We are all looking for the silver bullet that will make our content sparkle. What if from the time of content creation we already had the benchmarks in place that we know forms valuable content?
Yesterday, I introduced the Creating Valuable Content Checklist, which I use to quantify what makes content valuable to our content consumers. Today I’ll explain the steps in each of these benchmarks.
Findable content
When creating your content, you must remember that unless something is emailed to users, they probably need to find it (and even then things can get lost in an inbox!). Therefore, you must make sure that you’ve done everything in your power to use the right SEO best practices to write or create findable content.
The steps below assume that you have already done keyword research on your project. Based on the goals and user research, you should choose the keywords that you think will be most effective for your content. If you need help finding the right keywords, check out this post on how to find the right keywords for your content marketing efforts.
For text on web pages
Use only one h1 and multiple h2 tags on your web pages because they benefit search engines ranking and they help break up text on a page. Make sure you highlight them in the copy deck (or whatever system you use to move content from creation into production) so that the person laying out the content understands how they should be encoded. Use h3 tags if necessary, but understand they won’t get you the same bang for your buck in terms of SEO results that h1 and h2 tags will.
Customize the metadata (title tag, keywords and descriptor tag) so it describes the content on the page, according to your keyword research.
Include links to other pages on the site to increase the content value that search engine spiders assign to your pages (spiders are the robots that crawl through your site).
Include alt tags on your photos and other images so they appear in image searches. Describe the picture in the image (because alt tags were first designed for the visually impaired) but also use them to plug your content. For instance, if you have a picture of doctors performing surgery, the alt tag could be“The doctors at Sweet Valley Hospital in Sweet Valley, California, are experts in separating identical twins in a surgery, known as identical separation, shown in this photo.”
For video
Post your video on YouTube and/or Facebook to increase the likelihood it will be seen. I like using YouTube because it allows you to accurately count the views. Regardless of what platform you use, you need to tag the content so it can be found:
Include possible keywords in your title.
Provide a detailed, keyword-rich summary.
For audio
Consider distributing your audio in different formats, such as mp3, wav and wiff so it’s available to different audiences. If your potential customer doesn’t have the required format to listen to the audio file, then your whole goal of creating and distributing the content has been stymied during delivery.
Create a detailed summary and title where the content will be downloaded. For some delivery vehicles, that’s the system it’s stored in, like iTunes. For others, it might be the page you post the file on.
House each audio clip on a relevant content page, so the text and audio support each other in SEO efforts by demonstrating relevant content to the search engines.
Readable content
Once users find your content, do they consider it to be readable? While this only applies to written content, this is the primary way people consume info, so it’s an incredibly important category.
When considering readability, the most important thing to consider is that users scan until they find the content they need. Any great Web conversation with your user respects their time. Therefore, consider using:
The inverted pyramid style of writing: The most important facts should be at the top. For an example of this, see the figure produced using eyetracking software. You can see where the user’s eyes scanned on the page: see how that shape follows an inverted pyramid?
Chunking: Keep paragraphs short. I follow the rule of three: no more than three sentences in a paragraph, and no more than three paragraphs under one heading.
Bullets and numbered lists: When people want to consume information quickly, lists and bullets are helpful.
Consistent language: By keeping content consistent, you avoid confusing your users. For example, how do you refer to your business, company or institution on a page? If you keep switching back and forth from your name to the use of the term “us,” it’s going to confuse your customers. Keep it consistent. Use a style guide to help everyone get on the same page.
Understandable content
Creating content that users really understand is challenging when subjects are complex. In healthcare, where I do a tremendous amount of consulting and content creation, I am very aware of this. Many times I write on an eighth grade reading level, and even that might be too elevated for my readers.
So how can you create understandable content, no matter what industry you are in?
Choose the right content type. For example, if users have an “aha” moment when seeing something sketched out, use a visual medium such as a video or a slideshow instead of written text.
Create user personas for your different user audiences, and match the level of the content’s complexity to the user’s ability to understand it.
Always provide context. Even if you think it might sound condescending, consider explaining even the most basic concepts to your users. You never know where someone is jumping in on the conversation. Build a contextual roadmap into your content at all times.
Apply a standard reading level to your content for each project and stick to it. This should be based on your users’ personas and market research. There is a function in Word for testing reading levels—you may want to experiment with that scoring. Or, find a person on that reading level and test them. You may be surprised to hear what they do and don’t understand.
Provide valuable information to the user. This could be new information or a new way of articulating an existing idea. Sometimes metaphors help people understand better.
Actionable content
Obviously, you are creating content so your users act upon it. How can you ensure this while creating content?
Include an obvious call to action.
Make it easy for users to comment and ask questions, both publicly and privately. For instance, enable blog comments or direct people your company’s Facebook page. If you accept comments via your “Contact Us” page, make this page easily accessible. Ask your users to share the content by including: “Please share this content with those you think might enjoy it.”
Provide links to relevant content or program your content management system (CMS) to provide options to other content that users have liked.
Include a list of actionable items at the top if the content is long (remember the inverted pyramid style of writing that helps make content more readable). For example, if you are writing about diabetes care, add three bullets at the top that define diabetes and explain how you can control it.
Shareable content
One of the best ways to have your content spread is to have your readers share it because people trust their peers more than brands. How can you entice more of your users to share content?
Consider provoking an emotional response in your readers. When I first started writing articles on content marketing, one of my editors told me, “People are more likely share controversial stuff.”
Provide a reason to share—perhaps you actually illustrate the benefit of sharing the content within the story of the content. For example, you may to tell a story about how sharing health information with each other helped one family increase their exercise efforts.
Ask them to share.
Make sharing easy. (Work with your developers to research and decide on which sharing widget is best for your organization).
Allow users to personalize the share. For instance, when I retweet things, I like to edit them, so I can add hashtags or reference another source. If I can’t, I feel frustrated.
As Gawande explained, most professions are resistant to checklists because “we believe our jobs are too complicated to reduce to a checklist.” If doctors, project managers of major construction projects and the World Health Organization were convinced by the use of checklists, then why shouldn’t we be?
Do you have experience using checklists in your content marketing? I’d love to see your examples. Or, let me know what you may change in this checklist.
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