When it comes to publishing your website content online, there are three basic and fundamental truths that you need to keep in mind as you develop a content plan.
- You have to publish often
- If you publish too often, then you run the risk of being flagged as a spammer or not being able to test what is working and what isn’t
- How often you publish depends on a number of factors including how much competition you have in your content pool
Let’s deal with these one at a time.
Publish Your Content Often
Often is a relative term. Does it mean every day? Twice a day? Four times a day? It depends.
Ideally, you should publish every day, but there are times when you may not need to publish every day or might not want to. You have to know your market. Generally, global markets are more competitive because you have more people across the globe vying for the same attention. Local markets are less competitive. Niche markets are going to be less competitive as well. So the key is to know your audience, know your market, know your competition, and know your own limitations.
When you develop your content marketing plan, do so with all that knowledge in mind and run lots of tests.
Don’t Publish Too Often
I don’t care who you are what the market forces at work are in your niche, if you publish thousands of web pages per day, then you are likely to run into problems. First, you’re not going to be able to measure what is working on those pages that find success in the search engines. Secondly, you could get flagged as a search engine spammer. That won’t fare too well in the end and it could cost you a lot of time trying to re-engineer your content plan from scratch.
How Big Is Your Content Pool?
Here in Adams County, Pa., the most rural county in the state, your content is going to be much smaller than in Manhattan, Chicago, or Dallas, Texas. Of course, not only is your market composed of a geographic location, but you are serving a particular niche within that location. So if you are an auto mechanic in Adams County, then you aren’t competing against Dentists in Adams County. You are competing against other auto mechanics. That narrows your competition quite a bit.
That matters because the search results pages offer you 10 ranking spots. If you have only 5 competitors in your niche in your neck of the woods, then you have a doggone good chance of getting a search ranking for your key terms. If you have 50 competitors, then you’ll have to fight tooth and nail. That will require beefing up your content marketing plan.
Have You Studied Your Market Yet?
So the first step to developing a sound content marketing plan is to study the market. Who are your potential customers? Who are your competitors? Who currently has the top 3 spots in Google and Bing for the keywords that you want to target? Are you competing on a global scale or a local scale? Maybe you’re competing on a national or state-local scale. Figure out your geo-strategy as well as your niche-specific strategy, then implement your plan.
It all begins with research. As the military says, Intelligence Drives Maneuver.
