In our previous article, What is Quality Content and Why is it Important, we discussed why creating content for your website’s blog or news feed is important for: driving traffic to your site, creating links, educating or entertaining your sites visitors and helping to promote conversions. In addition, I touched briefly on when to share the content, regularity of posts and the do’s and do not do’s of quality writing.
Today I am going to expand on the area of providing quality content by discussing the importance of publishing offsite content.
What is Offsite Content?
Simple, it is content that you create and have published on other websites. Typically, you are allowed two links back to your own site in the author bio lines you provide with the content. What does that mean for you? It means that people are able to find your website while surfing the internet and stumbling across the content you have created and shared. It also means you are creating link backs to your site.
Naturally, if you have a website that sells cleaning products and another website that sells video games is wanting to publish your content, that is not beneficial exchange for your site. However, if you can find websites that sell home products, cars or other venues where cleaning supplies correlate with their site, then you have a winning trade. By providing content for those types of sites to publish, you have a better chance of driving relevant, converting traffic to your own site.
What Should I Write for the Offsites?
Content that you create for the offsite articles should be at least 500-2000 words. You do not want to sound sales pitchy or reference your own products or website within the text of your article. Your links belong in the bio lines. No one is going to want to publish content that is shamelessly self promoting on their own website. Writing should be informative, creative and catered to the audiences of your niche, without shoving it down their throats.
Find ways to enhance your content, while keeping it relevant to your niche. In addition, provide visually innovative images with your offsite content. Get creative. Make your own infographics, humorous and thought provoking images. The idea behind the image is to have people stare at it for a moment and stay on the page. A good image, might be the deciding factor between reading or dismissing the content it is attached to.
How Do I Choose Sites for Offsite Content?
Avoid spammy looking sites at all costs. Page rank is a thing of the past, so you can not always rely on that for selecting reputable sites anymore. Look at the other content that has been published on the site. Check their frequency with publication. Do they only post once a month? If so, it is likely the traffic on that site isn’t worth your time. Are there banner ads everywhere, pop up chats and a confusing mess of anchor text links all over the page? If so, that is a spammy site and again is not beneficial for you to create content for.