We managed to more than triple our blog traffic by increasing our blog production from one blog a week to three and ensuring the highest quality possible. In this blog, we'll explain how we did it, what went well, and what was a struggle.
From making sure you always have a pipeline of content ideas to developing a strategy for its promotion – content marketing is hard.
We recognised a while ago that in order to be found and stand out online, there are a million and one different things you should and shouldn’t do.
But of all the things you should do, there’s one that holds more weight than them all: creating a large volume of high-quality content.
When we talk about quality content, we mean long-form, detailed content that is well-researched, optimised in line with best practice and fits into the wider marketing strategy. The kind of content you would actually sit down and read without being prompted to – and it’s what companies are trying to do more of.
In the past, content creation was the complete opposite; marketers would create shorter, quicker content at scale and with a lack of strategy outside of very specific keywords – this was because every web page (or blog) created had a chance to rank for a keyword on a results page. Back then, it was all about keyword optimisation – as long as the blog or web page had the target keyword in it, the quality of the article was forfeit. This strategy just doesn’t work nowadays.
So, at the start of 2018, we set ourselves the goal of creating three high-quality blogs each week. For us, this goal was entirely achievable and – if done correctly – would enable us to increase our blog traffic substantially.
Before setting this goal, we were producing one blog a week. These blogs weren’t bad by any means – in fact they were very good – it’s just that they weren’t driving the number of blog views and conversions we wanted.
So, what did we learn?
Increasing the quantity of quality content brings results
As mentioned earlier, you can’t just produce loads of content and expect it to perform well. If the content you create isn’t well-researched, relevant to your target audience, answering key questions and is well optimised; what’s the point? It just becomes another page on your website that delivers zero value.
We found that when we produced content close to the hearts of our target audience and at scale, our blog views increased exponentially – and so too did the number of click-throughs to other content and eBooks.
You need lots of resource to write lots of content
It seems straightforward, but if you want to increase the amount of content you produce – you need more writers. To produce three blogs a week, we got our team involved. To help them produce content (they are not writers by background, but specialists in their respective subjects) we provided a lot of face-to-face support, feedback and help during the drafting process.
You need someone to manage the process
You need someone to manage the whole thing. You just won’t keep your content on track if no one is keeping everyone accountable to dates and deadlines. We found that the best approach was asking people to assign their name to a blog and reminding them when the first draft, second draft, and final blog was due to be published.
Don’t rush your content
There’s a lot of content out there (don’t be surprised if your subject has already been covered) so it’s pointless just rushing and producing something that’s like everything else. It’s a waste of time. If your topic has been done to death, try to think of a unique (but relevant) angle that will make it more interesting.
There is a term called 'skyscraper content' which we try and stick to. What this means is when are thinking about creating a new piece of content, take a look at what ranks high for your keyword on google search. If you aren't going to create something bigger, better and more useful, you won't outrank what's currently in place.
Update and repurpose old blog content!
The ‘old’ articles you have on your website can be used to drive even more traffic to your website and Google loves fresh, recent content. Make sure to include new insights and information in the blog so that it’s relevant (as Google and searchers will love this too).
We added a video to one of our older blogs and updated its content – you can find the blog here – and since doing so its organic traffic has grown month-on-month and the blog is ranked first on Google for a specific question.
Use the topic cluster model
If you’re serious about going all-in with content creation like us and want to leverage the benefits it provides – start structuring your content in a way that’s beneficial to your website and your visitors.
But what is a topic cluster approach? Check out this blog.
Use your subject matter experts!
Ultimately, content production at scale can be encapsulated as strategic content creation which leverages the expertise of your employees. Why try to create five blogs a week yourself when you can outsource the production to your able workforce? Your role then moves from purely content production to review and content strategy. With the newly found time, you can dedicate yourself to improving the visibility and impact of the content you create through more diverse promotion.
More importantly, as every bit of content you create is optimised and often around a key theme (we would advise creating content around a particular topic and answering that topic in depth before moving on to the next most pertinent issue), you can quickly achieve higher rankings on Google and other search engines due to the depth and breadth of the information you provide.
The results and looking to the future
Blogging at least three times a week can really do wonders for your website’s traffic – look at what it did for us below - give it a try and let us know how it works for you!
After seeing the results – we decided to do the same at the start of this year. This time, we tried to produce at least three blogs a week. Most weeks we published four blogs – though we did have a few weeks were we posted daily.
As a result of that activity, we've increased our traffic (to date) by a further 55% to date. We are now working hard to understand how we can double, triple and quadruple that number over the next few months and year.
Also, we’re now in a position where many of our blogs rank on the first page of Google for specific search terms and receive a healthy stream of targeted, organic traffic. Given the popularity of these blogs, we have made it our mission to build more content around those pages and link to them where relevant. We suspect that these blogs will continue to drive traffic to our website – so we will continue to update them where necessary.
Want to create high-quality content that generates leads? We've tried and tested a number of approaches and believe we have a formula. It's in our eBook – B2B Content Creation for Lead Generation – and you can download it for free using the button below.
