Most business owners today understand there business and what it takes to operate it to the best of its ability.  Few owners really have a firm grip on vision for the future and how to develop a game plan to move it forward.  A typical business that is brick and mortar based gets the business off the ground and builds a cliental in order to make income.  After that they start to think about adding a website to not only adds credibility, but to reach out to a market that is changing with technology.  So getting a website is a great idea and will certainly pay you back in dividends if you do some planning.  If you do not, it will just sit there and make you wonder why you paid that web guy so much money to develop it.

Today there is one thing that can make or break a business, and that one thing is content.  Today’s business landscape is highly competitive; there are a ton of businesses waiting to snatch your customers away with a better price or better service.  But what are customers really looking for?  They are looking for someone who is the “Authority” on their subject matter.  They want to find “The Man” or woman.  They want to find the person that gives them all the answers and exceeds their expectations.  Is that you?  If not, how do you do it?  The answer is content.  Content is information, and information is the key to success on the Internet.  If you do not offer detailed content and loads of information, your customers will go somewhere else.  Anyone can offer a lower price, but it takes a someone that really understands their market place to keep a customer coming back.

Now I know what your thinking, “I can’t write articles” right?  Wrong.  Most people never realize exactly what an article really is and what it can do for your site.  Let’s break this down and show you what good content is and then show you how you can get it.

• A web page of content would feature one article, this article has one subject and can be anywhere from 500 to 10000 words or more.  500 words are really not that much and you would be surprised at how fast you can come up with that.
• Secondly, if you really understand the future of the internet you will appeal to peoples sense and supplement that content with pictures, clipart and more importantly video.
• Third, you will need to offer suggestions on how to get more information on that same subject matter, such as books, products, or even competitors (yes I said that)

Of course all this data will be optimized on your page (like we talked about in the SEO articles on this site) so that you rank for the terms and information you are creating.

The 64 million dollar question, how do I get these articles?

·        Write them yourself

·        Have them written for you

·        Come up with a creative solution

Here is what I mean.  If you can find the time (?) to write them yourself, that would be great since no one is more of an expert in your field than you are.  If you are challenged in this area you can give yourself a head start by making simple outlines.  These outlines would be separate pieces of paper that say this:

Topic

Points to make

Pictures I want to use

Video?

Additional information

Use one sheet of paper per topic and you find that making an article is easier than you think.  Once you have some points to make, (preferably keyword rich points) you can build the article around it.  Finding pictures and clipart is easy since you may already have it or you can take pictures yourself and use those.  I know many businesses that take pictures of products or parts of their stores and build articles around that.  They key is to be creative.  If you sell particular products, you can write a detailed article about each product and be totally unique.  You would start with the information that the manufacture gives you about the item, add a review, talk about details, maybe test the item, take a poll, find blogs about those items etc.  This content is easy to assemble if you take the time.

What if I don’t have the time?

Then you hire someone to write the article, and they are easier to find then you think.  First of all the Village Navigator works with a team of writers to do just that.  We are constantly adding articles to our sites and other sites that reference our site as well.  This is smart business and a necessity for growth.  If you want to arrange for article purchase we can do this for you very easily.  Turn around is usually inside of a week.  So that now your content problem is solved, you still need to make the outline mentioned earlier.  This is a high value activity and will keep you in the planning phase.

After you have your article, you can add pictures.  Again finding or making them is very simple.  You can add video by simply going to You tube and finding some relevant video there.  You would be surprised at how much work is done for you.  You can also make a very simple video that is actually a narration over text.  You could make a simple narrated video that is short and does not involve showing your face on the video.  You can narrate a review of a page and show your mouse moving over text and highlighting points about a particular product.  Having your voice on the video adds credibility and you will be able to connect with your customers.

Additional information can be in the form of books that exist on the subject, links to white papers, wikipedia links, and other articles on the same subject matter.

So what’s in it for you?

Here is the real benefit for you.  If you have done your homework, and I hope you have, you will know the value of keywords.  Each article is written around keywords that potential customers would type into Google to find information.  The more ways a customer finds your site, the more opportunities they have in becoming your customer.

For example let’s say you sell footballs.  A typical person goes into Google and types in the keyword “footballs” to find where to buy them.  Google then spits out several thousand returns for that football keyword.  How well your page is optimized for footballs will determine how you rank for that keyword (more on that later) 

So naturally sporting goods is a very competitive term, and football is competitive as well.  But your article may be about:

• Playing football with your kids
• Buying your first football
• Organizing a football league
• Where to get football coaching information
• How footballs are made
• Footballs made in the USA verses imported
• How to throw a football
• Football drills
• And the list goes on

The whole idea is that your article is about football which is a product you sell.  Naturally you will link to your product in your article, but mainly you are providing additional content that a big supplier like Sports Authority would not.  All those articles have keywords that have the opportunity to create more ways for your customer to find you.  If you carried to different footballs brands or models, and you site was optimized correctly you would have two chances for someone to find you with that keyword.  But if you had the previous 8 articles working for you, you would more than quadruple your chances of showing up in the search engines.  And over time, your prospects get better, articles age like wine, the longer they have been indexed and visited, the more value they have.  They start to take on a life of their own and add real value from a search engine point of view.  When Google sees this kind of content on a consistent basis they determine that you must be an “Authority” on this subject matter.  And that is a very good thing.

Making these super content pages takes a little time, but they are worthwhile.  The best part is that you give away this content to your customers for FREE.  Even if it cost you some money to create the content, it is an investment that will pay you back in time.  There is wisdom in sitting down and determining a budget for creating content.  Setting aside time to create the content is a matter of discipline and could be challenging if you wear a lot of hats.

 If you simply cannot do this, it would make sense to hire it out.  We can get you the content or build the super page of content (the article, the links, the pictures and video etc) as well.  Email or contact us today and we will get you started immediately.