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3 smart ways to make your web content pages more valuable and shareable
Posted by Nick Usborne on 03 August 2011
Google’s Panda update has reminded us all that engaging quality content is essential for online success. Nick Usborne, author of Wordtracker’s new book 101 Web Content Ideas, Tips and Resources, shares three ways to make your content more valuable to readers and more shareable.
For many webmasters, the Google Panda update came as a rude shock.
Many of us had become somewhat complacent. Inspired, or at least encouraged, by content farms, we were happily pumping out new content by the truck load. We led ourselves to believe that publishing more and more content, optimized for thousands of long tail keywords, was the best way to go.
The trouble is, as with most systems of mass production, the more content we produced, the less attention we paid to quality.
And then came the brutal, unforgiving Panda.
Today, as we assess the damage, we remind ourselves to think less about quantity and more about quality. Most of us are making our content pages a little longer. More information, more text.
But other than simply writing longer content pages, how else can we add value? How can we deliver more to our readers, make them stay on our pages longer, and share our work more widely?
There are many ways, but here are three of the best of them. (Hint: #3 is the most important of all.)
1. Add more multimedia to your pages
By multimedia I mean photos, images, videos, audio, infographics, slide shows and videos.
Any one of these can add value to the information you are sharing. More importantly, readers seem to prefer pages which combine text with one or more multimedia elements.
Yes, they’ll appreciate your well-written, informative text. But they also like to watch video, browse through a slide show of images, study an infographic or listen to an audio interview.
For one thing, it provides a change in pace. For many readers, 100% text looks like hard work.
Also, keep in mind that people have a variety of different learning styles. Some learn well from text alone. Others are more visual, and prefer images and video.
A multimedia page is more likely to hit the learning sweet spot for a broader range of readers.
Also, people love to share multimedia elements. If you include a video with a share link, then people have an easy way to share your work through Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.
Sharing is great for you, because it brings your site to the attention of new readers. Just as important, as you no doubt already know, Google and the other search engines are paying more and more attention to the social signals generated by your site and site pages.
Put simply, if you have pages which are widely shared through social media, those pages may well begin to rise in the search engine results listings.
The bottom line is that people like multimedia. They don’t want to just read, they also want to see, watch and listen.
2. Increase levels of interaction
It has been 10 years now since the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto wrote that “markets are conversations”.
They were a little ahead of their time.
Yes, even back then there were conversations online. But the visibility and volume of those conversations really exploded, in plain view, with the rise of social media.
Take a look at any social media stream and you can see how people like to connect and converse. And they are not just talking about their puppies and what they are having for lunch. They are also talking about the products and services they use and prefer.
Smart companies are learning fast that the more they engage with their customers in online conversations, the more of their products and services they will sell.
But while conversations rage over on the social media sites, what’s happening on your own web pages?
If you have a blog, hopefully you actively encourage comments and dive into those comment streams yourself.
But if you have hundreds or thousands of static web pages, how can you generate conversations there?
That’s now as simple as grabbing some code from Disqus.com or Facebook Comments Box.
Either way, you can add comment functionality to even static web pages. And once you have done that you have an opportunity to start interacting with your readers, not to mention increase the levels of social signals from your site.
3. Make every page a whole lot better
Remember, the Panda update punishes the absence of quality, originality and value.
It’s easy to add multimedia to your pages. And it’s easy to make every page interactive and social media friendly.
But even then, you won’t necessarily have a quality page. Adding a video to a page of low-value content won’t automatically make it a high value page.
You have to work a little harder.
Among its recommendations following the release of Panda, Google suggested you consider each page on your site as if it were placed in front of the editor of a quality magazine or newspaper. What would the editor think of your page? Would he or she think it worthy of inclusion as an article or feature in his or her magazine?
I think that’s a great benchmark. Would your new content pages make the grade if they were on the desk of an offline editor?
You need to invest more in each page you create. Take the time and trouble to create content that is more than just “good enough”. Make sure all your content is really, really good.
Summing it all up ...
As I mentioned earlier, it’s point #3 that is the real winner here.
Yes, add multimedia. Yes, become more interactive and shareable.
But do those things within the context of high quality content.
After all, if you want your readers to interact more, and if you want your content shared far and wide through social media ... you don’t want that happening with poor or mediocre content. That will just make you look bad.
The key today ... and it has always been the same ... is to focus more on quality than on quantity and to blow your readers away with really valuable, useful content ... on all of your site’s pages.
More ideas for web content
About Nick Usborne
Nick Usborne is a leading authority on the subject of writing for the web, and has been since 1995. As a speaker, trainer and consultant he has worked with dozens of companies and organizations, including Yahoo!, J Paul Getty Trust, Intuit, Walt Disney Attractions, Merck & Co, the National Cancer Institute and many more.
In addition to writing and copywriting work for his clients, he is the author of numerous articles, programs and books. He also coaches freelancers who want to build a bigger and better business. You can learn more about his work on writing for the web, and freelancing, at nickusborne.com
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