Posts Tagged ‘Articles’

Comments are usually a sign of success. When a user ventures onto a site and see the lengthy discussion its Articles have prompted, they’re impressed. Busy comments sections tell a tale of popularity, relevance and success. This feeds further into the popularity of the site, in a sort of benevolent cycle.

Having an open comments section is not something that every site goes for. Comments sections require moderation if you want to prevent spam, so they tend to require a time commitment. Search engine optimisation experts tend to recommend comments sections to their clients when they can, as comments provide a constant flow of content to a site’s pages that doesn’t have to be generated by the business. An active comments section is both a symbol of a site’s success, and a promoter of it.

These busy comments sections often look perfectly natural, and some of them undoubtedly are. Not every site, however, experiences this kind of spontaneous comment behaviour, and it is worthwhile knowing the tricks to use to prompt user comments.

Uncaring users don’t comment

The first thing to think about is what prompts people to comment. It’s rare that users will comment when they have no investment in a site. You may get some comments from other bloggers who are there to show support for a new blog, but even these come from a particular motive.

If you want comments to continue, it’s important to post material that provokes thought which will lead to comments. Search engine optimisation companies can be a great help with this, and you can talk to us at SEO Consult. You don’t have to use sensational material to get comments, as so many bloggers seem to think. Well thought through content can be just as effective in provoking comment and can develop a much more solid user following than sensationalism can.

Make use of a well-placed prompt

You can’t always count on users just feeling inclined to comment, particularly if you’ve only just opened your site to comments. Sometimes, a prompt is what needed. If you’ve got a piece of content that prompts questions, finish it with ‘what are your thoughts?’ Other questions, like ‘what other situations have you come across?’ and ‘what are your experiences?’ are also good prompts, as they imply that the user’s knowledge is required for the issue to be resolved. Everyone liked to discuss their own experience, but they sometimes need a little urging to give up the information.

Readers require feedback too

Users may respond to gentle encouragement and post comments, but this may stop if you never participate in the comments process. Particularly with users who peruse your site regularly, it’s important to provide really positive feedback.

Even more blatant positive reinforcement can be used if you’re desperate to increase the number of comments on your site. Featuring a ‘user comment of the week’ or a ranking system for user comments creates a feeling of leadership on a site, rewarding users with an acknowledgement of their influence. Other users seeing this may feel more encouraged to participate.

When most businesses design a website, their focus is more on the task at hand than in thinking about a long-term content management strategy. Yet strategising for the long-term health of any business venture is usually a vital move. Without this kind of future planning, you may find your presently healthy website turns into a jumbled mess down the track.

Many businesses will only think about the need for ongoing content once their SEO plan is underway. This is only natural, as the importance of content usually only becomes clear at this time. Before then, content is simply a way of communicating with site users whenever a need arises. As most businesses discover, SEO turns this idea on its head, as finding something to communicate to users is secondary in importance for the need for constant fresh content.

The best and only practical way to ensure your site gets constant fresh content is to devise a content strategy. The best time to do this is when you’re still in consultation with your search engine optimisation company, as they will be able to give you some direction. You can talk to our experts at SEO Consult about content strategies.

When designing your content strategy, ask yourself these questions:

*Who is going to write it? Not many businesses can afford to have a professional writer in-house all the time. Yet professional writing is vital if you want to maintain the standard of your site. Businesses that rely on staff to supply content to order tend to end up with a patchy quality of content, and disgruntled users.

Many businesses approach their SEO firm for content provision. This can be a good idea if you want your SEO tactics to be worked into your content automatically. Your other options include contracting writers for individual articles, although again this can result in patchy content.

*Who is going to design it? Even if you approach your SEO company for content provision, you’re likely to have a hand in the form it takes. Most site owners aren’t comfortable completely delegating the choice of topics and styles of writing in their content, although it certainly is possible to do so. However, you can’t count on content to be conjured out of thin air. Good content needs to be planned for and scheduled. Plotting out when you’re going to brainstorm topics for content, or sorting out other means of content design, is important.

*Who is going to implement it? As anyone who has ever designed a website knows, having the content planned out and written is just part of the struggle. Once it’s there, you need to post it to the site, format it and lay out any links you will need. This means not just linking to a new article from your home page, but finding points within the new content to anchor hyperlinks to other areas of your site. It’s also a good idea to put hyperlinks on other pages to the fresh content.