There are so many articles, blogs, and guest posts on the Internet on every subject under the sun that it is simply amazing that you could have content that is original. Virtually everything seems to have been written upon and rewritten so many times that it seems almost impossible to be able to have something that will stand out and assume the stance of an industry-leader. To achieve this, not only will you need to produce content that is relevant and high quality that outperforms competitors, but also you will have to implement smart SEO tools into your strategy for the content. Here are some top recommendations.
Find Out What Competitors Are Up To
Conduct a simple search on Google for your industry and identify the top ranked companies that will invariably be some of the larger ones in the sector. Examine closely the contents of the websites to see what they have that you could consider adding to your own site. See if any of the designs and page layouts is inspirational so that you can get an idea of how to format and present your own content in an interesting way.
You should then progress to the companies that are operating in your area. It is possible that the search results will turn up many more companies that you would have thought were in the fray. Check their popular posts and note down the topics that you can focus on your next articles. Competitor websites are also a great source for getting information on their content strategy and finding out the frequency of their posts, sort of coverage in the media they are obtaining, tools being developed, and studies about which they are writing about or participating in.
Employ SEO Tools to Uncover Trending Topics and Successful Content
If you are really keen on giving your website the competitive edge, an investment in an analytical tool would not be out of place. While cost per month is not as low as you would have wanted it to be, the Pro version of BuzzSumo allows searches for content that was most successful in a period that you can specify. Running the tool will inform you the detail of the shares in the social media and even specific about the platforms. Google Trends and Marketing Grader are also very handy tools for content analysis such as top-ranked articles, sector influencers and search preferences.
Harness Forum Predictive Power
Some of the best ideas about content can be obtained by identifying customer questions and then offering suitable content that satisfies the queries. Forums like Quora are recommended for browsing for popular questions on particular topics. The questions and answers can be used to originate ideas for structuring new posts to establish the informational requirements of the audience.
Become an Expert
While having great content on your website is crucial, there is also much to be gained by earning links from news sites and industry websites. A relatively simple way of achieving this is to join websites on which press reporters ask for expert information such as SourceBottle or Help a Reporter Out. If the response provided by you is useful, the media reports will often provide a link to your website. Such media services are very useful in generating ideas for fresh content and staying up to date with trending and popular ideas.
Don't Ignore Social Media
Ii can be easy to get engrossed by website content and completely forget about social media platforms, but it is vital that you monitor your competitors' Tweets and Facebook status updates that have been most successful.
Create a Sensation
When you need to discuss subjects that already have been discussed widely on the web, you need to post blogs that include images that are interesting, and maybe even overwhelming. There are a number of free services that give you all the required tools for creating arresting images very simply and quickly. If you are careful in image selection, it could very well end up being the feature that sets apart your article from the rest on the same topic on the web, and present a great opportunity for link building.
