We all know the importance of content for our SEO efforts, but it can be hard to create constant fresh content for your article marketing campaigns that is both effective for SEO and interesting as content. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to get an article campaign on track and start creating new, quality content quickly:

1. Use your web analytics tool to focus on one venue for your most recent articles. For instance, analyze those articles published on one site over the past year. Create a list of which articles generated the most traffic, and which generated the most conversions. Also take a hard look at the articles that didn’t drive traffic. Look at the patterns of what worked: was it general informational articles for the beginner audience, or more technical pieces? Take a look at your top-performing articles and find a way to replicate what you feel made them such great pieces, but focusing on a lesser area of your business-one that really needs an uptick in traffic.

For example, say that you’ve published eight articles in an online journal over the past year. Four of them were focused on specific products, one was an opinion piece, and three were focused on industry trends.

• The opinion piece garnered a lot of traffic, but almost no conversions. It may still be a worthwhile type of article. Your next step: check to see how many inbound links the article has generated—if it’s a large number in proportion to your overall number of inbound links, you’ve found a type of article that could likely generate more inbound links. Although the traffic it brings to your site does not often convert, the story has raised your visibility and your number of inbound links. Look closely at the opinion piece and at the sites that are linking to it. Is the article controversial, does it take a positive tone, does it cite a variety of interesting studies? Check out every site that links to your article, and look at any text that accompanies the links. Analyze the predominant themes of what people are saying about your article, to get a sense of what has prompted so many inbound links. Identify, if possible, at least three factors that contributed to the article’s popularity. Once you’re fairly certain of what prompted all the traffic, write a few similar opinion pieces, now with the goal of creating links, and driving traffic, to an area of your site that isn’t getting enough traffic.
• OK, you’re thinking, but what about traffic that converts? Go back to your analysis of all your articles: which articles generated the most conversions? You find that the product-focused articles actually did not generate the most conversions. First, make sure that the problem really is the article, and not the product landing page that the article takes readers to—if people take one look at that page and leave your site, then the page, rather than the articles, might be your problem. Are visitors who come to the page from another referring source, other than your article, also leaving the site once they get to that page? If you’ve tested out the page, and found that it normally tends to generate conversions, then it’s likely the problem is the product-focused article.
• Looking closely at all your articles, you find that the service-oriented, industry-trends articles actually generate the most conversions. Again, try to analyze each article and identify at least three factors that seem to contribute to conversions. Use as much customer data as you have access to, and try to identify demographics and buying patterns of customers who came to your site through these articles. Then, take what you know about those customers to work on more industry-trends articles. For instance, say your site sells electronic gadgets to the consumer. You discover that conversions you got through those articles were new customers, who bought an average of $125 worth of products. Many were located in parts of the country where you don’t have retail stores. Thus, you are reaching new customers, unfamiliar with your brand. Bearing this in mind, write your next few industry-trends articles with a view towards increasing your brand’s visibility.

2. Find a long-tail keyword that really touches on an area of your business you feel passionate about. Now write about it. Create a list of long-tail terms that you would like some content for, and get others in your organization to choose a favorite topic to write about. That collective enthusiasm can quickly generate a lot of great content on a number of terms.

• Circulate your list of long-tail keywords as widely as possible in your organization. Hold a meeting and demonstrate to all potential contributors the value of writing articles. Use concrete examples of past articles, and show the ROI for each article, but don’t stop there. The more metrics you can show them, the more your message will resonate. For example, say you want your colleagues to understand the value of writing industry-trends pieces—so much so that they start writing them as well. Don’t just tell them that each customer who came to your site from having read an industry-trends piece bought $125 in products. Show them how many of these were new customers, how much traffic the article generated overall, where the traffic came from, etc. Keep the presentation interesting, but provide a compelling argument for why they need to write articles.
• Make sure that you keep updating the list of topics for which you are seeking content, and send regular email updates to staff.
• Ask staff to brainstorm about other keywords that they think might be helpful. Keep the article-writing group effort as open as possible. Anything anyone wants to write about, as long as it’s appropriate, should be considered—don’t limit your colleagues’ efforts to your own list of keywords.

3. Make a list of which pages, other than your homepage and landing pages, get the most traffic. Look closely at the content of those pages, and write articles pertaining to that content.

• You now have articles on topics that have been proven to be of interest to your visitors—without having had to conduct a survey.
• This can also be a useful exercise if you’re stumped for keywords for you and your colleagues to write about—sometimes, you just need to “ask” your customers.

Most importantly, keep this in mind: creating new content requires continual effort, but please remember to keep it fun.

Christina Inge is the marketing manager for Spinwave Systems, a Westford-based tech company specializing in energy management solutions. She also serves as marketing and public relations coordinator for the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell. She has over ten years’ experience in communications for both B2C and B2B audiences.

Generating Great Content-Tips and Strategies is a post from: Boston SEO