So you’ve had your website or blog for a little while, but it’s beginning to get a little stale already. Content planning comes in handy when keeping up with the demand for fresh content becomes overwhelming.

Both audiences and search engines need a reason to surf by your site each day. The more often they come, the higher your page ranks in search engine results. Try these tips to inject some new life into your website content planning and boost your website traffic:

5 Easy Content Planning Strategies

1. Get in touch with your audience. If you’re not clear on what type of content will keep whetting your audience’s appetite, ask them. To improve your website content planning, conduct online surveys or polls from time to time.

You can easily post polls daily using online services if you don’t have polling capability built into your site. Also, keep surveys short and sweet and provide an incentive; people are more likely to respond.

2. Be seasonal. There’s always a market for stories that are seasonal, such as summer or Christmas, or stories that are timely, such as Valentine’s Day or a special month. Take an hour or so to do some brainstorming and jot down the articles you can create around these themes.

3. Respond to an unexpected or major event. When these events, such as Hurricane Katrina or Michael Jackson’s untimely death occur, audiences often want more information or insight. Think of creative ways you can serve their needs during your content planning.

4. Solve a problem your audience has. This is an essential part of website content planning. You can create SEO content or articles around perennial problems your audience has (such as gardening or coping with the flu), or unexpected problems or hot-button issues.

Remember a few years ago when tainted pet food grabbed the attention of pet owners everywhere? Pet website and blog publishers who were on the ball knew the importance of providing their audiences with timely information they could use to protect their pets.

5. Eavesdrop on social networks. At this stage, you’d be remiss to not include the buzz on social networking sites such as Facebook, Digg and Twitter in your content planning.

Sometimes your website audience just gets into a topic before you do. After all, you may be busier with other things such as upgrading your site, marketing, or customer service. Social networkers can help you to stay in the loop so that you keep your website content fresh and engaging.

For help with content planning and brainstorming for your blog, newsletter or website, contact us today.

Source: Core Content Media
Type: Original SEO article
Keyword density: Content planning – 2.4%

Content Planning – 5 Easy Ways to Keep Websites and Blogs Fresh by Core Content Media is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
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