How to Create Great Content For Your Users

Creating content for your users is not only about grabbing their interest and keeping them coming back to your website, it also gives you the potential to earn some backlinks and to widen your circle of influence. After all, people are social beings, and if someone thinks your content is interesting and provides really useful information, they are more likely to share it with their friends. And on top of that, good quality, relevant content helps you to rank better with search engines.

But the thing is – how do you continually create content that keeps your users engaged and interacting with your business? Read on for some guidance!

Start with a content plan

Like anything else in business, creating good content requires some planning. You might decide for instance that you want to upload a fresh and interesting blog post every week to your site. To do this, you need to develop a schedule and a list of interesting topics and relevant keywords you want to include. And if this sounds a little daunting, you can always use a professional writing service to provide you with ideas, and batches of articles to upload as you go.

Don’t forget that content is not only about the written word. You can post a monthly video, or a humorous cartoon to keep your site lively and fun as well as informative.

Ideas for creating content

• Survey your audience. Ask them for their ideas and topics that would be of interest to them for future posts. You can do this through a short survey, or through requests for return emails.

• Read up on new information relating to your industry. Find out about expected new trends, or legislative changes. For instance, recent changes have been made to Australia’s privacy laws, which have implications for many businesses and just about all citizens. Taxation changes may be a relevant topic for finance businesses, or family law amendments for legal services, and so on.

• Sign up for alerts. Google Alerts can provide the latest news on your chosen topics as soon as it becomes available. That way you can remain on top of what’s happening out there, and produce relevant content while it is very current.

• Check out the competition. While your content should be totally original, it doesn’t hurt to check out what others are doing and what responses they are getting. Use this information to help you develop your own ideas for content, perhaps producing something even better in the process!

• Produce answers to frequently asked questions. For example, if users often ask you a particular question, use that topic to create a blog post.

• Add some fun and humour, if appropriate. If your blogs are mostly informative and you are concerned they might be a little dry, do the occasional light-hearted or humorous post to keep things interesting. Consider writing some stories about your own experiences to add a more personal touch, for example.

• Do your own research. Use analytics tools to find out where people are spending most of their time on your site, and what they are quickly bouncing away from. Use this information to guide you in creating new and interesting content.

• Don’t overlook social media to promote your content. Many people use Facebook, Google+, Twitter and other platforms not only to socialise and discuss, but also to share interesting information and links with others. You can also use social media to see what people are talking about, which helps you generate ideas for future content.

• Create instructional videos. There are many people who prefer visual instructions to written ones.

• Write up some case studies, or do a piece about a famous person you admire.

Really, when it comes to creating content for your users, the sky’s the limit! It just involves being a little savvy by surveying the landscape, and engaging with your audience and asking them what they want. Follow these basic guidelines and you may even find yourself with enough ideas to keep you going for the next year or so!