With social media usage declining, now is a good opportunity to create lasting relationships built on relevant information, which can only be accomplished by creating thoughtful, fresh content on your company’s website and SEO best practices.
According to Edison Research and Triton Digital, Facebook usage had been steadily increasing for ten straight years. But this year, for the first time, the portion of Americans reporting that they currently ever use the service has declined from 67% to 62% among Americans.
Most likely, the rise of trolling and bullying on social media platforms are causing people to re-examine their use.
Twitter’s usage is also down for the first time ever.
Is your business relying mostly on quick social media posts for online marketing?
If so, regularly creating high quality content is the only way to see real improvements in your organic search rankings and, thereby, attract new leads for your business. This does take time and thoughtfulness, but has the best return on your marketing investment overall.
By focusing on your own company website, you can create a great user experience that you completely control. You can add a blog, develop an email list, engage visitors through newsletters, and start building your customer base.
Google loves frequent updates
Google uses content freshness as one of their ranking factors when it comes to indexing search results. So relevant, fresh content = successful SEO efforts.
Each time you write a great, new blog article, you are creating a new landing page with keywords that appear in search results. So, the more frequently you update your website with articles, podcasts, news, or new web pages, the more frequently search engines will index your website.
You can build your industry authority
When you produce content that is interesting, solves a problem, or enhances a conversation or current event, other websites will be more likely to link to the content, and people are more likely to share it on social media. Quality content earns links and attracts social shares – another Google ranking signal – building site authority and establishing your company as an expert in your industry.
Fresh content keeps visitors informed
Your website is the primary place people visit to research your services, products, and glean information that leads them to make decisions about your company. And these days, a company website without a blog is like an engine without fuel.
Checkout this infographic courtesy of Gate 39 Media, showing key stats on the benefits of consistently blogging:
With social media usage on the decline, now – more than ever – is a good time to focus your resources and efforts on creating fresh content for your website!
Stacy Layman
Director, Marketing and Creative Services
Jacksonville, Florida