By GEMDEVELOPER
Is the arrival of a new year accompanied by new content marketing best practices? The answer is both yes and no. As we step into the new year, there are indeed new factors to consider when shaping your content marketing strategy. However, it’s important to note that many fundamental principles have remained unchanged.
Content marketing continues to be an incredibly effective method for maintaining the relevance of your brand and driving organic traffic to your website. While the landscape of content creation has evolved in various ways, there are still numerous best practices that you must ensure you’re implementing in order to enhance discoverability.
In this article, we will explore the enduring best practices that content marketers should consistently adhere to, as well as shed light on emerging trends within the realm of content.
Here are the seven best practices for content marketing in 2023:
- Use the customer’s voice.
- Create content using the hub & spoke content marketing model.
- Optimize your content for result types.
- Always measure your content for ROI.
- AI-generated content is here, but don’t fall for the hype.
- Re-optimize and repurpose your outdated/underperforming content.
- Break down the silos between your internal departments to move faster.
Use Customer’s Voice In Your Content
Incorporating the customer’s perspective into your content is an enduring best practice in content marketing, and it holds the utmost significance.
It is crucial to align your content with what your customers are actively seeking. Failing to do so may prevent you from reaching your intended audience, even if they are searching for the very solutions or offerings you provide.
Keyword research remains a cornerstone for creating compelling content. A significant aspect of producing relevant content is ensuring that you utilize the exact phrases people use when conducting searches. By doing so, you enhance the chances of attracting and engaging your target audience.
Create Content Using The Hub & Spoke Content Marketing Model
Google has consistently prioritized the ranking of websites that demonstrate authority on specific topics. And what better approach to showcase your expertise to both Google and customers than by creating substantial content centred around that topic?
One highly effective method for achieving this is the hub and spoke content marketing model. While not a new concept in the realm of content marketing, it remains essential and continues to be relevant. The hub and spoke model revolves around ensuring there is existing demand for the content you create, aligning with the customer’s voice. It involves building authority around a central “hub,” typically representing one of your core business lines or services.
The “spoke” content, on the other hand, consists of addressing questions related to the hub or different stages of the buyer’s journey that connects to the hub. By adopting the hub and spoke model, you can effectively target users at various stages of their search process, while also signalling to Google that you possess extensive knowledge on the subject matter.
Developing hub and spoke content for a specific topic elevates your perceived authority in Google’s eyes. Consequently, this can lead to increased organic traffic, improved keyword rankings, and higher conversion rates for your company.
Create Content Based On Result Types
It’s been evident for some time now that Google has evolved beyond the traditional “ten blue links” format. As Google constantly introduces new types of search results, the search engine result pages have become increasingly crowded with diverse result formats.
Similar to ensuring we target keywords with search volume, it’s essential to structure our content in a manner that aligns with Google’s preferences, increasing the likelihood of our content being surfaced and displayed.
Among the popular result types that have gained significant traction this year, short-form videos take the lead.
Typically ranging from 10 to 30 seconds or up to 5 minutes, short-form videos have surged in popularity with the emergence of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. They have even begun to appear as a distinct result type on Google. When creating content for your website, it’s crucial to examine what currently appears on Google and analyze your competitors’ approaches.
Visual content, including imagery, enhances content digestibility and encourages social media sharing. Moreover, it offers an excellent opportunity to appear on Google Images, the second-largest search engine after Google’s main search page. Audio content, such as podcasts, has also become a prevalent medium for content consumption in recent times.
To effectively create content, it’s essential to understand how Google perceives user consumption patterns based on what appears on the first page of search results. Then, evaluate whether you can produce content for these mediums accordingly.
Measure Your Content For ROI
While not a new phenomenon, this is an enduring best practice in content marketing. Unlike paid media or email marketing, where it’s relatively straightforward to establish ROI through metrics like CPC and conversion rates, tying ROI to SEO or the organic channel can be challenging.
That’s precisely why it’s crucial to define clear measurement strategies for your content and demonstrate its impact on driving organizational results. The most effective way to garner support for SEO and showcase the value of content is by reporting on how it attracts more users to the site and contributes to conversions.
It is highly recommended to establish reporting mechanisms, by hiring enterprise SEO agencies or smaller tools, prior to content creation. This allows you to measure the performance of your content, such as the ranking of target keywords on Page 1, leading to an increase in organic traffic and conversions.
By consistently implementing this practice, you can weave a compelling narrative about the benefits of proactive SEO. You can demonstrate how it not only brings users to the site today but also continues to drive traffic to the same piece of content indefinitely.
Don’t fall for AI-generated Content
Exciting times are upon us! AI-generated content has finally become accessible to the masses. However, it’s essential not to get carried away by the hype.
In recent times, we’ve witnessed numerous acronyms such as VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) emerge, with people believing they would revolutionize the future. However, none of them has truly become the disruptive forces they were initially touted to be, at least not yet.
AI, on the other hand, is here to stay and has the potential to significantly simplify various aspects of our lives. There are valuable use cases for leveraging AI services like ChatGPT for tasks such as research, creating schema, or generating content ideas. However, it is not recommended to rely on these services entirely for writing your content.
Google recently updated its E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines, introducing an additional “E” for the experience. This demonstrates Google’s continued focus on authoritative content, emphasizing the importance of showcasing your expertise to users.
The emphasis on experience appears to be a response to AI-generated content, as Google aims to ensure that users receive accurate information from reliable sources, much like the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) algorithm update from the past.
Google’s helpful content update has also completed its rollout, impacting websites that provide unsatisfying or unhelpful content. This is because many websites have prioritized content creation for search engines rather than for human readers.
It is crucial for humans to craft content that resonates with other humans. While AI can be a valuable tool in the content creation process, it is important to exercise caution and avoid overreliance, as demonstrated by CNET’s decision to backtrack on their mass AI content generation efforts after numerous errors were detected in the content itself.
Re-Optimize And Repurpose Your Outdated/Underperforming Content
Is it always necessary to create new content for the new year? Not necessarily.
By monitoring the performance of your current content, you can identify opportunities to re-optimize or repurpose outdated or underperforming content.
A valuable approach is conducting a content audit, which helps you gain a better understanding of which content is performing well and which could benefit from a refresh or some updates this year.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, especially if your existing content is of good quality but could benefit from targeting different keywords.
Through evaluating your current content, you can also identify content gaps where new content may be needed or find opportunities to consolidate existing content to improve its performance collectively.
In past experiences with clients, we often discovered multiple blog articles focused on the same topic that was not performing well. Rather than investing time and effort into creating new content, consider repurposing existing content on your site to enhance its effectiveness.
Conducting content audits will always be a best practice, as it allows you to uncover hidden gems while identifying opportunities for content updates, optimizations, or creating and publishing fresh content that can benefit your site.
Break Down The Silos Between Teams Internally
While not directly related to content strategy, it is indeed a best practice for any company engaged in content creation.
Developing content for your website involves coordination across various teams, including content, design/product, development, legal, and SEO teams. In a company, particularly larger enterprises, it is essential to ensure that all these departments work collaboratively towards a shared goal: attracting more visitors to your website and driving conversions. There are numerous ways to enhance the efficiency of your organic marketing processes.
Regularly hold meetings with cross-functional teams and establish streamlined processes for creating new content and optimizing existing content. This can greatly improve efficiency and ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities throughout the content production process.
By defining team responsibilities beforehand and explaining the importance of each role, you can ensure that all departments prioritize the right tasks, minimizing delays in content creation.
The most effective content marketers actively work to break down silos and facilitate effective content publication. This requires effective communication, ongoing education, and organizational alignment.
Conclusion
By adhering to these seven best practices, you can ensure that your content is in capable hands in 2023 and beyond.
First and foremost, it is crucial to proactively utilize the insights you gather during the content creation process. Take the initiative to communicate with internal teams and seek their assistance when needed.
Content marketing remains a highly effective method for organizations to attract website traffic. It serves as a means to educate consumers about the benefits of specific services and foster trust in your brand as the ideal solution for their needs.
While AI is an emerging trend, exercise caution and avoid making drastic changes to your content creation approach at this stage. Ultimately, it is essential to prioritize content accuracy and ensure that it is written by humans for humans.
Although these best practices may sound familiar, their significance should not be underestimated. Rather than chasing the latest trends each year, prioritize mastering these fundamental elements first.