So, yes, we had some predictions around content creation and blogging for 2012. I’ll have to admit though, these weren’t much of a stretch in terms of predicting the future. We all know that focusing on content for SEO, and online brand visibility, has been blowing up. Knowing that, we made some not-so-bold predictions for this past year. Let’s look at the predictions and see if we were remotely close.
1. Content will be promoted from ‘King’ to ‘Emperor’ status.
Our first prediction around content was that “Content will be promoted from King to Emperor status”. No doubt this happened. Content creation is so prevalent that everyone is finally asking themselves, how do we make our content different, and better, so it stands out from the ocean of content being produced every day. Is content now Emperor? Who knows, but we do know that if you’re not producing quality content, that’s optimized around your keyword strategy, that you will be falling behind your competition in the ongoing SEO arms race.
Another point to make around content is that Google is a major influence in moving content from King to Emperor. Google continues to make algorithm changes that focus on the importance of fresh, dynamic content. Thanks Google!
2. Active blogs will continue to boost online brand visibility.
Not much to say here except that more and more companies ARE now using the blog as a central hub for their dynamic content. In our world of digital marketing, blogging is a no brainer (I know, you’re never supposed to say that). The blog is central to showing thought leadership, culture, industry awareness, knowledge, etc. It’s also where you can start, and have, that conversation with your clients, partners, and prospects. We highly recommend the time and effort it takes to blog.
3. Content curation will continue to enjoy strong growth.
This was definitely TRUE! With all the content being created, as we mentioned above in #1, there is a TON of opportunity to curate content that other folks have written. We do this all the time with our clients. We scour blogs and news sites for content written around the subject matter that matters to our client. We then provide them with the opportunity to use that content to write their own ideas about it. They refer to the original content, usually link to the content, and the often will notify the original author that they’ve added some thoughts to the subject. Curating content not only give you the opportunity to show knowledge and thought leadership, it’s a way to create communication with likeminded people.
4. More and more websites will adapt a blog format
I’m not really sure this rang true for 2012. I would say more sites adopted blogs but not sure more sites moved from a typical site format to a blog format. As for Digital C4, we took this one to heart. We launched a new site in June 2012 with the main focus being our blog. Most of our home page is dedicated to the blog. Sure, we have some links to our services, but mostly we want our blog content to be front and center.
Just a few positives to highlight from moving to a typical site that highlighted our services to a blog format:
> Bounce rate dropped from 50% to less than 5%
> Organic visits increased by 50%
> The pages per visit and time on site metrics both saw significant increases
> We received positive feedback from our clients (we send monthly blog updates via email)
Like I said, these content creation and blogging predictions for 2012 weren’t a real stretch to predict, but they all rang true for 2012. Where do you see content creation going in 2013? We’ll have some thoughts on this in the coming weeks. Check back with our blog for that!