How to Write Engaging & Educational Content that Converts for SEO

Optimize Your Content

Source: Medium[/caption]

Content that is interesting is great, but if it isn’t pulling in traffic then its contribution to your SEO efforts will be minimal. In order to ensure that your content is capable of drawing in organic traffic, it must be optimized for both SEO and readability.

Optimizing your content for SEO means making sure that it features the keywords you want your page to rank for in search engines. It also means making sure that your keywords are featured in your page’s meta tag and meta description.

Optimizing your content for readability is less technical and more intuitive. Clarity, writing style, and relevance all play a role in making your written content successful.

Most importantly, your cannabis blog’s content should actually be interesting and appealing to your audience. But how can you know what kind of content your audience will like?

Know Your Audience

Take a moment to consider who your audience is and what kind of content they would want to see. If the content on your website doesn’t appeal to your target audience, it will be hard to draw them in and push them towards conversion.

The most accurate way of understanding your audience is by collecting data. Data that you may have collected through in-store profiling or through your loyalty rewards program can be put to use to help you better understand your customers and online audience. Third-party statistics or data collection services can also be employed to gain a greater volume of more accurate data.

Once you have an abundance of customer data, you can begin to organize it through segmentation. Segmentation is the practice of dividing a large pool of people into smaller categories based on similarities. Once you have divided your audience into smaller segments based on their interests, you can begin to craft content that will specifically appeal to that segment. The more segments that overlap, the more likely that your content will be successful with your collective audience.

Sometimes, your audience will make things easy for you by simply telling you what they want to see. The comment section of your blog posts and social media pages can be a goldmine of information about what your audience likes and dislikes. Sometimes simply asking a question at the end of your content or asking for feedback directly will be enough to convince customers to open up to you. Customer feedback is a crucial aspect of doing business, and SEO is no exception.

An even simpler way to gain an understanding of your target audience is by taking a look at the content being produced by your close competitors. Browsing their content strategy can give you ideas for how to structure your own content. Try to identify what works well (and what doesn’t!) and apply it to your own content strategy.

Communicate Value

In order for your site’s content to be successful, it has to be valuable and useful.

Most people turn to search engines in order to answer questions, solve problems, or find certain things. If your content doesn’t perform some sort of function or provide some sort of value then it will have a hard time attracting organic traffic, and an even harder time keeping it from bouncing off your site.

Structure your content around providing value to your audience. Take a look at what people are searching for and consider tailoring your content to suit those searches. Connecting your content to your audience’s needs and wants will not only draw them in but will also keep them coming back.

Additionally, your content should innately communicate the value of your brand and business altogether. It should always strive to demonstrate that your brand is valuable and worthwhile. Think about the value proposition of your dispensary and consider how this could be communicated through your content.

Focus on Clarity

Scatterbrained content that is aimless and hard to follow will result in a higher bounce rate and lower audience engagement. Without clarity, you won’t be able to address customer problems, provide worthwhile solutions, and demonstrate the value of your brand.

Clarity is a sign that you know your topic and indicates to your audience that you have authority, knowledge, and expertise. People simply don’t have the time and patience to sift through unorganized or confusing content. If you want your content to convert, make sure it is clear and well organized.

Additionally, all the important elements on your page must be tied together as neatly as possible. If your headline, content, images, and calls-to-action are out-of-sync, the content as a whole may appear unfocused and unclear.

Write Conversationally

Try to write conversationally when producing written content for your audience. A friendly, easy-going conversational writing style will make your content easier and more pleasant to read.

How do you write conversationally? Just think of it as writing how you talk. Don’t dress things up or overcomplicate things if you don’t have to. Communicate with your audience as if they were right in front of you – because they are!  However, this doesn’t mean you should break grammar rules or forget about clarity.

Use Visual Assets to Improve Your Content

Dressing your content up with visual appeal can make it more entertaining, educational, and valuable. While some people love to read, others are visual learners or are simply more entertained by images instead of words.

Infographics, interactive graphics, videos, and slideshows can all be integrated into your written content to boost its value. Infographics are especially useful as they can be used to organize or summarize data that is relevant to your content in a more visually appealing way.

Great content that provides value will draw your audience in and keep them coming back. Once you have a good understanding of your audience, you can get to work designing a content plan that appeals to both search engines and site visitors.