Much like the power of love, content marketing is a curious thing. There is no single formula that will appeal to an entire audience. Segments of your audience will respond favorably to certain article formats, while others will quickly add to your bounce rate stats.
The goal is not to please everybody, just to appeal to enough of your audience to make your efforts profitable. With that comes a bit of trial and error. Today, I would like to give you some pointers on the types of things that work, as well as some of the ones that don’t. Since I like to end on a positive note, we’ll look at the don’ts first.
Don’t Do These Things with Your Articles
There are a few sure-fire ways to ensure that your readers click past your content without giving it a second glance. Here are some of the big ones.
#1 – Don’t place too many ads. Your ad placement strategy will need deliberate assessment and tweaking if you want to find the kind of balance that gets people to both keep reading and click on an interesting ad. If you place too many on one page, people will get the message that you just want those clicks and will ignore all the content, including your ads.
#2 – Avoid invasive pop-ups. Pop-ups can be very effective when used properly. They are a great way to get readers to select another article if you position them to trigger upon sensing exit intent, but when they pop up while someone is reading your article, that’s an easy way to earn a bounce. Pops ups (along with other excessive advertising efforts) can slow page loads considerably, too, and that is the kiss of death when marketing to mobile users.
#3 – Don’t display text bricks. It’s time to forget what you learned in high school about what a paragraph is. If you were ever dinged on an essay for having fewer than five sentences in a paragraph, keep in mind that term papers and essays are different than web content.
Both types of writing serve specific purposes. For web articles, you want your key points to be made searchable at a glance. That means that two to three sentences per paragraph are typically plenty.
#4 – Don’t seed with nonsensical keywords. The way you use your keywords is every bit as important as having them in the first place. The major search engines want your content to be readable so use connecting words to make your keywords flow organically.
No: “Call a locksmith Seattle for help 24/7.”
Yes: “Call a locksmith in Seattle…”
Seriously, what’s a “locksmith Seattle?” It makes no sense to the reader and the search engines know they’re being baited. Keep your content real. That is all.
Do These Things Instead
Now I want to show you how to avoid the pitfalls I listed above and give you some tips on how to make your articles more interesting and engaging.
#1 – Split-test your ad placement. Content marketing is, in fact ad-driven. Even if you aren’t sending traffic directly to your blog, you want some form of monetization on each post. There are numerous tools available to track the effectiveness of ad placement, many of which are free or carry a one-time fee.
#2 – Use your advertising tools wisely. I mentioned how to use pop-ups more effectively, but your entire ad structure is important for both reader engagement and SEO. Slowing page loads or interrupting the reader with too many ads is a recipe for disaster on both fronts.
Don’t make your page layouts look confusing either. This is a huge problem on even some very popular blogs and certain ad companies frown on placing too heavy an emphasis on ads. By the way, when I say, “frown on,” I mean they can cancel your account and withhold your ad earnings leaving you with little to no recourse in recovering either.
#3 – Short, concise paragraphs are your friends. The reason for this is simple (and I kind of touched on it above). No matter how good your writing (or the copy you get from your preferred custom writing service) may be, it all goes largely unread. People will skim through the content and see if their eyes fall on something interesting.
Short paragraphs give you more of a fighting chance to get your message across to the reader. While some may disagree with me, I also recommend paginating your articles to increase readability. By “paginating,” though, I mean breaking it up into four or five segments, not fifty. Yes, I’ve seen the latter, and yes, I’ve bounced, even if I was actively interested in the content.
#4 – Use keywords at low density and pair them with great writing. While keywords are good for grabbing the initial attention of search engines, they are only the first step in the process. You have to be able to deliver well-written, informative, intelligent content if you want your pages to rank well.
This is why I say it’s a bad idea to obsess over keywords. Do your research and settle on a few keywords that fit organically with your copy.
Final Takeaway
The more reader-friendly and intelligent your blogs and web articles appear, the more people will want to both read them and share them. That is how you grow your audience. Delivering meaningful, shareable content is the entire point of content marketing, not inundating your articles with ads or seeding with clunky, nonsensical keywords.
Think you might need help with some of this stuff? No problem! You can always call in the pros (like the ones here at Beez) for a little extra assurance that you’re doing it right.