Unlocking Success: Search Engine Optimized Content and its Impact on Your Business

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Today’s guest post was contributed by Claire Wentz, of Caring From Afar…

As we navigate the digital age, small businesses must seize the opportunities that technology presents to remain competitive and prosper. The internet, a dynamic and ever-changing platform, provides countless avenues for small businesses to broaden their customer base, increase operational efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Integrate Seamless Online Payment Processing

In the realm of digital commerce, the ability to process payments online is a crucial aspect that small businesses cannot afford to overlook. By integrating an efficient online payment system, businesses provide customers with a secure and comfortable platform to transact. This not only improves the overall customer experience but also simplifies the payment process, thereby relieving business owners of administrative burdens and freeing up valuable time to concentrate on other vital aspects of their operation.

Harness the Power of SEO Content

In today’s digitally-focused landscape, the significance of search engine optimization (SEO) cannot be overstated. By having expert craft content that is optimized for search engines, your website’s visibility can be greatly amplified, leading to a substantial uptick in organic traffic. You can also learn many key principles via online guides and tutorials and implement strategic practices yourself. This surge in visibility has a domino effect, potentially resulting in increased sales and a thriving business. 

Keep Content in a Managed Hub

With website updates and social media marketing campaigns, staying on top of your content can quickly become a challenge. There are content management systems (CMS) you can put to work for you in organizing your material. Such a system is key in simplifying a business’ digital presence, as you can edit, schedule, and publish from one tool, rather than constantly juggling individual pieces of content. Look for an option that integrates seamlessly with your other web-focused tools. 

Prioritize Mobile-Friendly Design

Considering the prevalent use of mobile devices to access the web today, it’s essential for small businesses to prioritize a mobile-friendly website. A website with a responsive design that seamlessly adjusts to different screen sizes greatly improves the user experience, which in turn can cultivate customer loyalty and potentially boost conversion rates. Furthermore, Google also factors in mobile-friendliness when ranking websites, meaning having a mobile-optimized site can significantly improve your search engine visibility, attracting more potential customers to your business. 

Ensure Website Accessibility for All

It’s of utmost importance for small businesses to guarantee their websites are universally accessible, including catering to individuals with disabilities who may utilize assistive technologies for web navigation. An accessible website does more than just expand your potential customer pool; it aligns with legal requirements and demonstrates a dedication to inclusivity. It can enhance your brand’s reputation and credibility as a business that values all its customers, thereby fostering a more robust relationship with your audience. 

Put Optimization to Work

Embracing web-based updates can transform the trajectory of small businesses. From facilitating online payment processing and crafting search engine optimized content to ensuring mobile compatibility and website accessibility, these updates can significantly elevate your online presence. Implementing effective email marketing campaigns and leveraging social media platforms can further enhance customer engagement and drive sales. Additionally, utilizing data analytics tools can provide valuable insights into customer behavior, helping to refine strategies and improve overall business performance.

Search engine optimized content is a must-have for success in today’s business world. Putting funds, time and energy into making your content more search-friendly offers a potential return on investment that makes it worthwhile. Stay abreast of technological advancements, remain relevant, and witness your small business flourish in the digital landscape.

 

 

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Wide-Awake, Rip Van Winkle Content Marketing

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“Old-fashioned values can enhance your business.” Bruce Sanders tells wealth managers in Financial Advisor Magazine. “Suppose you were cryogenically frozen like the legendary Rip VanWinkle, and woke up in the financial services industry of 2024. Here’s what you’d see, Sanders says:

  1. face-to-face, in-person relationships between advisors and clients
  2. periodic reviews
  3. accountability
  4. advisors plainly explaining the benefits and risks
  5. availability to clients
  6. a relationship based on trust and transparency

“I strongly believe that using, depending on and promoting America’s Traditional Values is extremely important for our society and it’s going to boost sales for you and your business if you start or continue using them,” David Cross writes in Medium.com. Court Bishop agrees: Customer trust is key to driving loyalty and business success, Bishop says. To earn it, companies must understand and respect their customers and provide relevant, personalized experiences.

As content writers, we’ve learned at Say It For You, we can work to inspire three kinds of trust in readers, trust for the business providers and professional practitioner who hire us to convey their message: a) trust in their know-how  b) trust in their ethical standards of conduct c) trust in those professionals’ ability to understand and empathize with their needs.

Whatever the business or practice, those old-fashioned values need to inspire the content their web visitors are going to read:

  • transparency in explaining the benefits and the risks. Check!.
  • ongoing availability of service and help – to real people. Check!
  • periodic updates on new solutions as they become available. Check!

Providing updated, regularly published marketing content is one way business owners can keep their clients – and their business practices “alert” and up to date..

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The Four Elements For Creating Wonder

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As writers, we can use four characteristics that have the power to inspire a sense of wonder in our readers, Matty Dalrymple explains in Writer’s Digest:

  • mystery and exclusivity
  • a disconnect from reality and expectations
  • displays of specialized elements of knowledge
  • an immersive yet ephemeral experience

Dalrymple, I realized, was addressing novelists, but could those four elements work well for creators of online marketing content as well?

Mystery – by showcasing characters’ use of special elements, “we transport readers to a wondrous world”, Dalrymple says.

In content writing for business, we’ve learned at Say It For You, business owners or professional practitioners want to become valuable providers of information, ultimately persuading readers to use their products or engage their services. There must be no mystery about the fact that searchers have come to the right place. Still, through content, writers can show how things – or causes – their readers care about are in jeopardy, creating wonder about possible paths forward.

A disconnect from expectations – When an aspect of a setting or situation deviates from the norm, that surprises and intrigues readers.

Creating compelling content can – and should – incorporate both people storytelling and product storytelling. The expectation is for the content to tout the successes of the business or practice, but true stories about mistakes and struggles will engage precisely because of the disconnect. People want to do business with real people, and admission of failures and mistakes often surprises and intrigues.

Displays of specialized knowledge – Because the character has such arcane knowledge, readers have a sense of awe at how much exists of which they were unaware.

Content writers aim to have their clients be perceived as subject matter experts offering usable information and insights.  Once readers feel assured that the providers know your stuff and care about offering good information and good service, they might be ready to take action, Bringing in less well-known facts about familiar things and processes “displays” specialized knowledge, making readers wonder how many other “secrets” await.

Immersive experience – While allowing readers to get a sense of being part of the story, the author needs to convey that the experience is ephemeral.

When you’re composing business blog content, I tell writers, imagine readers asking themselves – “How will I use the product (or service)?” “How will I feel?” Your content can offer a “taste” of the benefits users stand to enjoy when using your products and/or services.

While assuring searchers they’ve come to the right place to find the information they need, skillful use of the four story elements can create a sense of wonder, a feeling of “Wow! I never realized…..”

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Stepping Out of Character in Your Content

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When the characters in a story seem to act against their own nature, Tiffany Yates Martin advises fiction writes in Writers’ Digest, that can feel jarring to readers, but it can also create interest. The author needs to lay the groundwork so that the character’s later actions will seem plausible, perhaps describing external forces that compel unusual action later on. The concept, as Martin goes on to clarify, is that, properly handled, unexpected and complex twists to a narrative can surprise and delight readers.

While, as content writers for business owners and practitioners marketing their products and services, we deal in fact rather than fiction, I believe that the Writer’s Digest “stepping-out-of-character” model can prove highly effective in capturing blog readers’ interest.

There are a number of companies that exemplify the unexpected by having two totally unrelated business lines, such as:

  • Chemed (hospice care) and Roto Rooter (plumbing)
  • Elxsi (sewer equipment and family restaurants)
  • Guiness (beer and recordkeeping)
  • Yamaha (musical instruments and motorcycles)

Diversification like that can be used as a defense, the Corporate Finance Institute explains. “In the case of a cash cow in a slow-growing market, diversification allows the company to make use of surplus cash flows.”

More to my original point, though, as Julie Thompson explains in business.com, business and professional practice owners often have a variety of hobbies, and interests, and interests. Building content around those interests (perhaps unrelated to the business or practice itself can make for refreshingly unexpected reading for searchers who land on the blog.

Another kind of “unexpected”‘ content focus can be charitable causes favored by the owner’s favorite charitable and community activities. But “the way you go about marketing your charitable efforts can either boost or tarnish your company’s public relations,” Thompson cautions, because there needs to be real commitment, not just lip service on the part of the business owner or practitioner. Still, the more unrelated to the type of business or practice the charitable “cause” appears to be, the more that “unexpecteness” factor will come into play…

Just as some of the most successful businesses represent new twists on old ideas and products, as content writers, we sometimes need to step out of character. surprising and delighting readers with a “twist”!

 

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Can Nature Journaling Help Your Content Writing?

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“As you begin to explore a regular nature journaling practice, your skills will improve…You’ll aspire to write with more clarity, draw with more accurateness and learn about the flora, fauna, and natural phenomena that you’re observing,” Christine Elder tells kids and teens.

Nature journaling can help your writing in general, Marie Bengston asserts in Writer’s Digest.  “We need to conjure our written world with evocative, multi-sensory detail that immediately resonates with our reader,” she suggests.

For us creators of marketing content (our topic may or may not be related to nature), I think Bengston’s Three Prompts will prove particularly helpful: 

  1. I notice that…..
  2. I wonder if…..
  3. It reminds me of….:

I notice that… it’s essential for blog content writers to focus on a target audience, showing readers you’ve “noticed” them and have taken note of their unique preferences and needs.

I wonder if…In content marketing, the goal is to induce “wonder” in searchers who found their way to your site. Your post should have served up just enough food for thought to make them wonder if, after all, there are even more ways in which what you have to offer is exactly what they have to have! 

It reminds me of…In writing for business, the variety comes from the details you fill in around the central themes. Different examples of ways the company or practitioner helped solve various unusual problems in the past help reinforce the core advantages being offered.

  For content marketers, “journaling” might take the form of an “idea folder”. This could be an actual paper folder which we stuff with newspaper and magazine clippings, a notebook kept in a purse or pocket, or a digital file on a phone or tablet. Since at Say It For You, we train freelance content writers to “learn around”, the material they save up in that folder can help them keep track of what they notice, what they wonder, and what those tidbits call to mind.

Could getting into a journaling habit help your content writing?

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