5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve the Performance of Your Content

People often ask me about my favorite content marketing “hacks.” 

Such questions always give me pause because I know that hacks are useless without a solid content strategy. I can give you a ton of content marketing tips, but they won’t get you anywhere if you don’t have a great editorial calendar or if your writing sucks.

However, if you already have a strategy in place and you’re writing engaging and high-value content, then YES — there are a number of tactics you can implement or test to get some quick wins out of your content. 

Here are my favorites:

For increasing organic traffic…

1. Optimize your headlines and headers - Go through your existing articles and see if you can incorporate relevant keywords into your post titles and headers (h2, h3 etc.)

I’ve seen too many amazing articles miss out on organic traffic simply because their titles and headers weren’t optimized for search.

This step alone can do wonders for your site. In one particular case, I’ve witnessed a post’s traffic increase by literally 1000+% after the writer updated its headline. 

2. Beef up your existing blog posts - Speaking of updating your content, if you have articles that contain outdated information (like facts and stats) or if you have old articles that could use new tips, ideas, and examples, it may be worth updating, re-publishing, and re-promoting them. 

If you do it correctly (and if your content is good), your post could see a nice bump in organic traffic (typically a 15-30% increase according to SEJ Journal, but I’ve personally bigger traffic gains.)

3. Find ways to increase dwell time - Longer session duration and low bounce rates send a lot positive SEO signals. When Google sees people spending more time browsing your site, it’s more likely to give you a favorable ranking.

The right way to improve dwell time will depend on the content. For most blogs, you can typically do this by publishing in-depth guides, formatting your posts so they’re easy to read, and adding images or videos. 

For boosting social engagement… 

4. Crowdsource and encourage social shares - The idea behind this tactic is simple: quoting other people in your posts or crowdsourcing ideas, increases social engagement because the people you quoted are usually more than happy to share the post once it’s published.

For best results, come up with “Tweetables” that people can swipe so it’s real easy for them to share.

For instance, I typically say something along the lines of…

Just wanted to let you know that I quoted you in my recent article! Here’s the link: [insert link].

If you think your audience would find it useful, you’re more than welcome to share it. Feel free to just copy paste the social posts below:

[insert swipe-able tweets / Facebook / LinkedIn copy]

5. Be active in industry groups - Find your audience’s “watering holes” online, then engage with the community. Answer people’s questions, be genuinely helpful, and share some valuable content.

You can start here on LinkedIn. Do a quick search for groups in your industry, request to join these communities, the interact with their members. 

Once people see how helpful and engaging you are, they’ll be more inclined to share and interact with your content. 

Final words

I hope this post gives you some “quick win” ideas that you can implement. Remember, though, that these pointers will only work if you already have engaging content to begin with.

If you’re not there yet, I suggest taking some time to map out your content strategy and calendar, and then coming up with high-value and share-worthy posts. 

And if you need help doing that, I’m more than happy to assist. Drop me a line here on LinkedIn or get in touch via my website, FrancescaNicasio.com.

Good luck!