Creating the best content in your industry
-
Im currently working with a new client and their goal is to create the absolute best content in their industry.
I've seen alot of articles on WHY to create the best content but not a lot on HOW to create the best content.
Can anyone recommend a article they recall which talked more about the HOW. I'm looking for a process on how to create awesome content, how to go about it.
Any suggestions?
-
I agree with Mike Davis.
I ranted on about the need to hire professional writers in a post earlier this week..
Many of my clients are themselves subject matter experts and professional writers. I just point them in the right direction and do some editing as we come up with an editorial calendar. It's not unlike what I did as a magazine editor.
And, yes, it's important to be accurate. That shouldn't have to be said -- but it does. You'll never know how much business you lost because a prospect concluded you don't know what you're talking about.
Getting people to commit to producing content? I agree it's very difficult. Here's a radical suggestion on how to succeed: pay them. I know, I know -- this is deeply shocking....especially if we are talking about non-writers already on staff at a company. Of course, you need high level support to make this happen. But a $1,000 or $2,000 one-time writing bonus can work really well.
-
I know that the whole concept of thought leadership is overused and slightly annoying but to truly create great content that people will consume and share you must be in the right place at the right time. If your client knows of a new governmental initiative or possibly a new emerging technology that is not widely known about but is about to "blow up", positioning themselves for success by creating great content that is well written by an expert is a fantastic way to gain exposure and to set themselves up as a thought leader for that specific subject.
There are a couple little snags about developing the "best content in the industry" not least of which is that it costs a ton of money. Not only will the piece need to be created by an expert in the field, there will also be a need for professional editing (whether video or literary). Another piece of bad news is that a single piece of content is not enough. Your clients need to be pumping out content that is relevant and most importantly, current. Pure and simple, content is freaking expensive!
Another thing to watch out for is the desire to hurry and push out content without properly vetting sources or editing the piece. I don't know how many times I have read the latest and greatest white paper about a very important subject only to find glaring grammatical errors. Even worse, sometimes the content is just plain wrong. Tell your client to treat any piece of content they pushes out as if they were going to submit it for peer review in a scholarly journal. It needs to be well written and accurate.
I am very fortunate to have a full to writer on my staff and a massive pool of experts to draw on, but even still it is difficult to get people to commit to producing the content in a timely manner. Everyone loves to tell you about how they can create wonderful White Papers, but getting them to produce them sometime in the next decade is hard. You really have to set up deadlines and have people commit to keeping those deadlines.
Good Luck!
-
Daniel Tan has a great article out on how to write amazing press releases. I suggest you look for that as well. To me it's the best on the net right now and I personally use the same methods.
Have a great night and a happy holiday.
MB
-
Hi monster99,
Definitely check out http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/ which my favourite content producing article I've found so far.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Content Architecture - Breakout Pages
If you have a page that summarizes four different product types adequately in a chart that requires no scroll, is there an SEO justification to also breaking out each product into a separate page, but basically it would contain the same information? The SEO in me says yes, because that's more crawlable content you can optimize, but wouldn't it go against usability and general common sense?
Content Development | | SSFCU0 -
Modifying Content to Avoid Duplicate Content Issues
We are planning to leverage specific posts from a US-based blog for our own Canadian blog (with permission, of course) but are aware that this can cause duplicate content issues. We're willing to re-write as much or as little as we must from the initial blog posts to avoid duplicate content issues but I have no idea just how much we will need to re-write. Is there some guideline for this (e.g., 25% of content must be re-written)? I've been unable to find anything. Thank you in advance!
Content Development | | QueenSt0 -
Is framed content on another domain duplicate content?
I've read a number of articles and am getting opposing answers. I've been checking pages of Photo.net in copyscape for duplicate content. I'm finding a number of domains have the site iframed onto them. I was wondering why copyscape could read the content if the search engines supposedly didn't crawl iframes. Copyscape said Google can read the content. I just want to know if these sites need to remove the iframe (is it hurting Photo.net)? Thanks. Examples: http://www.copyscape.com/?q=http%3A%2F%2Fphoto.net%2Freviews%2F
Content Development | | cakelady0 -
Thumbs up or thumbs down to content rotators
Hi there - Our team is in the process of a website redesign. We're currently using a content rotator and are wondering if any folks have data to support whether this is actually a good practice despite it's popularity? Overall, I'm not impressed by the click throughs as a percentage of site traffic and most of our visitors are not repeat visitors so this may not really be necessary. Thoughts and experiences appreciated!
Content Development | | pasware0 -
On page content and PDF - Dup?
Hi We are writing a useful article which we want to put on our site, but we also want to add it as a pdf which people can download - will this be classed as dup copy?
Content Development | | jj34340 -
Question - Hidden Content via 'Read More;'
Hi, Does having text in hidden areas (that are expandable with a button) harm their value in SEO? E.g. there are 'read more' areas on the homepage of this site that have content that is not accessible otherwise. Does this content have the same weight when it is hidden versus if this whole area was visible? http://goo.gl/QQvAZ
Content Development | | qlkasdjfw0 -
How do you get your content ideas?
What kind of research tactics are the best for finding great ideas for content or articles? What tools are the most helpful?
Content Development | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Content issue
Hi, Quick question; I have set up a micro site in which i was going to take some of the content from my reviews and recipes my customers have posted and have them placed on my other site. The site i currently have is a large site receiving over 200,00 visitors every day. Will this be affected as duplicate content if i was to do this as i do not want to affect my rankings. Any suggestions what i can do to get round this? Cheers
Content Development | | wazza19851