I know what you’re thinking! One more article about the same content marketing hacks written everywhere else.
But let me tell you, this list is worth your time if you have an online business, a startup, a B2B business…
How many of you have been following the best practices of SEO or social network but you feel like something is still missing?
Do you want to get the full rewards of your efforts right? However, you might be doing some things the wrong way, or worst, you’re not doing some stuff that need to be done!
Without further ado, here are the most useful tips you can follow to have your content marketing efforts hit the top.
12 Content Marketing Hacks to Get Better Results Online
1. Don’t Ignore Low Competition Low Volume Keywords
The first one of the 12 content marketing hacks we’ll discuss has to do with the very foundation of content marketing; keywords!
When building our keyword research database, we tend to focus on those keywords with high volume of searches.
It’s not a bad thing as long as a site is authoritative enough to tackle the keywords’ difficulty score.
However, as a startup, just starting out to get your brand out there through content marketing, you may want to shoot a little lower than those shiny keywords right?
Your goal is to create content that has a chance to rank on Google, not to just sit there on your site.
Wait, should you go after the keywords with 0-10 searches per month? No way, Nat! Hold on!
Remember one thing: Keyword research tools like Ahrefs & Semrush cannot provide a 100% accurate volume of searches for keywords.
And Sam Oh from Ahrefs often mentions in his YouTube videos that the figures in Ahrefs are 2-3x lower than the real data. I hope you see the opportunity here!
So, what I mean is that when you see the low competition and low volume keywords, do not ignore them like a plague thinking you will waste time writing content in return for no website traffic or just 10 sessions a month.
These keywords certainly do not have hundreds of searches per month it’s true otherwise Ahrefs would have reflected a portion of that data but here’s the thing:
Let’s say you have written 50 pieces of quality content and each of the articles is getting you 10-20 sessions per month. That’s 500-1000 sessions guys!
Imagine if you ignored those keywords, that would be leaving a few hundred sessions on the table.
If you have a great sales funnel in place, you could even generate a few leads and even make a few sales if your content really resonates with these targeted website visitors.
So this is the first hack. Plan to write content on low volume and low competition keywords that still make sense to your audience.
Your goal is just to get the brand out there with some web traffic and collect Google authority along the way.
Don’t focus on the actual number of search queries.
2. Use Internal Linking Strategically
Another content marketing hack you need not overlook is the use of internal linking.
Many new content marketers believe in the power of external links only but they tend to give less focus and attention to internal linking.
I urge you to master internal linking because it holds tremendous power and unlike link building, you have full control over it.
So, why not learn how to use it strategically and enjoy its benefits?
When doing internal linking, many (including myself before) will link to other articles just for the sake of linking or just because Yoast & Rankmath are prompting us to do so.
But is that the proper way to do it?
In fact, internal linking is two-fold:
In my opinion, the biggest role of internal linking is still to pass link juice and that’s why you want to strategically link to related content.
Do not do it just for the sake of linking! Take a look at the illustration below:
Internal linking also helps with content architecture too.
If you have many different topics on your site, linking internally will help users navigate without getting confused.
It’s a great way to teach Google how your site is structured.
And the earlier Google understands your site, the faster your site will rank.
And when you start ranking for tons of keywords, your traffic will also increase.
But how do you find the right internal link placements? That’s why it’s important to build a content strategy and perform deep keyword research before creating content.
This way you have enough articles to link to each other, therefore creating topical relevance.
3. Don’t Underestimate Popups!
Yes, I’m talking about popups that people find annoying, especially when some website owners hide the close button.
This one is mean though and will certainly not help convert that reader.
There’s this myth that popups turn off visitors. False!
Repetitive popups turn off visitors but a popup in itself does not turn off the visitor.
Popups are only an annoyance if they are not perceived as such by the readers so, use them strategically and make your visitors feel welcomed, give them discounts, offer them valuable freebies, etc…
As a startup, lead generation is of top priority to your content marketing goals. So why not pop your call-to-action over your articles?
The idea is that readers will be already interested in the topic, so when they see the popup, they will not be put off because you are providing them with useful information.
Using popups actually has many benefits and can help your business grow:
Don’t underestimate popups. They are useful and can help you drive leads and retain visitors.
Let’s say you’ve collected a thousand emails through popups. Each time you publish an article, send an email and get these subscribers to visit your site.
4. If A Piece of Content Is Not Working, Fix It
In the world of content marketing, not all content on your site will perform the same way, not all every web page or article that you publish will bring traffic no matter how many keywords you target.
Here’s a good rule of thumb: measure the effectiveness of each piece of content in terms of traffic and leads by using Google Analytics.
Then use this data to shape and improve your content marketing strategy for the future.
This is how you’re going to avoid wasting precious time or money on thin air.
Let’s say you’ve written an article called “How To Build A Recession-Proof Business?”.
It’s a popular topic and has achieved thousands of sessions but the traffic is not coming back. Why?
To figure out why check the data in your google analytics account to find out why your content isn’t getting its intended traffic.
Then make a few changes according to that analysis. That’s how you’ll know what to change next.
Another way to figure out which content works and which doesn’t is by seeing the inflow of traffic.
When you’re monitoring the performance of different pieces of content, you may notice that some articles bring thousands of visits or a hundred visits or even less than one visit per article.
You may also notice that some articles do not get any visitors at all.
That’s a clear sign that you have either overlooked or have failed to optimize certain pieces of content.
Don’t take this as a warning sign of failure, take it as an opportunity to do better next time around.
5. Don’t Just Create Content, Distribute It!
Content marketers do not exist to create content only but to also make sure they get noticed by the right audience.
Creating content is not enough to make it successful. You need to find a way to get it out there!
If you are a new player on Google, it means your site has no authority and nothing will happen after you hit the publish button.
It will take a few months to long months before Google starts to rank your site.
In the meantime, you can go ahead and distribute your content on social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc…
With the exponential growth of social media usage in the past few years, reaching your target audience has become more effective and easier than ever.
But only if you get your target audience to see your content. That’s why you need distribution channels and the main source for that is still your blog.
Besides your blog, make it a thing to build a social media presence. Obviously, you want to be where your target audience hangs out online.
Social media networks are so crowded that it’s not impossible to get a piece of that cake
However, it requires a lot of hard work, consistency, patience, and original content.
Embracing social media marketing will put your business in front of a new target audience, a social media audience, who in turn will share your content.
Moreover, with the rise of influencers in recent years, you can also try to get some social media influence to feature your content and get even more traffic.
6. Create Comprehensive Articles
In-depth articles may be a bit tricky to write but they perform extremely well in terms of traffic and leads.
Rather than creating multiple short pieces of content, invest your time in creating a comprehensive and very detailed piece of content.
Normally, an article doesn’t rank for the focus keyword only but for a number of related keywords. Imagine how many keywords you can rank for with an in-depth article.
Moreover, if your article is well-written and useful, then it will certainly be shared on social media.
And the more shares your article gets, the more traffic you’ll get.
Plus, there’s one big advantage of in-depth articles: if written and optimized properly, it gets seen as a reference and attracts a ton of backlinks.
And this makes the article rank better and better with more keywords in the top positions in the search engines.
7. Spot Trends in Your Industry
Trends and their related keywords are important to target because you know that more and more people are going to be searching for those keywords in a few months.
If the trend is growing, then it’s worth it to write about it because people will definitely be searching for it online.
Normally, Google Trends can tell you what’s trending now but Google trends won’t tell you what will be trending in the future so how do you spot these trends?
That’s where your content marketing strategy comes into play.
You can examine your website data to determine which topics are getting the most searches and engagement.
Follow that with Google Trends to see how this trend is growing over time.
If the trend is getting more popular, then make sure you’re writing about it before someone else does.
The more you can get ahead of the curve, the better chances you’ll have at ranking for highly sought-after keywords.
And when that topic starts to go viral, you can bet that Google is going to pick up on it and you’ll get more traffic.
Don’t chase after the hottest keywords though. Hotter keywords might be harder to rank for and a lot more competitive.
There’s no point in spending your time and resources trying to beat out high authority sites who have been ranking for these coveted keywords for years or with huge brands that have all the money in the world to dominate those spots with millions of dollars worth of advertising.
8. Rank For Low Competition High Volume Keywords
Low difficulty and high volume keywords are the low-hanging fruits of your content marketing strategy.
These keywords are usually long-tail keywords but also are searched many times per month, which makes them the perfect keywords to go after if you want lots of traffic.
Long-tail keywords are not only easier to rank for, but also convert at a higher rate than the broader keywords.
This is because long-tail keywords are less competitive. Think of long-tail keywords as the small ponds where there are fewer bigger fish.
Because big authoritative sites like Forbes won’t go after those less competitive keywords, this gives you a lot of space to play as a new site.
Focus on these long-tail keywords that have a high search volume and watch your site shine in the search results.
9. Don’t Frown on Guest Blogging
Guest blogging or guest posting is an SEO technique used for backlink purposes.
You basically write an article to be published on (usually) a more authoritative site than you in exchange for a link back to your site.
In the article, you will link to your own site and when Google notices a do-follow backlink from a reputable site to yours, then it’s generally a very good signal.
You receive a bit of link juice from that link, you article starts ranking…Oh, the joys of guest blogging!
But let me burst your bubble right now! What if the SEO editor or webmaster decides, in a year, to remove that link or give that link a nofollow attribute?
You have the answer I guess!
Am I telling you that you stop writing guest posts? Not at all. Simply don’t do with a focus on getting links only.
Guest blogging isn’t only about getting links, it’s also about getting traffic and leads.
So if you write content for a popular site, then that site’s audience will view your content and they might like it enough to visit your site.
If that’s the case, you might get a spike in your traffic and generate new leads if they love what they read on your site.
So by guest blogging for sites with a lot of traffic and revenue or brand fans, you can keep that traffic on your site, and in turn, that traffic can convert and lead to more sales.
10. Repurpose Old Posts
As I’ve said earlier, not every blog post you put out will rank.
Sorry to burst your bubble!
They can be freaking good but Google has decided not to index it and then you don’t ever rank.
I know it’s really frustrating!
Repurposing an old blog post is a great way to keep your content fresh and relevant in the eyes of your audience since you know that the content is good.
Today, with Google’s algorithm updates, it’s becoming more important for webmasters and SEO professionals to keep on top of changing search engine behaviors by creating new content or recycled content to better satisfy their users.
One thing you can do to increase your traffic is to optimize an old blog post that might be bringing traffic but is stagnant by adding 1-2 paragraphs of fresh content.
It’s enough to shake things up and gain either higher or new positions in the search results pages.
11. Add Video to Your Content Creation Process
Video content marketing is gaining more and more ground in the SEO world.
This is because it has been well established that video content is more engaging than other types of content published on the web.
Videos have the power to drive massive traffic, increase brand awareness and lift your site up the ranks.
Nowadays, most users are using their smartphones to watch videos. And these users are usually on the go, which means shorter attention spans.
So for you to capture this audience through video content, you need to keep your videos short and sweet.
I guess 30 seconds is more than enough to grab the attention of a potential customer with a smartphone in hand.
Keep in mind that although video marketing is becoming a crucial element in content creation, it’s not easy as others would have you believe.
12. Have a Call to Action Strategy
The right call to action can make all the difference between a new subscriber and a new sale.
Putting call to action words in your articles, emails or videos has proven to be very effective.
A study by Hubspot showed that a call to action in an article can boost the conversion rate by 121% more than a banner ad.
Using strong and enticing call to action buttons or texts can increase the likelihood of someone clicking on that link to purchase your product, sign up for your service, and so on.
If you want to give a kick to your content marketing efforts and see better results, be it in your email marketing campaign, social media engagement, and more, then you should take the time to create compelling call to action texts.
Wrap Up
This blog post is not an exhaustive list of all the content marketing hacks there are, but I’m sure you can find ways to apply a few of them right away.
No matter if you want to improve your rankings, get noticed on the search engines, on social media networks, and so on, these content marketing growth hacks can definitely help you out.
So the next time you write an awesome blog post and it gets buried in the depths of the Internet, don’t give up so easily! I bet there are some tips from this article that you have to try.
Let’s do a recap, shall we?
I’m also assuming that you might have a blog or a website and most likely, you want to improve your traffic as much as possible.
All of this is achievable with some effort on your part. The road to better rankings in the search results is paved with simple content marketing growth hacks like those listed above.