How to build an effective content creation strategy

HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik

How to Build an Effective Content Creation StrategyAustin WordPress Meetup

February 20, 2017

http://handsonwp.com/


WordPress Beginner Question

Do you understand the difference

between a Page and a Post?



THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAGES AND

POSTS• The WordPress install

comes with two content types — Posts and Pages

• For those new to WordPress it is easy to get confused between Posts and Pages



WHAT ARE POSTS?• The entries into your

WordPress Blog are Posts• Post content is listed in

reverse chronological order in your blog

• Post are meant to be timely so the most current information is listed first

• Older posts are archived based on month and year

• All your Posts searchable by Categories and Tags



HOW DO WE DISTRIBUTE OUR POST CONTENT• Most Bloggers syndicate

their Posts through the RSS feeds

• RSS feeds lets Bloggers notify readers about the most recent Posts

• Bloggers can use the RSS feeds to deliver email broadcasts through services like Aweber or MailChimp

• Using tools like MailChimp you can invite your readers to subscribe to a weekly newsletter create weekly newsletters build from your most recent Posts



HOW DO WE DISTRIBUTE OUR POST CONTENT?

• Post Are Social• Install one of the

many social sharing plugins to encourage readers to share your posts in social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other venues that fit your user profile



POSTS PROMPT RESPONSE AND CONVERSATION• Posts have a have a

built-in commenting feature that allow users to comment on a particular topic

• You can control the ‘How, When and If’ of Commenting through your WordPress Dashboard Settings



PAGES• Page Content is not

meant to expire — but Content on a Page can easily be updated

• Pages are not intended to be social — but some will have Social Buttons connecting readers to the site’s Social Media accounts to encourage Follows or Likes



PAGES• Unlike posts, pages

are hierarchical by nature

• You can have a sub pages within a page — allowing you to organize your pages together, and even assign a custom template to them



PAGES VS. POSTS — SUMMARY OF PRIMARY

DIFFERENCES• Posts are timely vs. Pages are timeless

• Posts are social vs. Pages are NOT

• Posts can be categorized vs. Pages are hierarchical

• Posts are included in RSS feed vs. Pages are not

• Pages have custom template feature vs. Posts do not

• Note “ Edge Case Exceptions”: You can use plugins or code snippets to extend the functionality of both content types



Do You Understand How to Use Categories to Guide

Your Content Strategy?



UNDERSTANDING CATEGORIES AND TAGS• Categories and Tags are

both known as taxonomies in the WordPress nomenclature

• The sole purpose of Categories and Tags are to sort and organize your content to improve the usability of your site

• Sorting and organizing site content helps the visitor more easily browse content by topic rather than chronologically



CATEGORIES • Categories are meant for

broad grouping of your posts

• Think of these as general topics or the table of contents for your site.

• Categories are there to help identify what your blog is really about.

• It is to assist readers finding the right type of content on your site.

• Categories are hierarchical, so you can sub-categories



CATEGORIES • Categories are meant for

broad grouping of your posts

• Think of these as general topics or the table of contents for your site

• Categories are there to help identify what your blog is really about

• It is to assist readers finding the right type of content on your site

• Categories are hierarchical, so you can sub-categories



CATEGORIES• Categories are meant for broad

grouping of your posts• No one can accurately predict all

the right categories• A Best Practice is to start with five

generic categories• Then become more specific using

subcategories • Measure your site visitor’s

reaction and engagement• Adjust and add Categories and

subcategories as dictated by community interest and involvement



HOW TO USE GENERIC CATEGORIES TO FUTURE-

PROOF YOUR BLOG• Build a Primary

Category Structure with generic categories like —• How-To’s • News• Case Studies • Tools



WHEN TO ADD A SUB-CATEGORY

• Whenever you find that you are writing about a Sub Topic topic repeatedly…

• Example: Main Category “How To’s”

• Frequent sub-topic to “How To’s” topic — A/B Testing

• If you are focusing on A/B Testing more than five times — Make it a Sub-Category to the Parent Category of “How To’s”

• Go back to the previous A/B Testing blogs and correct the existing Category reference



ASSIGNING ONE POST MULTIPLE CATEGORIES

• With the proper use of Parent and Sub-Categories you shouldn’t need to classify one post into multiple top-level categories

• Adding multiple categories to a post DOES NOT benefit SEO

• Adding multiple categories to a post DOES NOT benefit user experience



BEST PRACTICE FOR MANAGING CATEGORIES • EXAMPLE —Your blog has three categories:

• Project Management

• Enterprise Resource Management

• Client Relationship Management

• You notice that your many of your posts can fit into all of these multiple categories

• A Best Practice would be to identify an umbrella category for all three

• Maybe these posts should be Categorized under Business Management with a sub-category of Project Management, ERP or CRM?



BECAUSE YOUR CAN — DOES NOT MEAN YOU

SHOULD• WordPress ALLOWS you to add one post into as many categories as you like

• Many Bloggers assign one post into multiple categories because they THINK it helps your users

• However

• You should think of Categories as Table of Contents for your blog

• Posts with the same Category are Chapters of your Blog



WHAT’S THE OPTIMAL NUMBER OF WORDPRESS

CATEGORIES? • There are no specific optimal number of categories

• It depends on the size and complexity of your site

• For the sake of structure and usability a Best Practice is to utilize Sub-categories and Tags



WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATEGORIES AND

TAGS• The biggest difference between Categories and Tags is that you MUST categorize your post

• If you do not categorize your post, then it will be categorized under the “uncategorized” category

• You are not required to add any tags



Do You Understand the Purpose of WordPress Tags?



TAGS• Tags were added In WordPress 2.5 to improve the

usability of your site

• Tags are not hierarchical

• Tags are meant to describe specific details of your posts.

• Think of Tags as your Blogs Index words.

• Tags are the micro-data that you can use to describe your content



SHOULD YOU LIMIT NUMBER OF TAGS ASSIGNED TO

EACH POST? • Think of Tags as an Index and Categories as being the Table of Contents of your Blog

• Tags are popular keywords that loosely relate your posts

• Tags make it easy for users to find your Posts using the WordPress search

• I don’t care What you are Blogging about —It is very hard to justify more than Ten Tags for a Blog Post



DO TAGS WORK LIKE META KEYWORDS?• Rookie Mistake: Adding as many Tags

as possible thinking Tags are meta keywords

• Tags are NOT default meta keywords for your blog

• Installing the ‘SEO by Yoast’ plugin enables you to use your Tag structure in the meta keywords template



SEOCATEGORIES VS TAGS

• The question of using Categories over Tags or vice versa for a SEO Advantage is a NON-ISSUE

• Categories and Tags are just the two default taxonomies, designed to work together, that comes with WordPress



LAST THOUGHTS ABOUT CATEGORIES AND TAGS

• Your site’s Blog is an ever-evolving book

• Develop the Table of Content (categories) carefully

• Chose broad topics — but be careful not to be too vague

• Use Tags to generally relate multiple posts



LAST THOUGHTS ABOUT CATEGORIES AND TAGS• If a specific Tag seems to be trending —

give some consideration making it a sub-category

• If the trending Tag would have to be added as a subcategory to several multiple top-level categories — leave it as a TAG

• The goal is always to make the site as user- friendly as possible



LAST THOUGHTS ABOUT CATEGORIES AND TAGS

• Most advanced sites use custom taxonomies for sorting their content in addition to categories and tags

• Custom Taxonomies will be addressed In a future WordPress Practitioner’s Class



5-step System to Write Copy That Consistently Attracts Your Target Clients

and Organically Build SEO



STEP 1Take the time to analyze what information your target market is looking for and why

What problems are they trying to solve?



STEP 2

Set your Categories to those high-level topics that represent the topics your clients are seeking



STEP 3Turn on the Idea machine

- look for ongoing topic conversations-online & off

- Use your blog and Cornerstone pages to express your unique value as an industry expert



STEP 4

Tune Your Idea Machine

Feedlyhttps://feedly.com/i/welcome

Goggle Alertshttp://www.wikihow.com/Use-Google-Alerts


https://feedly.com/i/welcome


STEP 5• Use a Content

Framework

• Every thing I know about writing I owe to:

• Mother Mary Gerald• Copyblogger• & Troy Dean



The WordPress Blogger Six Step Framework



THE PROMISEYour blog introduction should outline the promise of what you will deliver

The 'Big Why' someone invest their time with youHow will they benefit?



THE PROBLEMNext — your content needs to outline the problem

your readers are facing - which reinforces why they need read your article



MYTH BUSTINGThis is the part of the Blog or Cornerstone copy you position yourself as an expert by busting a common myth your readers are likely to believe.



THE METHODIn this section of your content you actually teach your

3 to 7 teaching points.



THE DO’S & DON’TSIn this section you outline the some of the tips for advanced users and the mistakes that newcomers

make



NEXT STEPSFinish off your piece of content with a call to action or

an action step. Give your readers something to do and they are far more likely to remember you



Cool Tools To Help BuildYour Content Strategy



Edit FlowAn editorial workflow management system

https://wordpress.org/plugins/edit-flow/


https://wordpress.org/plugins/edit-flow/


Table Pressallows you to add tables into your WordPress posts and pages

without writing any HTML or CSS.https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress/


https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress/


Canvaintuitive drag and drop interface creates

beautiful graphic designs edit imageseasy to use even for beginners

https://www.canva.com/


https://www.canva.com/


PictoChartcreate beautiful infographics charts and presentations

http://piktochart.com/


http://piktochart.com/


Navigation Tips and TricksWhat issues are tripping you up?



Navigation ResourcesWordPress Mega Cheat Sheet

http://wptricks.net/monster-wordpress-cheat-sheet/

"Working the "404 Error" Pagehttp://wptricks.net/create-effective-404-page-wordpress/


http://wptricks.net/monster-wordpress-cheat-sheet/

http://wptricks.net/create-effective-404-page-wordpress/


CONTENT CREATION CHECK LIST

• Check your “inspiration sources” for content ideas

• Choose a headline

• Check keyword competition and edit your headline as needed

• Research and plan your article

• Choose your category and add tags

• Fill in the SEO fields

• Write your first draft

• Go back and edit out cliches and add keywords and phrases

• Add images, video, and/or other rich content

• Re-read it. Edit.

• Add an excerpt

• Read it again

• Publish

• Check your editorial schedule for the next article



WORDPRESS RESOURCES

GET CONNECTED — Join and contribute to the Austin WordPress Tribe at: http://www.meetup.com/austinwordpress.

We look forward to seeing you at a #WPATX meetup soon



Sandi Batik WordPress evangelist, consultant, trainer,

curricula developer, author, unapologetic geek, unrepentant capitalist, lucky enough to do what I love everyday. I’ve served as Austin WordPress

Meetup co-organizer since 2010. With my husband Nick Batik, co-founded Pleiades

Publishing Services in 1992 and Hands-On WordPress Training in 2010.

Follow me @sandi_batik / @WPATXContact me at: handsonwp.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsandrachevalierbatik

Presenter



Nick Batik

Started in web development in 1994 and have been a WordPress consultant, and web developer since 2007. A WordPress evangelist, I’ve served as Austin WordPress Meetup co-organizer since 2010. With my partner, co-founded Pleiades Publishing Services in 1992 and Hands-On WordPress Training in 2010.

Follow me @nick_batik / @WPATX

Contact me at: handsonwp.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasbatik

Presenter


https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasbatik

How to build an effective content creation strategy

Business

Transcript of How to build an effective content creation strategy