This article is part of an ongoing series of website content strategies. We are discussing ways to create quality website content in the post-Panda world. In this lesson, you will learn how to increase your web traffic by publishing news related to your industry or niche.
Every business can benefit from adding timely news into the website content mix. It helps you attract new readers. It keeps people coming back, time and time again. It makes your website more useful. It helps you attract links from other publishers, which can boost your search engine visibility. It also helps you distinguish yourself from the more “static” websites in your industry or niche. All of these benefits come from publishing timely news that’s relevant to your audience.
That covers the “why” side of things. But what about the “how” factor? What steps should you take when publishing news on your website? How does it help you boost your website traffic? This article provides the tips, tools and techniques you need to succeed.
Mission: Increase Traffic With News-Related Website Content
The purpose of this strategy is to improve your search engine visibility, traffic levels, and overall website success. You can accomplish these goals by publishing relevant news that caters to your specific audience.
Here are some of the things you’ll need to get started:
- A clearly defined audience
- A publishing scope (areas of coverage)
- Google Alerts for key topics
- A feed reader to gather relevant RSS feeds
- Basic research and writing skills
- A content-management system or blogging program
- Keyword-research tools for optimization of content
You’ll soon learn how all of these tools can help you increase your web traffic with quality news content. Here are the seven key steps to publishing relevant news on your website:
1. Define Your Audience
You need to know who your audience is and what they need from you, in terms of information. Professional publishers spend a lot of time getting to know their audience. They conduct endless polls and surveys to understand what their audience wants. They conduct “focus groups” and data analysis to uncover their readers’ wants and desires.
You may not have the resources to conduct this level of research. And that’s okay. At a minimum, you should spend some time thinking about your intended readers and what they need from you. Better yet, put a feedback tool somewhere on your website. Allow your readers to rate your individual stories and articles. Let them comment on your news stories. Solicit their feedback any way you can. Look at your website analytics program to determine what articles are most and least popular (based on time spent reading versus bounce rates). With these efforts, you’ll have a much better understanding of what your readers want.
2. Identify Your News Topics
Once you know who you’re writing for, you’ll know what you need to publish. Make a list of the different topics you want to cover. This list might include two or three topics, or two or three dozen. It will depend on your publishing goals and your audience.
Now take it one step further. Combine your audience (from step 1) with your key topics. This becomes your mission statement. Every Internet publisher needs a mission statement. It helps you stay on task. It simplifies the research and writing process. It reminds you, constantly, of what you are trying to accomplish. Your mission statement can be as short as two or three sentences.
Here’s an example: “I will publish news related to the software industry. My readers are people who are shopping for certain software products. My areas of coverage will primarily include personal finance software (budgeting, taxes, etc.).”
Remember, you’re not just trying to increase your web traffic in general. You’re trying to increase your targeted traffic. You want to attract those people who are most likely to buy your products or click on your ads. You want traffic that supports your business model. The mission statement helps you focus on this task. Print it out. Put it someplace where you’ll see it every day. Revise it as needed. Build your news program around it.
3. Create Some Relevant Google Alerts
Professional publishers use a variety of tools to keep up with the topics they cover. The Google Alerts feature is one of those tools. You can create Google Alerts for a variety of phrases relating to your industry or niche. Then, whenever somebody publishes new information online that includes your key phrase, you’ll be notified by email. Google will send you a notification email daily, weekly or “as it happens.”
It’s like having your very own automated news assistant, scouring the web for relevant press releases and news stories. And best of all, it’s free.
Example: If I wanted to publish news relating to the U.S. housing market, I might set up Google Alerts for the following phrases:
- “home prices in the United States”
- “foreclosures in the United States”
- “U.S. housing market”
- Et cetera
I would then choose “news” from the “types of results” dropdown box. Now I’ll receive email notifications when news stories are published that include any of my key phrases. Time spent on this task — 90 seconds!
Remember the goal here. You want to increase your web traffic by publishing timely news related to your industry. In order to do this, you must stay on top of your industry. You must know about new developments as they occur. Google Alerts can help you achieve this. It’s a fire-and-forget weapon for the serious Internet publisher.
4. Gather RSS Feeds from Relevant Blogs and Websites
This strategy is similar to the last one, in that it helps you stay informed about your industry or niche. But instead of using Google Alerts to “harvest” news, you’ll be collecting RSS feeds for specific blogs and websites. RSS feeds allow you to follow certain authors and publishers, without having to visit their websites every time. It saves you time and energy while improving your coverage.
You can use a “feed reader” to keep tabs on any website or blog that publishes an RSS version of its content. Best of all, you can get one for free. Google Reader offers a full set of features that will help you gather and display an unlimited number of feeds. FeedReader is another popular (and free) tool with sufficient capabilities.
Imagine visiting a single web page and seeing the latest posts / stories from 25 of your favorite websites. That’s what you can do with feed readers. Basically, you are creating a reading room full of up-to-the-minute news content on your chosen topic. Combine this with the Google Alerts explained earlier, and you’ll always be well informed about your industry.
This is a key step to writing timely news content — the kind of content that will help you increase your web traffic. Let’s not forget the primary goal here. You want to publish relevant news on a regular basis, to keep your readers coming back to your site. You want to make your blog or website more useful, so that it attracts links from other publishers. You’ll have an easier time achieving these goals if you stay informed about your industry.
5. Compile Relevant Quotes, Data, Trends, etc.
You’re almost ready to write your first news story. Once you’ve identified a topic for the story, you can begin gathering support material. This will include relevant quotes, data and other details. These things will make your story more useful to the reader. They will also help you attract those all-important links from other publishers, which is the key to search engine optimization.
Here’s how each of these things can help you:
- Statistics and data will make your stories more believable.
- Expert quotes will make your stories more interesting.
- Supporting graphics will make your stories more appealing to readers.
Where do you get all of this supporting material? You dig into your Google Alerts and RSS feed reader. It’s all right there at your fingertips!
6. Write Your News Story
I don’t expect you to become a professional journalist, just to increase your web traffic. But you will benefit from having a certain degree of skill. The best way to learn news writing is to read plenty of news. Pay attention to the way professional journalists start and end their stories. Notice the details they use to support their content. Apply these skills to your own website.
You can boost your web traffic by publishing quality content on a regular basis. Quality and quantity are both important in their own ways. But it’s the quality of your content that keeps people coming back. So work on your writing skills daily.
Here are some quick tips for shaping your news stories:
- Write as much as you need to fully cover the story. It might end up being 500 words or 2,000 words. It’s done when all of the questions have been answered, and all of the angles have been addressed.
- Include the basic “who, what, when, where and why” details within the first couple of paragraphs. This is referred to as the inverted pyramid style of writing.
- Use the next few paragraphs to expand on the topic. Broaden the pyramid with supporting information.
- Include relevant quotes from experts and analysts.
- Include supporting graphics if you have them (charts, diagrams, etc.).
Now that you’ve written a great story, it’s time for the final step in the process. It’s time to optimize it for search engine performance. This will help you increase your web traffic even more.
7. Optimize Your Content for Search Engine Visibility
I’ve put this step last for a reason. You shouldn’t even think about the search engines until you have a well-written news story your readers will find useful. This is your first priority. Thinking about keywords and SEO will only distract you from this mission.
Once you’ve got a great story down on paper, you can always go back and optimize it for certain keywords and phrases. You can identify these phrases by using a keyword-research tool like WordTracker, or the Google AdWords keyword tool. Spread these keywords naturally throughout your story. Include them in the title, the first paragraph, and throughout the rest of the piece. Just make sure your keyword optimization doesn’t harm the readability of your content. Remember, people first and search engines second.
This article explains how to increase your web traffic by publishing relevant and timely news. As we continue this series, you will learn some additional strategies for developing high-quality website content.
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