Whilst there are a lot of exciting changes going on in online and mobile marketing spaces, the one constant is that content is still king.
You’ll see this immediately on services like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Blogs where the most supported / followed fan pages and personalities are typically very active and hence generating a lot of content.
In fact, you could describe these mediums as the NEW publishing sector, replacing traditional magazines and newspapers!
Content also rules in the mobile marketing arena – i.e. genuine offers from opt-in lists will get your attention whilst you quickly delete those which are un-requested or incorrectly targeted.
I have been relatively inactive online for sometime due to other commitments and therefore haven’t been generating new content for our website to entice longer stays and repeat visits.
As a result, I found that the average number of page views per visitor had dropped – from a usual average of between 3.00 – 3.20 down to 2.60 page views per visitor.
I immediately took our home page back to what it was – i.e. more links to get first time visitors attention rather than the minimalist approach which gurus promote – plus updated existing content and added some new content to our site.
THE RESULT: Current page views are now up to an average 4.7 per visitor, mainly because the bounce rate has reduced by a full 15%.
(It would be terrific if this stayed at this level although historically that is not the case due to the number of 1-page “sales pages” on our website.)
Why content has to be a priority…
The above is just one example of how small extensions – and changes – to your website content can make a difference, and that in itself is a good reason to place more focus on your content.
The major reason however is not what your website is about, but the impact of changes taking place on the Internet.
Last week I read a projection that by the end of 2012, 80-85% of Internet traffic will be to the Top 10 websites – i.e. Google, Facebook, You Tube, eBay, Amazon, etc.
If that projection is correct, then small niche websites are going to have to work harder to gain attention and so the importance of content is going to increase, not diminish – for the simple reason that people will have less time to “surf” if everything they need is accessible through one or two of the major sites.
Now you can take advantage of what these services are doing simply by using your activity there to drive traffic to your site. For example, I am posting articles from this Blog on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.
Good luck!