Creating content for your audience is one thing, but are they finding it after it’s live? If they’re not actually consuming the content, there’s really no reason to publish it in the first place. There’s no reason to create it for posterity. You need your audience to read it (and act on it) now.
So aside from shouting it from the rooftops (not really effective, I’ve found), how do you make it easy for your followers and ideal audience to find your content? Follow a few simple guidelines.
Optimize the content
Keyword stuffing is so 2014 and this is a poor tactic for trying to get your content noticed. Instead, worry more about writing for the people who will read your content than the robots who will scan it. The people matter more.
That said, keywords are still important—if used correctly. Use long tail keywords in your copy, title and in any image file names as well as the alt-text for those images. You’ll also want to write a custom meta description for each blog post so your keywords appear in the first 55 characters. This sounds like a lot of work, but trust me when I say it might take you three minutes per post.
[bctt tweet=”Keyword stuffing is poor practice, but using keywords isn’t.” username=””]
Where you’re sharing it
It’s important to share your original blog content across all your social channels, but do so in a unique way. When you’re writing the captions for each social share, mix them up. Each social platform serves a different purpose and a different type of audience so treat them that way. More personal, story-driven posts on Instagram; to-the-point business ideas on LinkedIn; quick-tip ideas on Facebook and so on.
Your email list is the perfect place to share your content because it’s full of engaged followers. But before you copy and paste your blog post into your email, read more about best practices when incorporating email marketing into your content strategy.
Need help figuring out what kind of content to share with your audience? Grab my content strategy Q&A here to get you started.
How often you’re sharing
It’s important to find a happy medium between being invisible because you never share to annoying because you share too much. Finding that medium means taking a close look at where you’re sharing, how large your audience is where you’re sharing and other factors.
Let’s talk about your email list again. Sending more than an email or two a week is overkill for most businesses and will cause many subscribers to dump you. There’s just not enough time in the day and too many emails already in their inboxes. Likewise with Facebook—don’t clog up news feeds with an abundance of content. Be present online, but don’t be overbearing.
[bctt tweet=”Sharing your content matters, but be careful you’re not overdoing it!” username=””]
Making it accessible to others (not behind a wall or in a group)
If you’re generating free content, make it just that—free. In most cases, hiding content like blog posts behind a wall that requires an email address to access is just bad practice. That said, you do want to grow your list. Save content that your audience must opt into for content upgrades and webinars. That allows the bulk of your content to be easily accessible and searchable.
How easy is your content to find? Do you have barriers that you need to repair so your audience can find and get to your content?
If you need help figuring out how to organize your content so it makes sense and it takes your audience on a journey, take a peek at this video as I walk you through that process.
