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LinkedIn can be a great source of traffic. This ReadWrite update claims that 79% of B2B marketers value LinkedIn as an abundant source of leads. For many B2B websites and blogs, almost 50% of social traffic comes from LinkedIn.
I mostly use LinkedIn to post blog links that I publish on my own website. A few times a year I become active on LinkedIn, but I haven’t been regular.
According to experts, content strategy for your LinkedIn profile may include a mix of native documents, videos, images, and text only posts. It depends on your market.
Native documents are the PDF slides that you upload – these are then converted into carousals like Instagram.
Here are some insights you can use to leverage LinkedIn’s social reach, especially for B2B market.
Native documents attract maximum clicks on LinkedIn
The average conversion rate on LinkedIn is 3X the other networks. The average CTR for native documents is 2.20%. In fact, some posts containing native documents attract a CTR of 3.5%-8.6% on an average. Native documents, as mentioned above, are the PDF files that you upload. The slides of these PDF files are turned into carousals automatically by LinkedIn.
Video content fares well on LinkedIn
This is the case for almost every platform – Video content outperforms text content. 15-20% posts on social media are video content these days. Average CTR for videos on LinkedIn is 3.16%. The data is slightly different if the following on LinkedIn is 50,000-100,000 – then native documents and single images get a higher CTR.
You have been publishing content for years, right? By now you must have a couple of thousand blog posts and web pages. Some of the web pages and blog posts on my blog are from 2008-2010. Some of the information is evergreen. For example, some writing tips that I have shared can be used even now. I have little time sensitive content.
Should you delete or re-purpose your old content, is the question asked by this CMSWire blog post.
If you are not a professional content writer yourself and you also don’t write by yourself, you must have spent money on your content. Your existing content is the asset you have invested in.
Right now, the five-year-old content may look outdated and stale but when you published it you paid good money for it and it was quite up-to-date. You were proud of it.
Of course, if your business direction has changed than the old content solves no purpose if it was written for your old direction. It is irrelevant content. Its time has passed. Even if it is drawing traffic, it isn’t benefiting you. If you want, you can remove the content from your website. You can even request Google to remove it.
Other than that, I always advise my clients to re-purpose content. You can rewrite it. If the old information is relevant, you can update it. From a subsection you can write a completely new blog post. If you think the language of the blog post or the web page doesn’t truly represent your brand correctly now, you can update that.
Being a content writer, I am possessive about what I create. Since for the past 15 years more or less I have been providing the same services, nothing much has changed. Maybe a few sentences here and there, but other than that, with little revisions, I can easily update my old content. You should do the same if your content is not completely irrelevant.
The concept of Blue Ocean SEO strategy has its roots in a book titled Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant.
What it means is, when implementing your marketing strategy, focus on your own, individual strengths and abilities and forget your competition. Additionally, survey a marketing segment that is not served by your competition. The opposite is Red Ocean strategy that heavily relies on what your competition is doing.
According to the book, the Blue Ocean Strategy doesn’t concern itself with the competition. This is because the existing markets are already oversaturated. If you decide to compete with your competitors, even in terms of content writing and content publishing, scores of competitors are already vying to out do you. Unless you are a mega million company, in terms of publishing content and increasing your visibility, it may turn out to be a losing battle. I’m not saying it always must be a losing battle, but in most of the cases, immense effort is required.
Finding your Blue Ocean means finding your market that only you can serve. This can also work in SEO content writing. How?
There are two ways:
Target markets that are not being targeted by your competitors.
Write on topics that are not being written by your competitors.
But then what about all those competitive keywords you want to be found for? Those are still relevant, right?
For example, if I want to be found by people looking for a professional content writer, how does it help me if I target a completely alien keyword?
This is not what it means.
You can use the same keyword, but you can use some different combination. Fewer people might be searching for that combination, but at least, you will rank well, and you will receive quality traffic for that uncommonly used keyword.
Here is a small example:
Popular title: How to find the best content writer for your business?
Less popular title: How to avoid finding the worst content writer for your business
Another less popular title: The nightmares to avoid when hiring a content writer for your business
Another way of looking at it is that most of your competitors are focusing on generating content that drives people to their sales pipelines. Most content is being created for the purpose of driving sales. Nothing wrong in that.
But they forget the primary purpose of content writing and publishing: providing purposeful content that improves lives.
Content writing for your website is all about improving experiences for people. They are less bothered about your business and more worried about solving their problems. If you solve their problems, they become interested in working with you.
So, what is Blue Ocean for you here in terms of content writing?
Shifting your focus from “give me work, give me work!” to “this is how I add value, this is how I help you, this is how you solve your problem.”
Difference between content repurposing and content spinning
Although I don’t take up content spinning assignments, now and then I get requests from clients to spin an existing article or blog post. On Quora I found that some people are confused about the difference between content repurposing and content spinning. I’m quickly explaining in this short blog post.
What is content repurposing?
Repurposing your content means creating new pieces of content from existing content. A few years ago, I published a blog post on this topic: How to re-purpose your old content.
I will give you a recent example of repurposing my blog post.
Within this blog post there a subsection titled “10 benefits of publishing a business blog”. I created a YouTube video out of this subsection:
This is called content repurposing. You use your existing content to create new content. The objective of repurposing is not to create duplicate content, but to create content in other formats.
These days I often pick up small portions from my existing blog posts and web pages and then turn them into social media posts and even carousal posts. Sometimes I pick up a subsection, and create a complete blog post on it.
What is content or article spinning?
Content spinning means rewriting the same piece a blog post or article but using different words. Nothing is original in the spinned article. Just so that Google doesn’t take it as duplicate content, you use different words and different phases.
People pick up a blog post that is doing quite well. Rephrase the title. Then rewrite the whole thing using synonyms and alternative words.
Is article spinning bad? Is it plagiarism?
It is certainly plagiarism in the sense that if you do the same thing as a journalist, as an author, or even as someone who is writing a research paper, you’re simply picking information from someone else and using it as it is, and you can be sued for that. Just because you’re using different words it doesn’t mean it is original or it belongs to you.
I don’t like such work. As a writer I find it offensive if a client expects me to spin an existing article.
How to make people stay longer on your website with content writing
It is important that when visitors come to your website, they spend longest possible time there. This is important for lowering your bounce rate as well as increasing your conversion rate.
Studies have shown that the longer people stay on your website, the greater are the chances of them becoming your paid customers and clients. This is because they become familiar with your presence and grow comfortable with what you represent.
In different forms I have explained on my website how to lower your bounce rate, which means, how to keep people on your website longer. How long people stay on your website or how fast they leave your website, is a reflection on the quality and relevance of your content. The quality and relevance of your content and your lower bounce rate go hand-in-hand.
It’s very easy to bring people to your website. Any SEO company or content marketing company can help you with bringing as many people as possible to your website. The real feat is turning those people into paying customers and clients. The content that you have published on your website accomplishes that, or must accomplish that.
The fact that people stay on your website, explore various sections, and go through your web pages, means that they are interested in your proposition. Here are a few things you can do to keep people longer on your website through your content.
Provide definitive answers to definitive questions
Your bounce rate will be higher if people feel that they have been misled into visiting your website. Suppose they come across your link on Google, click the link, come to your website, and then, after feeling dissatisfied, leave within a few seconds. Why does this happen?
Take your own example. You are moving through an arcade of shops and there is a gripping banner offering you something that you have been looking for, for ages. With great excitement you enter the shop but to your dismay, it’s nothing like that. They are offering something completely different. Something that you don’t need. Disappointed, you come out of the shop. If possible, you may also give it a negative rating if it is listed somewhere.
Exactly this happens when people come to your website through a link they have found somewhere, expecting something, and then not finding it. They immediate leave your website. This is neither good for your conversion rate, nor for your search engine rankings.
All this while Google is quietly observing how people are reacting to the search results its algorithm is throwing up. If the search results don’t come up with the right answers, its performance deteriorates. In retaliation, it takes it out on you. It lowers your rankings.
Hence, when you are publishing content, make sure you are delivering exactly what is being displayed in the title and in the headline. Stick to the point.
Internally link to other web pages and blog posts
Even if somehow, your visitors are unable to find what they’re looking for, maybe they will find some useful information on another link within your website. For example, when writing about SEO content writing, I may have also written about SEO copywriting. Since you are searching for SEO copywriting, but you enter my website through something related to a SEO content writing, you might as well check the SEO copywriting link too, just in case. This increases your chances of staying on my website longer.
Make your content easier to read
Despite finding something valuable, just because you have grabbed everything in a single, large paragraph, your business may get frustrated and leave your website in a hurry, without reading the entire web page or blog post.
Use shorter paragraphs. They are also convenient to read on mobile phones. They also help your readers focus on singular thoughts. Don’t try to express a lot within a single paragraph. Whenever there is an excuse to create a new paragraph, create a new paragraph.
Use headings, subheadings, and bulleted points to succinctly explain complicated topics. This also makes your content easily scannable. Without reading the whole thing, if people simply go through your headings, subheadings, and bulleted points, they should be able to understand what you’re trying to say.
Use relevant and attractive images
Although images are not a part of content writing, they can keep people on your website for a bit longer because even if they are not reading the text, they may like to go through the images, and this increases the time they spend on your website. Even if it doesn’t help you with your conversion rate, it may send a signal to Google that you are providing good content and as a result, your search engine rankings may improve.
Use conversational style of writing
Everyone likes being talked to. Have a conversation with your readers. Use lots of “you” and “me” and “I”.
The good thing about writing in a conversational style is that you write as you speak. You use smaller, direct sentences and expressions. You don’t sound pretentious. Even you yourself feel as if you are in a positive flow of and this reflects through your choice of words and phrases.
Tell stories
Just like people like being talked to, they also love reading stories. This is because it is easier to relate to the characters in a story, whether they are anthropomorphic animals or human beings.
Stories also provide ready-made templates. For example, if a character is going through certain circumstances, one or the other reader too has gone through somewhat similar circumstances.
If I tell you the story of Peter who was reluctant to use content writing to improve his search engine rankings and due to that, he went through extreme hardships. It was almost too late when he decided to give quality content writing a chance, and that too, cynically and reluctantly. But then, he was swept off his feet when he began to experience the results after four months and by the seventh month, his business had taken a U-turn.
In the story you learn that just like you, there is a person Peter who doesn’t understand the power of quality content. He cannot figure somehow that content writing can improve his SEO. When he has tried everything, in the end, before completely giving up, he decides to give content writing a try. The story also tells you that the results aren’t immediate. In four months his search engine rankings begin to improve and by the seventh month, the fortunes of his business had completely changed.
Hence, these are some solid ways you can use content writing to keep people on your website for longer. Keeping your visitors on your website for a few minutes isn’t as easy as it sounds. As I have mentioned in the beginning of the blog post, it’s quite easy to bring people to your website. Simple SEO hacks can achieve that for you. What’s important is, for how long people stay on your website and how many of them convert due to that.
