visitor read.
To do this, your website content writer needs to be providing both quality and variety. All too often, that’s a tall order for one writer to supply week in, week out.
Even a very good writer might not be the best at setting goals and creating an overall strategy. Not to mention: it’s not enough to stick to the topics that are comfortable. One has to be aware of how the industry is changing.
3: They Don’t Understand How to Utilize Trends
This can occasionally be a hangup for in-house website content writers, who stick with what they know, and don’t try to challenge themselves to explore new topics or watch for what’s new. But if you want to bring new eyes to your site, you need to be aware of trending searches and keywords in the marketplace, and how they might best be used to drive traffic.
A smart sailor pays attention to the currents of the ocean, and a smart pilot pays attention to the air streams. Any industry, whatever it is, is going to change from year to year.
And this is especially important when we’re talking about online searches and keywords. Hashtags, names, and made-up words can rise to the top of a search engine’s radar after being inconspicuous (or not even existing) 24 hours beforehand. Search engines can exert an enormous amount of influence over who arrives at a given website, and the landscape can change very quickly.
A great website content writer can’t afford to get too comfortable. Or to let too much time pass in between posts…
4: They’re Not Posting Consistently
Of all the complaints that business owners have about their current writers, this one is one of the most common.
Building a blog means adding to it consistently, over a long period of time. Writing a blog means playing the long game, and if the website content writer isn’t putting in the time and the effort to keep the blog up to date, the visibility of the entire site (and the business) will suffer.
If you’re a business owner and you’re writing your own blog yourself, you probably already know how true this is. It’s so easy to let the blog fall to the wayside… but then what’s the point of even having one?
But let’s say you have got all these problems solved. There’s still one more thing you need from your content, and one way that the blog could be failing to deliver…
5: They’re Not Connecting
This is the personal aspect of being a website content writer.
Let’s say you have someone who does all the right SEO research, uses all the right keywords, and puts up an entry every week at exactly the same time. Well, that’s great… but if the article itself is barely readable, that isn’t exactly going to drive sales.
In fact, it might even drive them away.
Sometimes it’s easy to get so caught up in the technical aspects of our businesses that we forget what it’s like from the customer’s perspective.
And that’s always a precursor to failure.
A great writer will do the technical research ahead of time. But that’s the prep phase. When it’s time to write, the goal is on creating engaging content.
Each post is a way to connect with your ideal customer. The person you want at your site, because you know they’ll be interested to hear what you have to say, and take advantage of your product or service.
And chances are, each post is going to get someone to your site for the first time. Every post matters.
If you’re getting a high amount of traffic, but not getting any boost in sales, look at your blog from the customer’s point of view. Would you buy from you?
If the answer isn’t a hearty “yes!”, then it may be time to look at other options when it comes to publishing your blog posts.
The SteadyContent Approach: The Ideal Website Content Writer
At SteadyContent, our blog creation process is broken down into three stages. There’s plenty to do before the writer even enters the picture, to ensure that everything goes smoothly and finally gets you the results you should expect.
Client Consultation
Before anything gets written, SteadyContent wants to know a little about your business. Your goals, what the purpose of the blog is, and what would ideally happen when a customer comes to your site. In this case, a little bit of information goes a long way.
Research, Keywords, and SEO
After this, our keyword and SEO experts use cutting-edge online research tools to see what’s currently trending, what searches are generating the most revenue, and which are most popular by geographic location.
Every detail is considered as a “big picture” outlook takes shape for the blog, and in the end, we compile a list of high-impact blog topics, specifically optimized to drive traffic.
The Writing Machine
After the topics and keyword lists are set, we turn the job over to our writer pool. With 600 authors currently creating millions of words every month, SteadyContent is able to meet demand for quick turnaround and a high volume of posts.
You’ll never have to wait on one writer’s inconsistent schedule, because you can rest assured that there will always be someone on hand ready to turn that initial outline into a fully fleshed-out article.
Real People, Real Results
We take great pride in producing quality, and our greatest asset is the people we have working for us. When you order a series of blog posts from SteadyContent, you get great people at every step of the process: from administration, to research, to writing and posting.
Creating a great blog can be a bit daunting, especially when you’re trying to pay attention to the hundreds of other things that your business needs. It’s easy to worry about that “one oversight” that might make the content ineffective. But at SteadyContent, this is our specialty.
We deliver quality content. We deliver it on time, and optimized.
We deliver results.
