How To Get 2x the Results with 1/2 the Content in 2021
Content is the lifeblood of most B2B businesses.
The problem? The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we live, work, and do business. Everything is uncertain, and no one knows when this will end.
Creating and publishing high-quality content consistently has become an expensive and difficult affair.
And that puts another fork in the road: Should you continue publishing content or put things on hold then resume once life gets back to normal?
Putting things on hold sounds like a smart move — but it’s a death sentence.
One, you’ll lose all the ground you’ve gained so far. You’ve worked hard to rank higher on Google and have been getting a steady increase in organic traffic.
Putting things on hold right now means you’ll have to start from scratch once all this is over. Why?
You’re not sure what your competitors are up to, and most likely, they’re not taking their feet off the gas pedal yet.
So the trick is to use the content you already have to double the results you’re already getting. Here’s how:
Step #1: Identify your best content
An obvious benefit of your best content is that it has delivered results for you before — getting you qualified traffic, improving your search engine rankings, earning you high-quality links, and increasing your conversions.
But here’s the thing: Most of this content doesn’t reach its maximum potential.
35% of websites use WordPress as their content management system globally. With more than 70 million blog posts going live every month on WordPress alone, there’s a high likelihood that it hasn’t reached enough people to help you get more results.
And a lot of this is driven by the fact that Google loves new and fresh content — so you find yourself often publishing to maintain your Google rankings.
However, that’s not the only way to maintain your rankings. Most of your best content would rank better if you regularly updated it for freshness, accuracy, and relevance. And readers do pay attention to such details.
On other blogs, you’ll see something like “Ultimate Guide to X (2021 Update) or something similar — a sign that they’re continually updating their best content to maintain their rankings.
Take a look at how Earlybird created an entire series of financial literacy content around this post on tax-deductible gifts.
To do the same, use Google Analytics to help you identify your best performing posts and rank them in terms of:
- Exit rate
- Bounce rate
- Conversions
- Time spent on page
- Number of unique visits
Make your work easier by plugging this information into a mind map tool to help you get a clear picture of what posts deserve an update. You can also use content optimization software to help you analyze what’s working best on your site.
For example, a post with a high number of unique visits and a high bounce/exit rate requires an update. It still has more potential, and you might only need to make sure that the keywords you’ve used match a user’s intent to reduce the bounce rate.
In other posts, you’ll need to edit them to correct grammar errors, update the facts, statistics, and examples you have used.
This way, your rankings won’t suffer and your readers will continue getting accurate information from your old content.
Step #2: Fix your broken links
Your website visitors expect every element on your site to work smoothly because instinctively, they know that it should be that way.
It is equally frustrating to click on a link only to land on an amusing error page with an apology and links directing you to the homepage. No matter how you slice it, error pages aren’t cool.
Your broken links deliver a poor user experience that leads to little dwell time and a high bounce rate. The result? Your rankings start dropping gradually.
Broken links also stop crawlers from crawling and indexing your site, and that means your internal linking structure is broken, and your web pages won’t rank.
As a result, two things are bound to happen: (a) Users won’t come back to your site due to a poor experience, and (b), you’ll lose revenue because critical pages on your site aren’t ranking.
Use Screaming Frog to identify your broken links then you can either:
- Get rid of these links
- Create permanent 301 redirects from old pages to new ones that replace them.
Once you’ve checked your internal links, check if the links you have acquired are still working. Websites do change their external linking structure and end up doing away with outbound links.
And if you don’t keep an eye on these links to reclaim them, your best content will lose the authority it has earned so far.
The more effective you are at making sure that your best content maintains its authority, the easier it is to maintain and improve its rankings on Google. Use these free link building tools to build quality backlinks in less time.
Step #3: Reach out to influencers
Another advantage of updating your best content is that it gives you a reason to reach out to influencers to help you promote it further.
Social media channels happen to be one of the best places where you can find influencers to help you promote your content.
Instead of going for celebrities, your best shot when promoting your content is working with professionals and micro-influencers.
These influencers have websites with solid domain authority, and your best shot at having them promote your content is through bylined guest posting.
Once you get featured on their sites, they will share your content on their social media channels and their email subscribers. As a result, you’ll gain more exposure and get more people reading it while maintaining the readers you already have.
What’s the biggest benefit of this?
In addition to writing for and getting published on their sites, you’ll earn a link pointing back to your website (or content). Among other ranking factors, high-quality links are critical in determining how well your content ranks.
Step #4: Diversify your content distribution channels
In addition to working with influencers, starting a podcast provides you with an effective way to diversify and reach a new audience while still boosting content authority. These are peeps who’d rather listen to content as opposed to create time to read.
After all, most of them are working from home, which means they have more distractions. That means if they need to consume content, they will need to multitask, which is what most podcast listeners do anyway. Take a look:
And the best way to gain traction before you launch your podcast is through appearing as a guest on other popular podcasts to help you earn credibility and build a passive audience.
It’s just the same as guest posting, only that here, you don’t have to sit down and write content — prepare your notes, show up on time, and deliver great content.
To do that, you’ll need to:
- Identify a list of popular podcasts that your readers listen to.
- Listen and identify popular topics on that podcast to get a feel of the kind of content that they love.
- Come up with 3-5 topic ideas related to popular topics. For example, you want to expand a topic you feel wasn’t covered well. Alternatively, provide answers to burning questions that other people haven’t answered.
- Reach out to the host. Remember, nothing happens till your email gets opened.
As you make podcast appearances, you will be getting links back to your site through podcast transcripts and show notes.
And once you launch your show, the links you get from popular podcast directories will help boost your authority and search engine rankings. An excellent place to start (and keep you going) is repurposing your best content. Alternatively, take a look at user reviews and identify questions users have about your product then create a shadow answering these questions.
For example, if a reader wants to know the best password manager to use, create a show, and help your listeners make a better decision based on their needs. In fact, if I were to host such a show, I’d get someone to discuss one tool while I discuss the other to make things more interesting.
Question-based searches have increased over the past few years. Make maximum use of platforms like Quora. Distribute your content on Quora to step up your quora marketing.
The more you diversify your content distribution channels, the more valuable leads you will get.
Step #5: Turn your content into compelling visuals
Almost every content marketer struggles with one thing: Consistently creating high-quality visuals for their content.
Creating visuals is so challenging that 40% of these marketers admit to using stock photos in their content. And we both know that stock photos suck.
While another 49% admit that visual content is very important to them, it presents an opportunity because they know the power of a compelling visual.
So, if you’re like most marketers, you’re caught up between creating great visual content and doing it at scale. And since you have some downtime, why not create a couple of infographics, then post them on your site and use others as guestographics?
Look at how this infographic to help beginners learn English really brings the page to life:
After all, your content is already proven to be good, so you’re not relying on guesswork.
This means you can appeal to more readers who will share your infographic and help you earn links back to your site.
Even a simple table, like in this review of Credit Saint, helps to summarize and illustrate your points:
If you have a post that has performed particularly well, say, a comparison post, you might decide to recreate it as a visual to help your readers learn more about the topic.
Or, if you have a list post composed of statistics and trends in your niche and have performed well, create an infographic. Instead of posting it on your site, post it on another website as a guestographic.
By using your best content to create compelling infographics, you’ll have an easier time deciding where to direct your time and resources to help you create more visual content at scale.
Conclusion
Part of marketing is knowing how to lean in and be flexible during unpredictable times like we are in.
While we may not know when we’ll get out of this, you still have plenty of ways to use your best content to boost your search engine rankings.
Start by identifying it. And if you get stuck (or don’t know how to go about it), click here to get a free content analysis. This step will help you know where to focus your efforts and save you the hassle of having to figure out where you need to start.
Once you do this, update it, fix your broken links, reach out to influencers, start a podcast, and create visuals to help you earn high-quality links.
Use the insights you get from these efforts to help you do better on other types of content you’ve created before.
As you continue putting your best content in front of your audience, you’ll naturally increase your website’s authority — and that will have a direct impact on your rankings without having to spend a ton on your marketing budget.