Content strategies have evolved significantly over the past few years and is still an aspect that search engines value highly. A great content strategy is a sure fire way to prove to search engines that you invest in your site quality and are seeking to provide a useful service to your customers that adds value. Quality content is not something that can be easily faked or manipulated.
It’s clear to see that content is still king, but many affiliates still perhaps aren’t using this to their full advantage. Whilst you can attempt to chase the quick wins, which might give you a few new visitors on a given day, there is a definitive need to build a long term content strategy that will bring quality customers to your site and assist with SEO ranking.
Unicorn Keywords buzz word or fad?
Most affiliates can confirm that that not all content performs in the same way on site. You can spend the same amount of time on developing a 100 pieces of content, but a select few may perform much better in terms of organic traffic and conversions than the rest.
Why is this the case?
Assuming that the pieces are mostly of the same quality and length, the big difference can come down to the keywords. Unicorn keywords create the magical difference in traffic, though you’re not always sure of exactly why that may be the case. Using them effectively is just part of the content development process, however you need to do thorough research to hunt them down and then use them organically in the content you’re creating.
Hunting For Unicorns
These keywords aren’t always the ones that you’d expect, so you’ll need to disregard any preconceived notions before you begin looking for them. The first step to finding them is to look back on your top performing content on site, you can use tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar to help you do that.
Focus on the content that you’ve used solely for organic search, review which pieces have brought the most new visitors, ranked well and had the highest conversion rate. Go strictly by the numbers and don’t get caught up in the content pieces that you have a specific preference for. The art of unicorn hunting is to approach your content and messaging like a punter would.
Then, drill down into the keywords to properly understand what these content pieces have done for your site. Maybe they’ve brought more engaged users and dropped your bounce rate, if so these are the pieces that you want to be focusing in on and developing to drive further traffic.
Replicating Success
Once you’ve pinpointed the source of your specific unicorn keywords, you want to go on to replicate your success. You don’t want to be duplicating this content, or take short cuts by unicorn stuffing words in your drafted content. You do want to be distributing it on other channels to drive quality traffic to your site and also expanding the content concepts to create differentiated unique content pieces. This could be by building on a topic that you have explored previously in a series of guides or how to’s, which answer specific questions or concerns users have highlighted in commentary or forum threads, or by sharing it on a diversified range of social media channels.
If your users are interested in selected topics then this can give you a better understanding of what your long term content strategy should include. With the right strategy, you create a niche and a catalogue of content that your users want to see and can find easily online. Predicting what your user wants will help you to cut down the time you spend creating ineffective content too. Content should drive conversion and revenue so focus on the subjects that have high search volumes too.
You can also choose to use these well performing pages as the basis for a link building or PPC campaign. As they are already ranking well, they will bring you better results in a shorter space of time.
Putting your brands content into motion
Asides from creating unique content, you need to ensure that your content has an authentic brand voice behind it. Customers will need to read the content on your site and know it is authentic to your site. This can be done by defining and using your brand voice within everything you write. Your brand voice should be something that your users respond well to, so test a few different styles to get to know what works for them.
Your brand voice should be unique and also consistent across all content pieces you produce. Whether you’re sharing your content on social media or creating a brand new piece for your website, it should distinctly reflect your authentic brand and style of writing. Building a content strategy is a bit like building with lego, each brick will make a house and the house needs to be functional, but also attractive to those visiting it so they remain comfortable and coming back to find out more. There are a number affiliates out there that have this nailed – such as LADBible who use their brand voice to great effect, to create a friendly and trustworthy portal for users to enjoy. The quality of their content and humour is congruent every time.
It’s all about creating one consistent experience for your user, which helps to build trust and familiarity. Then, when it comes to directing them through to a site that you have partnered up with, your user will be more likely to convert and trust the brand because of the association you have provided. Building a brand is becoming the lifeblood of the affiliate industry and plays a huge role in defining the success of your website as a brand longer term.
