Use These 16 Content Ideas To Get High-Quality Traffic To Your Site In 2018 (And Beyond)
You want your website to work for you, no matter what. Writing content can help you bring high-quality traffic to your site, but what kind of content do you write? I am breaking down 16 of the best content pieces you can utilize on your website, so you are continually getting fantastic traffic on your site.
By creating the following types of content, you can feel happy putting advertising dollars behind your content and sharing content on social media again. We are only talking about the best content options for your site today!
1. Listicles
The first way to bring high-quality traffic to your website is through the use of listicles. I have talked about my love of listicles in the past, and they will always be my favorite article type. There are so many ways that you could create a list for your website.
The premise of the post is that you are sharing many things with people. You may want to give them some starting resources to research on their own, but you don't have to go into an extreme amount of detail. Your post is helpful because you are giving your audience options that they can then go and do more research on.
Listicle Help:
The 10 Best Places To Eat In ______ (Your City, State, Country): This idea is for all the travelers out there. Create a list of your fave spots to eat and share those with your readers. Travel pieces are great for bringing high-quality traffic to your website because people are always looking for new things to do (even people who live in your city.)
10 Sites That College Students Must Use To Succeed: This is just an example, but you can take out college students and add any person. Maybe you want to write a list called 10 Sites That Moms Must Use To Succeed or 10 Sites That Firefighters Must Use To Succeed. You can make this idea bend to the needs of your site.
10 People Your Company Should Follow On Instagram: This is another one that can be changed to fit the needs of your website. Play around with this model, and you can even play around with the social networking site. Maybe you want to write a post called 10 People Fathers Should Follow On Facebook or 10 People Teachers Should Follow On YouTube. The possibilities are endless!
2. Case Studies
Case studies are in-depth works that focus on how a particular person/company/thing did something (failed, succeeded, changed its branding, etc.) A case study comes in all shapes, and they don't have to be a positive change.
Your case studies need to be extensive. You want to go in-depth, look at a variety of sources, and pull the best information out of each case study you create. Your readers should walk away from your content ready to tackle the day having learned something valuable about how some company or someone succeeded or failed at something. You need to make sure that your case study has some key takeaways.
Case Study Help:
70 Years Of Toys: The Rise & Fall Of Toys "R" Us: Toys "R" Us is huge in the news right now because of their bankruptcy. You can pick any number of companies that have recently gone bankrupt or decided to close stores/downsize.
How _____ Turned His/Her Blog Into A Booming _______ Business: People connect with people, maybe more so than a big company. Use that to create case studies that analyze people instead of big corporations.
Would ______ (popular brand) Have The Same Success If They Started In 2018?: You can play around with the year (depending on when you read this post), but I just thought that this topic would be interesting. You can delve into the founding of the company and see what made them so unique. Then you could see if they would still be able to obtain that level of success in today's landscape.
Recommended Resource: 8 Tips For Creating A Great Case Study by Kissmetrics
3. Reviews
People want to know what they are getting themselves into before they purchase something. Especially if that something costs a ton of money, you better believe people are searching for reviews of it.
Before you begin jumping on the review train, you always to make sure that you can provide the best review of that product. Otherwise, your content will go on a pile of other pieces. Do a Google search for what is currently ranking review wise for that product or tool, and see how you can create a blog post that is better.
Review Help:
How _______ Saves Me $X Per Month: People like reviews and they also like saving money. Combine those in this review and share the truth about if the product saves you money, and how it does it.
___________ vs. ____________: Which Tool Has The Better Bang For Your Buck?: There are so many tools that do the same thing but at drastically different price points. Compare the two in a post and let your readers know which one you feel gives them the better bang for their buck.
A Walkthrough Of How I Use ________ To Automate My Business: Walkthroughs are extremely beneficial. People like to see how people use a product behind the scenes. You can showcase that through a video. You don't have to give away all your secrets as to how you use the product, but show your readers the basics of how you utilize it.
Note: You can ALWAYS leave a negative review of a product on your website. If a tool didn't work for you, that's even better. Likely there aren't a ton of super honest reviews online, so you will get high-quality traffic from telling the truth about your experiences either way. If you have a positive review of a similar product on your site, link to that in your post as your recommended tool.
4. Interviews
Interviews are an easy way to bring in new high-quality traffic to your site. You can share interviews with influencers in your niche, and that will bring their audience to your site.
Interviews are unique because it gives you a chance to pick the brain of an indispensable person in your industry while giving them something in return (continued access to your audience as you grow over time). Make sure that you are giving them something for their time and attention whether it be a few shout-outs here and there or (if they are influential enough) money to chat with you.
Interview Help:
Create questions that matter: You never want to ask the same boring questions that a person can get the answers to on an about page. Make the questions relevant to what your audience needs.
Be succinct: Likely the person you are interviewing has a lot on their plate. You never want to waste their time with frivolous questions.
Let your audience in: Source a few questions from your audience; they will guide you to what they want to learn about.
Recommended Reading: How to Grow Your Blog by Interviewing Influencers by ProBlogger
5. Infographics
Infographics are great at bringing high-quality traffic to your site because they are so shareable. People love to share infographics on their blog and sites like Pinterest. Your infographic doesn't have to be a million miles long, but a well-designed infographic can create a world of difference for your brand.
Some people debate infographics because they feel that infographics might negate the need for your audience to visit your site, but that isn't always the case. Obviously, if you don't put a lot of work into the content around your infographic, people likely won't revisit your site. That means that you need to focus on creating great content to go alongside your infographics. I would suggest starting with a high-quality post and then create an infographic based on that post.
Infographic Help:
Turn your stats heavy or listicle blog posts into infographics, the knowledge within them makes the perfect content for an infographic.
If you don't have design skills or can't pay a designer, Canva has some great infographic templates that you can use.
Repurpose your old articles by adding an infographic to a post that has done well in the past.
6. Videos
Videos are great for humanizing your brand! It's becoming easier to create videos now. At a minimum, you need your iPhone, and you are ready to go. The further in-depth you go to create videos, the better, though. Keep it simple until you know your audience is ready for quality content.
If your company has the funds, you may even want to hire a quality videographer to record and edit your videos, so you don't have to. With the help of a videographer, you can create content beyond your wildest dreams!
Videos bring high-quality traffic because you can begin to bring in a new set of people who enjoy visual content versus written content which is helpful for your business.
Video Help:
Be Human: People gravitate toward people. Recordings of slides and your computer can do well, but humans are better. If you can, show your face throughout the video.
Keep it simple: Especially when you are just starting out, you don't want to go too deep. Keep videos under ten minutes until you build an audience that wants longer videos from you.
Quality Is Essential: Even your iPhone can shoot high-quality video. You have no excuse for shooting poor quality video in 2018!
Recommended Reading: Should You Use Video on Your Blog? by Wistia
7. Podcasts/Audio Recordings
Similar to how videos help bring in a new audience, so do podcasts. People spend a ton of time commuting, and many people want to spend that time learning how to better themselves. If you can create a podcast or an audio recording that people can download to take on the go, your content will be seen as more valuable.
If you want to bring in high-quality traffic, you must consider ways to deliver content in various ways. Creating content for different types of people will help you bring in more traffic. Keep it close to your niche, but cover your niche in different ways.
Podcast Help:
Create an outline before you talk: If you don't have something to go off of, you can begin to ramble. That's no fun for your audience or who edits your podcast episodes.
Quiet Please: Try to record your podcasts in the quietest place possible. A coffee shop is not your friend when it comes to recording a podcast.
Keep It Level: When you go home to edit your podcast, don't forget to level or equalize your podcast. This will help your listeners tremendously. Have you ever been listening to something where you had to adjust the volume constantly? It's probably because it wasn't equalized.
8. E-Books
E-Books are a phenomenal way to package content. The barrier for creating e-books of your own is getting lower and lower. This allows many entrepreneurs the chance to get their content seen by new people, and of course, produce high-quality traffic for their website.
If you publish your e-book in the right places, you can make money for your brand, collect leads, and get your name out there. Having a successful e-book will also help your brand become more reputable. You want people to trust your brand, after all.
E-Book Help:
Pull together a few of your best posts on a subject: Creating an e-book from scratch is difficult. One of my favorite sites, Beacon, allows you to take old blog posts and turn them into a beautiful e-book for your audience. You can easily use that e-book as a lead magnet to grow your email list.
Make It Actionable: E-books are small for a reason. You must include actionable items in your e-book to make it valuable for your audience. Make sure your audience is excited to finish reading your book so they can implement it!
Focus: It's easy to find the ultimate guide to everything under the sun. Don't make another ultimate guide, be specific. Your audience wants to know how to do a specific task amazingly well. So help them get there!
Recommended Reading: How to Use Ebooks to Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy by CIO
9. Q&As
Your audience (or potential audience) has a ton of questions, and you have the answers! If you pick the right questions, Q&As can lead to a ton of high-quality traffic through search engines. Pick questions people are searching for, and you are bound to rank well on Google.
Q&As can be a simple way to connect with your audience and answer their questions, OR you can answer random questions that you find on the internet. Either way, you will be attracting high-quality traffic to your site.
Q&A Help:
Ask your audience: What do they have questions about? One of the best ways to create a Q&A is to ask your audience. This way you know your audience cares about the Q&A you post on your blog.
Use Quora: If you don't have an audience yet, use Quora. People ask all sorts of questions about various topics there. You can use their questions as a jumping off point for crafting your own Q&A.
Use Answer The Public: I have talked about my love of Answer The Public before on my post about my fave tools for freelance writers. Answer The Public is another excellent tool for your Q&A because it gives you many questions based on Google search results.
10. Webinars/Presentations
A great webinar or presentation can bring continued high-quality traffic to your website. Once you wow them with an amazing presentation, you can continue to chat with them via email and funnel them back to your site over and over. PLUS, there is a high likelihood that you can sell to them on your list too!
Webinars do take a lot of time and patience, though. It's obviously not the easiest way to get the traffic that you want. The traffic you get from people who see you at your webinar is more like a bonus to doing webinars versus a technique for getting traffic. If you are already doing webinars, expect that will eventually lead to better quality traffic, but I wouldn't produce webinars just to get that traffic.
Webinar Help:
Know your tech: You should always know how your tech will work before you hop on a webinar or presentation. Recruit a friend so you can play around with your speech beforehand.
Don't overwhelm your slides: Your slides shouldn't be a novel! Keep them simple, but informative.
Create a short and actionable presentation: Your webinar should last about an hour and provide genuinely actionable content. Those watching your broadcast shouldn't feel like you have wasted their time.
Recommended Reading: 4 Tips To Choose Topics That Make For A Good Webinar by Infusionsoft
11. Op-Eds (Opinion Editorials)
Do you have an opinion? Often op-eds bring the most traffic and engagement. People love to argue their views on the internet. As a business owner, though, you have to be smart about it.
If you want to bring truly high-quality traffic to your website, you can't live just to stir the pot. Share your opinions smartly, and know that there is a time and place for everything. You don't want to be that business that is known for controversy alone. Contribute something to the world, even through your opinion editorials.
Op-Ed Help:
Use the news: What's been happening in the news lately? How can you use that as a jumping off point for your op-ed? If people are talking about it, they want to see other opinions on it.
Don't be afraid of speaking your mind: A great thing about running a small business is that you have a platform. Bigger companies can't make statements as quickly, but if you are a solopreneuer running your biz, you have more free reign.
Know when to quit: We have all seen those stories of companies taking criticism a bit too far. Op-eds open you up to criticism. You have to know when it's time to put down the keyboard and stop typing!
12. Microblogs
Microblogs are becoming more popular, especially for people who don't like writing that much content. That doesn't mean that your microblogs should be subpar though. Look at Seth Godin's blog. He writes a ton of brilliant content that brings him a ton of high-quality traffic, but he doesn't share thousands of words. He has built a beautiful archive of thought-provoking content all while keeping it short. It's not sweet, so much of his content is mind-boggling!
When people think of the word microblog, they may feel it's less valuable. If that's how you feel, think again! You can make your microblogs work for your business!
Microblog Help:
Keep it short: Microblogs are called microblogs for a reason. You need to keep things short and to the point. So, today's blog would not be considered a microblog, shocker, I know.
Be Topical: Microblogging gives you the opportunity to be up to date with current trends. Use the news and current events to inform your microblogs. Current events might not be the sole focus of your content, but they can be examples you use in your content.
Remove Fluff: You don't have time for fluff and pretty words in microblogging. Cut the fat and get to the meat!
Recommended Reading: What Is Microblogging? by Lifewire
13. Newsletters
Sending out newsletters can be a great way to bring high-quality traffic to your website. Once you have people on your list, you can send them weekly emails to keep yourself top of mind for them. Share what's happening with your business, links to recent content, and be valuable. If you don't provide value to your customers, the unsubscribe button will be tempting.
Newsletters can be a great way to reach your audience in a place that they hold near and dear. Many people (including me) check their email as soon as they wake up in the morning! You want people to associate your email with valuable information.
Newsletter Help:
Create a lead magnet: Someone's inbox is a very personal space for them, they don't often give it away for free. Make sure that you give them an irresistible offer. For example, I give away a 30+ page SEO e-book for signing up for my list!
Be specific: When you want someone to sign up for your email list, be specific. A lot of people offer freebie libraries, but you need to be more specific about the types of freebies that someone will get for signing up.
Be consistent: Consistency is difficult (I am not going to lie) but try to be as consistent as possible with sending out your emails once you get them!
14. E-Courses
E-Courses seem to be all the rage these days, but they can be beneficial if you are the right teacher for them. Do you have something that you could teach? Likely you do something better than other people, and you can make a profit from that. A successful e-course can also bring a lot of high-quality traffic back to your site. People will want to learn more about you (so they visit your site) and people will want to go back for more of your advice after they love your course (so you get more traffic.)
Like webinars, e-courses are not the best way to get traffic. Creating an e-course from start to finish can take weeks and even months, after all. This is why e-courses are obviously not high on this list of ways to get high-quality traffic, but they can bring traffic to your blog.
E-Course Help:
Don't go all out: If this is your first course, you shouldn't try to create an ultimate course. Create something simple and then build more difficult classes increasingly over time. This will help you stay focused, get your ideas into the universe, and gain some confidence in creating courses.
Presell your courses: If you aren't sure if your readers will love your course, presell it. Create the course if your readers want it and if not enough people purchase the course, refund their money!
Focus on the problem you are solving: I am sure your course will have plenty of modules, worksheets, and videos. But what are you helping people with? Your audience wants a clear way to solve their problems; they don't care how many modules it takes to solve it!
Recommended Reading: 5 Mistakes That Can Doom Your Online Course Creation by Mirasee; 10 Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course by Thinkific
15. Roundups
Many experts in your niche are great at what they do. They can be beneficial to you if you create roundups on your blog. Roundups bring high-quality traffic because the experts you feature will want to share your post with their audience.
Make it very easy for them to do just that! After you post your roundup, share it with them via email. Add a click to tweet them so they can easily share it on Twitter. Share your already shared social posts with them so they can quick pin, share, etc. your post. Every step of the process should be overly easy for your collaborators.
Roundup Help:
Ask specific questions: You want to make it abundantly clear what your respondents are answering. Don't ask vague questions of your roundup participants. They shouldn't have to think too hard about your questions!
Only ask people you trust: Trust is essential when it comes to a roundup. You want to make sure that you are giving out great advice. If you can, ask people directly.
Use HARO: HARO or Help A Reporter Out is a site by Cision geared toward helping journalists, bloggers, and sites find sources for their stories. If you want to create an expert roundup, submitting your free request to HARO will help you do just that. The great thing about HARO is that you only reach out if you want their help after understanding their credentials.
16. Behind The Scenes
People are NOSEY. They want to see the behind the scenes of how you do what you do. Look at Groove's Startup Journey blog. Their posts are getting thousands of shares because they are taking readers on the journey of how they are getting to $10,000,000 in revenue. People want to hear their advice, and it shows in their shares.
Share your journey, share your struggle, share the good, the bad, the ugly, and the sad. People love honesty, and that will bring high-quality traffic to your site. It never hurts to be authentic with your audience.
Behind The Scenes Help:
Be Honest: Like I just said, share it all with your readers. Your mistakes can help people make better choices in the future. Your behind the scenes content can truly impact people's lives.
Offer Advice: You have learned so much over your years of working on your company. Offer advice to other budding entrepreneurs so they can create a booming business.
Update Your Readers: Often we try things in passing and don't think to go back and share results. If you want to share what you are doing, always find ways to quantify and measure it so you can update your readers in the future.
Recommended Reading: Why You Need These 4 Types of Behind the Scenes Content by Flight Media
Conclusion
Well, wasn't that a journey! Today we delved deep into content creation and high-quality traffic. These ideas will truly bring the best of the best to your website. Hopefully, after they see the amazing content, you produce they will feel comfortable giving you their hard earned money. Make sure that you have a service or product to offer them when they are ready!