What is the secret sauce to making your blog successful? A fortune awaits the person with a definitive answer to that question. In search of an answer, people have tried just about everything. Collectively, we have decided that the secret is more and better ad placement, flashy widgets and auto-playing videos, a strong social network tie-in, and an SEO guru to seal the deal. Also, check out this article on GMB & Local SEO Metrics & Reporting: How To Report Local Wins To Clients posted by Web20 Ranker.
Many bloggers try everything except the most basic, first-principal thing. If you want your blog to be successful, you start by creating high-quality, original content featuring a topic about which you are passionate. This is not rocket science. If you want people to read your writing, first, write well. Here is why content is king, or should be:
Content Is the Reason People Have the Internet in the First Place
Believe it or not, no one signed up for the Internet to view an advertiser’s attempt to sell them on the latest widget. That is just not why people log onto the Web. The only exception would be those rare instances where a person might specifically look for a particular ad to present as content. Apple ads routinely cross the ad/content barrier. Every time Apple releases a new TV ad, the ad, itself, becomes the subject and content of blog posts all around the net.
Many places in the U.S. have limited access to high-speed Internet service. Those out in the rurals are stuck with dial up, or an equally unsatisfactory option. The West Coast is a perfect example of this, as there are many people who live well beyond the city limits. They have to get a bit more creative with their solutions.
They have to rely on service providers that specialize in bringing high-speed Internet to those in rural areas and small communities, such as the Frontier Internet options in California. Search your local options for this type of service. There is usually at least one. The point being, those people have the hardest time getting a good connection. They didn’t go through all that trouble just to spend the bandwidth on page take-over ads. For them, it is all about the content.
Good Content Drives Traffic
Content can be a lot of things. It could be long-form writing, how-to videos, or cat photos. Content is whatever the stuff is people came to see in the first place. It might be a low airfare, or the best recipe for chicken soup. Whatever your content happens to be, it is the stuff that drives traffic to your sight by definition, as it is why people came to visit your site in the first place.
A great piece of content can drive traffic to your site indefinitely, as there are always people who haven’t seen it yet. But residual benefit is most reliable when you are using new content to drive repeat visitors. Those visitors will become more familiar with your site the more they visit. Pretty soon, they are scanning the sidebars to see what they might have missed. Consistency is the key. For consistent traffic, you need consistently good content.
Content Drives Everything Else
I get that you want to make money with your website. Even the most casual blogger starts thinking about how to turn it into a revenue stream at some point. Just understand that every business model you can come up with for your blog starts with great content. Great content is the driver, not the passenger.
While consistency is key, quality is far more important than quantity. Users do not mind reasonable advertising if they feel like they are getting something in return. What they are getting is your best content efforts. Perhaps the best reason content is king, is that the people who visit your site are worth it.
