As longtime digital marketers, we frequently find that clients want to get the most bang for their buck. Realistically, who doesn’t? The average client wants to get the maximum results for their money spent, and smaller budgets often mean more creativity to make sure that the end result is justified by the means. This can be done simply by making your content more shareable!
Overall results are amplified by using effective and cheap link building strategies to help boost your traffic, and overall website authority. Truth be told, better and more engaging content is always better than more.
Many people seem to believe that simply having a website with a blog is the be all, end all of digital marketing. The fact is that a website is more like a vehicle; it still needs a lubed up engine to move. It is easy to get results when you have millions to spend, but what about when you only have hundreds or thousands?
Ultimately, you want to boost content linkability without wasting your budget, to keep your website working for you by making your content just a bit more engaging, and shareable.
A note on how content sharing supercharges SEO
Google uses more than 200 different signals to determine how to rank web pages. These “signals” can range from links pointed to the website, the quality of the page linking to your website, and how many people are sharing your content on social media.
While it seems fairly simple, most of these signals remain a mystery to the public and even to SEO companies. Google keeps that under lock and key, and buried under NDAs…
While we don’t have the exact ranking factors that search engines like Google use to determine search rankings, we collectively have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t.
“Social signals” have become an important part of how SEO works, and this is determined by assessing how many people are sharing and clicking articles from websites. Google has confirmed that links on Facebook and Twitter are used as a ranking signal.
We can take that fact and use it to our advantage simply by creating better content!
Here are 4 ultimate content sharing secrets that will help you maximize your SEO budget creatively!
1. Adding Expert Quotes
Not only does this method help add credibility to your blog posts, but it doesn’t require much of an additional time investment! Adding a quote of a well-known thought leader in the niche you’re writing in adds value to your post, also boosting its linking potential.
If your company is already pretty influential, you should consider reaching out to the expert in question to see if they would be willing to provide a quote to use, if you’re not already using an existing quote. This also provides you a valuable networking contact, for any potential future work in your business.
2. Strategic Linking
Link building is truly an art form, and many bloggers and website owners are happy to exchange links– they might even ask for them! You can perform outreach yourself, or try to get your foot in the door and link to them early on. Send them the post, when this is done!
Over time, you will certainly have to prove that your content is also worthy of them linking back to you. This is the first step to building a name for yourself and growing your network.
Tip: an excellent way to find new contacts is to find a Facebook group for bloggers or marketers in your industry!
3) Beautiful, interactive visuals
Beautiful imagery is an excellent way to get people to click on your page, but it also makes people more likely to want to share your content. Pinterest-ready images continue to be an important way for people to gain traffic through shareability, which also boosts your SEO efforts.
This doesn’t mean using stock photography! Take good quality photos or hire a designer to get truly impactful images included in your content.
Tip: If you don’t yet have the budget for a graphic designer, consider trying a service like Canva or Snappa, which both provide excellent templates to make a beginner designer look like a pro!
4) Add statistics.
If statistics apply to the subject you’re writing about, these should be highlighted! Anything that could make your content more useful boosts shareability. Statistics illustrate a point in a more effective way than even 1000 words can do — it’s almost better than a simple photo.
In fact, you can incorporate them into an infographic. Just make sure that your infographic is also watermarked appropriately for your brand to help boost your brand equity.
But how do you get statistics?
You could start Twitter polls, to start. However, depending on your personal clout, it may not be an effective sample size. One way you could do this is to run an ad for your poll, and advertise it to people in the demographic of your choosing using Twitter’s advertising tools.
Twitter allows you to create polls for a tailored audience, which you can make reflective of the people you’re trying to make an impact upon with the content you’re writing.
In addition to Twitter polls, there are also services that offer answers to your survey questions for a fee. Both Surveymonkey and Survata offer targeted solutions to help you provide the most relevant results to your audience.
Tip: You could search for statistics that back up your point, or write a post based off statistics you’ve already uncovered. In that case, you’re set! Numbers are more impactful than words, because they make a point quickly and easily.
In conclusion…
Quality matters. Consumers are far more likely to share an article that they found useful, rather than a rough think piece that doesn’t actually provide real world value. Creating content that is truly captivating is difficult, and takes a lot of time and effective planning. For info on Content Planning check out this article.
Not only do you have to come up with a subject worth blogging about, but these days they also have to be visually compelling to retain interest. Two quality blog posts in a month are better than four low quality posts.
Remember that building traffic takes time, but these tips should get you well on your way to boosting your SEO and gaining new customers!