Want something on your site that keeps your target user groups coming back for more? Article series can be a great way to attract a regular audience if, and only if, they are planned and executed well.
Follow these ten steps when you’re looking for an article series that will please your site’s users and your SEO plan. When you’re developing content for search engine optimisation, it can help to talk to an expert. You can discuss your ideas with our experts at SEO Consult Australia.
1. Think of the possibilities. There should be a world of possibilities open to you for an article series. Even if you source the content writing from a professional, you should have some say in the topic and where it leads. Think about the topics you have expertise in, and draw up a preliminary list. Your keywords for your SEO plan should also be taken into account, as these will need to be included.
2. Research. Look at the comments made by your target user group to locate topics they’re interested in.
3. More research. Look around your industry to eliminate topics that have already been covered.
4. Plan. This is the most important part of the process. Set out the areas of the topic that need to be covered, and figure out roughly how they should be covered. Your search engine optimisation plan needs to be taken into account at this time.
5. Play. Play around with titles. These should be fun and engaging.
6. Compose. This is in many ways the easy part, particularly if you’re consulting your SEO company for good SEO writing.
7. Comment. A good series will attract comments. A good way to ruin a series is to ignore comments. Comments mean that people want to be involved.
8. Redraft. If your article series has been written ahead of time, there’s a fair chance that the comments you gain with early posts will have some impact on later posts. It is usually necessary to alter articles as you go on. This also reassures your site users that you are listening to them, further developing the community feeling of the project.
9. Publish on time. A key point about a series is that it’s reliable. If your articles don’t appear on a predictable, regular basis, then your audience may well give up and stop looking. It can be incredibly annoying to have to keep tabs on a site that doesn’t post regularly.
Regular posts are also good for your search engine optimisation plan, as the search engines take note of frequency of updates over time.
10. Begin again. If you’ve developed an incredibly popular article series, you will want to ride on your success. A good way to keep the ball rolling is to begin another series. It’s a good idea to begin planning this as soon as possible, as long periods between series tend to cause lack of interest. Around half-way through the publication of the first series is a good time to start.
