Engaging content: On the Web, be generous:

Hello Kristof

• I came across your site while browsing SEO keywords. I like what you are saying and I try to implement your recommendations.
• I hope you didn’t hurt yourself!
• What do you mean?
• As he fell…
• …

<– This is the (current) beginning of a conversation with a new visitor who, seduced by my articles and their practicality, decided to pick up his phone to find out more.

That’s what “engaging” content is all about.

My items, even if some are getting a little older (I’m careful, but…), are part of my customer acquisition strategy.

By giving detailed and practical information in my blog and showing point by point what to do in terms of:

• Text structuring,
• Web architecture,
• good practices for link building, whether it’s a guest post or a good local directory or forum listing
• …

… I don’t just give content that is directly usable, ready to be implemented. I also establish my professional expertise and generate a trust that a classic promotional speech does not always generate. (By “classic promotional” I mean formulas full of promise such as:

• “I’m going to multiply your traffic by 100”
• “Increase your revenue on the web effortlessly”
• “Number one on Google guaranteed”
• “I’m the best”… [And most importantly, take my word for it].)

And this way of thinking is not new… in June 2012, I had fun with Jean Boucher shooting this parody video at Mount Royal in Montreal.

Reader awareness of you and your work

To tell the truth, from reading the articles on the blog, I hope above all that an awareness will arise and help my reader to understand some realities related to my work:

Web optimization is work, work, work, hours of analysis, miles of writing and diplomacy.

By acquiring the keys to the profession and the practices to be implemented, my visitor is faced with two choices:

• Using it and getting started
• Take the measure of the daily work problem that web optimization imposes and entrust it to a specialist.

In the latter case, the chance that the agency will be asked for training, an audit, additional information or a contract is relatively high.

If only because training in our offices is a valuable complement because many people assimilate better during a lively course that allows them to ask questions than through simple reading.

We see here that generosity is a successful strategy,

because at the end of the day:

This statement is true for all professions.

• Just because a lawyer tells you exactly what procedures to take, what forms to fill out and what pitfalls to avoid doesn’t mean you’ll be able to plead your case before a judge.
• Just because an exterminator has advised you precisely in an article how to protect yourself and fight against bed bugs does not mean that you will be able to eliminate them from your home for good.
• Just because a builder has delivered the DIY sheets for the installation of a window does not mean that you will take the risk of doing it yourself… [it’s expensive to mess up badly installed windows…]
• Just because you’ve read all the articles on search engine-oriented copywriting doesn’t mean you’ll have the finesse of an SEO copywriter.

Only a few Internet users will embark on the implementation of the advice given because they are resourceful, handymen and have the necessary tools and time… And that’s fine.

On the other hand

It may be your sense of pedagogy and the generosity of your words that will encourage others to remember you and contact you to do the work.

Use and exploit analytics data.

This is in any case what the browsing statistics offered by analytics show in its ” returning visitors ” parameter and it is also what many Internet users who “shop” and take the time of several visits to give their trust and their mandates to the SEO agency they evaluate as the best and most professional rather than to the first boaster who comes along, even with a gadget video on the home page.

You don’t invest $3000 in an SEO file without taking a minimum of guarantees!

Is your blog generous?

Is your blog full of articles? Are these papers informative? Is their formulation clear, simple, airy and digestible? Are they illustrated with meaningful images? Do they answer the questions your potential customers have?

Your blog should be integrated with your Content Marketing.

Rather than blogging based on what you’re selling, touting the quality of your product or service, provide useful information about the potential buyer.

Answer the questions asked by Internet users who browse your papers.

When they are on a certain page, where do they go…

Again, harness the power of Analytics — notice your visitors’ journey, how they navigate your site, via the user audience/flow menu.

Consider their journeys to drive traffic to converting pages and to the contact form.

The tool uses up to nine levels of pathways…

User Flow: The Path of Visitors to Your Site

Blogging to get involved with your readers

When blogging, remember the questions you were asked at your point of sale, on the phone or by contact form…

You must have customers or prospects who start their conversation with “I have a quick question for you”…

Internet users’ questions are never small…

These questions, which seem trivial to those who ask them, sometimes take me a 30-minute email, a 45-minute email or a telephone conversation as much, as there are so many underlying, dependent notions that are attached to them and that need to be explained.

Many prospects figure out your skills based on the clarity of your answers, and even if your time is as precious as it is limited, respond accurately and selflessly. Your prospect will return the favor, your customers will recommend you, and you may even make social media buzz. (retwet, G+, likes and quotes on LinkedIn)

Content that’s easy to share.

When you produce your content in a ” content marketing ” logic, it is easier and more logical to publish or mention on specialized platforms, article sharing and distribution sites than your founding pages (which are purely promotional by nature)

Engaging content across all professions?

The chef’s recipes generate traffic (Photo: Tandem Restaurant)

For a restaurant, instead of limiting your site to the menu of the day or the menu, publish the chef’s recipes, compare and recommend quality suppliers or rare foodstuffs. Accompany the reader during their market.

For a craftsman, instead of limiting your pages to describing your skills and displaying photos of your sites, bring points of legislation, safety, authorizations and different permits, comparison of techniques and materials, specialized training, novelty at the fairs in which you participate…

Publish videos and reports of your teams in action throughout a project.

In this vein, a construction contractor client is currently preparing a 17-page “book” on the evolution of one of these projects. Seventeen pages that make a quasi-reportage with photos and videos…

I remember a client who was a construction craftsman who, when I told him that his four-page site had to be expanded to 20 or more in the future, replied “but what are we going to say?” …
Today his site has 57 articles, he is hegemonic in the SERPs on the queries of his profession and his company has really increased its turnover tenfold.
However, it is still far from leaving the category of “small sites” which, according to Google, sets the bar at 250 pages.

Recommendations and ideas for making a generous blog

Drawing Bruno Gonzalvez

1. Address your potential customer. We talk about defining a “persona” and writing for them as a priority.
2. Stop counting your words in an article, the reference of the 350-word post is very outdated, you have to deal with the subject in its entirety, drop 1000 words or more.
3. Work with your own images rather than the ones you see everywhere (from Istock or Fotolia) and which end up looking “cheap “.
4. Take all your blog posts and check that they contain a call to action.
5. Test a newsletter sign-up pop-up to see how it affects your conversion rates.
6. Try the infographic on a hot topic in your industry.
7. Express controversial opinions that will make the community react.
8. In January, write an article describing the trends of the coming year.
9. Publish your videos on youtube and PowerPoint presentations on Slideshare and embed them in your articles.
10. Check the richness of your vocabulary and eliminate the verbs have, be, power, and duty for more precise, more focused verbs.
11. Ask your customers for testimonials in the form of small quotes, but also articles about your product.
12. Invite influential bloggers to post with you or arrange for their interviews.
13. Use your keyword research to refine your content production.
14. Ask a question to the leaders of your business (via social media) and make their answers a great article.
15. Survey your customers, subscribers, or readers and publish the results with your summary.
16. Ask your readers, followers on social media to submit videos, ideas or images on a topic:
    Choose the best ones and create an article about it.
17. Use Hootsuite to stay ” tuned for the buzzing news “; then produce content based on trending topics.
18. Focus your attention on one or two social networks and be active there (top profile on lnkedIn, intervene in a relevant way in your Google+ or Facebook groups)
19. Compile lists of the top 10 resources, tools, or vendors for your niche.
20. Resume conversations, questions and answers on the specialized forums of your profession and synthesize everything in an article.