Content Marketing - 6 Best Practices

Are there new content marketing best practices for the new year?

There are new factors to take into account for your content marketing strategy as we head into the new year, but many things remain the same.

One of the best ways to make sure your brand is still current and is still bringing in organic traffic to your website is through content marketing.

Although there are many various ways to create content, there are still numerous best practices you need to follow if you want it to be found.

This post will go over some great practices that content marketers should keep using as well as some trending subjects in the content industry.

The following are the top six content marketing strategies for 2023:

• Speak in the client's behalf.

• Produce content utilizing the hub-and-spoke paradigm of content marketing.

• Adapt your material to different result types.

• Always check the return on your material.

• There is AI-generated content now, but don't believe the hype.

• Repurpose and re-optimize your outmoded or underperforming material.

1. Incorporating Customer Voice into Content

The most crucial best practice in content marketing is always to incorporate the customer's voice into your writing.

Make sure your content corresponds to the real search terms used by the customer.

Even if your target market is looking for what you provide, you might never be able to reach them without doing this.

The foundation of any piece of content creation is keyword research, and employing words and phrases that people really use to search for information is a key component of producing material that is relevant to your audience.

2. Use the Hub & Spoke Content Marketing Model while producing content.

Google has long been interested in ranking websites that demonstrate their expertise in a certain field.

What better way to prove to Google and your audience that you are an authority on the subject than to produce a ton of information on it?

The hub and spoke content marketing model is among the most effective strategies to achieve this. Because you must first make sure there is a demand for the material you are generating, this content marketing technique is related to utilizing the customer's voice.

Although this isn't a novel paradigm in the realm of content marketing, it is still important and won't change.

You can establish authority around a hub, which is often one of your primary business lines or services, by using the hub and spoke paradigm.

Frequently asked questions about the hub or various stages of the buyer's journey that connect to the hub make up the spoke content.

By doing so, you can cater to users at various stages of the search process and ensure that Google recognizes your expertise when it visits your website.

Hub and spoke content helps you establish yourself as an authority on a subject in Google's eyes, which can boost your website's organic traffic, keyword ranks, and conversion rates.

3. Produce Content In Line With Result Types

It has long been known that Google is no longer just 10 blue links.

On Google, new kinds of results do, however, constantly surface. Because of this, there is a large diversity of various result types on the search engine result pages.

We must structure our content in a way that will make Google want to expose and display it, much like we must ensure that the keywords we are targeting have search volume.

This year, a few result categories have seen tremendous growth, with short-form videos enjoying the most popularity.

Typically, short-form videos last between 10 and 30 seconds and up to 5 minutes.

Short-form video material has become increasingly popular since the emergence of TikTok and Instagram Reels and has even begun to show up as a result type on Google.

Make careful to research what is already appearing on Google and what your competitors are doing before you start writing any content for your website.

It can be easier to understand and more appealing to post on social media when there is visual information or graphics. Additionally, this is a fantastic way to appear on Google Images, which is the second-largest search engine after Google's primary search page.

Currently, a lot of people receive content through audio formats like podcasts.

Understanding how Google believes users are consuming your material based on what appears on Page 1 of Google is important when you are producing content. then determine if you can produce content for these platforms.

4. Calculate the ROI of Your Content

This is another trend that isn't necessarily new but is always a smart practice for content marketing.

In contrast to paid media or email marketing, which are typically more definite with accessible CPC, conversion rates, and other vital data, it is difficult to tie ROI to anything in SEO or the organic channel.

This is why it's crucial to specify exactly how you will gauge the return on investment of your content and demonstrate that it influences the outcomes of the company.

Reporting on how the content is attracting more users to the site or converting them is the best approach to gain more support for SEO or why content is advantageous.

It is advised that you set up reporting before developing the content so that you can assess how it is performing, such as target keywords now ranking on Page 1, which will enhance organic traffic and organic conversions. You may accomplish this by using an enterprise SEO platform or simpler solutions.

By consistently carrying out this action, you can demonstrate the value of being proactive with SEO by bringing readers to the site today and generating traffic for the same piece of content indefinitely.

5. Don't Believe The Hype About AI-generated Content

All of this is happening! Don't believe the hype; AI-generated content has now reached the general public.

Recently, there have been a lot of acronyms that people think are going to take off and change the world, such as VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

None, though, have succeeded in upending the status quo as promised. least of all, not yet.

AI is here to stay because it can significantly ease human lives in a variety of ways.

However, it is not advised to have these services produce your content altogether. There are use cases for leveraging AI services like Chat GPT for research, developing schema, or content ideation.

Google has added an additional "E" for experience to its E-A-T standards. This demonstrates Google's continued emphasis on authoritative information, therefore it's critical that you demonstrate to the user that you are an expert in your field.

Similar to the YMYL algorithm upgrade from back in the day, Google wants to make sure users are getting the right information from reliable sources, thus the new "E" around experience appears to be a jab against AI-generated material.

Websites with unsatisfactory or useless material are now being affected by Google's helpful content update, which has now finished rolling out. This is due to the fact that a lot of websites have started producing material exclusively for search engines rather than people.

Writing for other people is a necessity for humans.

Use AI to aid in the creation of material, but be careful not to do it in large quantities like CNET did, since they have already abandoned this attempt when consumers discovered numerous flaws in the content itself.

6. Repurpose and re-optimize any dated or underperforming content

You can determine whether it is possible to re-optimize or repurpose material that may be out-of-date or underperforming by keeping an eye on how the current content on your site is performing.

To better identify which content is performing well and which content may need some updating or loving this year, one of the greatest methods to achieve this is through a content audit.

Reinventing the wheel is pointless, especially if the content is already of high quality but may use additional target keywords.

You might detect content gaps where you might need to produce new material or locate content that could be merged so it would operate better together by assessing your current content.

Numerous times in the past when working with clients, we found three distinct blog pieces on the same subject, none of which were doing well. Try improving some of the existing material on your site rather than wasting time and resources producing new stuff.

A best practice that will always be followed is auditing the content on our website. This procedure is wonderful since it allows you to find many hidden gems while also determining what additional content upgrades, optimizations, or net new developments the website could use.

Conclusion

You can make sure your material will be in good hands in 2023 and forward by adhering to these six best practices.

In general, you should be proactive with the insights you uncover while producing content and engage the internal teams by letting them know how we could require their assistance.

One of the best ways for any business to increase website traffic is through content marketing, which also serves to educate customers about the advantages of specific service offerings and fosters their faith in your company as the one to turn to for their requirements.

Although artificial intelligence (AI) will be a popular subject this year, you shouldn't make any major changes to the way you create content just yet. In the end, it's more crucial to make sure that the material is accurate and created by humans for humans.

Even if you may already be aware of some of these recommended practices, that doesn't make them any less significant.

Focus on mastering these fundamentals first rather than always looking for the latest and greatest.