Understand The Content Path
The content path is a cluster of related content on your website. It is designed to offer a hub of information to a potential customer or interested web visitor. Having a web content plan for your website content should be second nature to anyone with a website. Many have content but never really understand how to fully use it for short term and long term strategic positioning. Content creation for many sites is a haphazard mixture of often sporadic, non related, or under optimized content.
Many sites rank with the content they have. In some cases some targeting is used with basic search optimization. Many firms commit to regular content on clusters of relevant topics. Many do find gains from these but do not use them to further build those advantages. Still some websites put no emphasis or focus on maximizing important categories and building on them. Likewise, other organizations still compartmentalize it as primarily organic, refusing to promote it or use it as a key component of a paid campaign. As Google changes it is easier to just look at the law of diminishing returns and write content creation, taxonomy, and optimization as to labor intensive.
And even when content is being coordinated in organic and paid hybrid campaigns, many don’t realize that not every ounce of value can be measured in immediate sales. The flow of people through written, visual, and social content is not just a sales funnel, it is part of your brand via your digital presence.
I would even go as far as to wonder how many companies have an organized strategic long term plan for their content. The crux of great marketing in the digital age is not about that one thing. It is a culmination of a process that coordinates paid media around great content with strategically targeted themes.
Many shy away from it, not realizing how to organize or even begin to utilize the potential impact of good content. Many have conceded to the idea that since organic efforts offer less impact, it is antiquated to focus around content. I think the process of how it is being used is just changing. Likewise, those who don’t use it in this newer capacity might find they are missing out on a huge asset that could potentially shape their cutomers’s journey with thier brand for years to come.
The Start Of Content Strategy
If you are interested a good question to ask is:
What are your website goals?
Maybe a better question is:
What are your marketing goals?
If you can answer either one, then now have the goal of what your content should be used for.
Picture your content as roads, bridges, and tunnels potential clients and visitors will utilize and intersect to reach their destination. You better make sure they make a clear path THROUGH your website if you have any hope of influencing consumers.
A simple exercise
Here is an oversimplified example
Say our website is for a seafood restaurant and we have been told we have to have content. Our goal for the business or website is to get customers to come in to eat seafood at our restaurant. More specifically our goal in this sample is
Find seafood customers and attract them to our restaurant
Now our content plan will reflect this. Our content:
- Should target people looking for seafood
- Should target people in our general vicinity
- Should target topics seafood restaurant goers consider when they go to a seafood restaurant
Again, we will have to be a lot more specific when we actually begin laying out our content topics but we have a key overall goal now
Recap
Our content will target restaurant goers looking for seafood in our area with an emphasis on topics they look for in evaluating what to eat.
Article written By Michael Saks
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