A new year is upon us, and everyone is making plans to make the most of the next 365 days. So what does that mean for the world of digital commerce and marketing? The field is changing fast, maybe faster than any other – and that means content creators will need to evolve with the times.
So what trends are catching on in the digital blogging world? Blogging is becoming more essential than ever as a promotional tool, as users are looking for current and relevant content to keep them returning to a site.
Many sites that relied on old content or contracted their contract out are finding they need something more. These four trends are how you can maximize your blog content and make 2023 your best year ever.
Table of Contents
1. Original, Useful, and Relevant Content
Some areas of content creation are common for just about every business – but this isn’t one of them. Every business needs to provide relevant and useful content to their readers, but that will be different based on the demographics and interests of your customers.
In order to find out what that is, it’s critical to know what your customers are actually looking for. Reading reviews of your product can help there, and tools like Ahrefs Tool Guide: Keyword Explorer for e-Commerce can make it easier to know what they’re searching for.
There’s a tricky balance to find when working with relevant content, because you’ll always be trying to promote your product and sell your potential customers on trying it. The sweet spot is to do that without it seeming like you’re selling something.
By showing them how your product or service is the solution to a problem or question they already have, you’re setting yourself up to be seen as the benevolent face they’ve been looking for.
2. Longform Content
Most of the content on your website might be casual blog posts designed to lure people in with curiosity, but it’s important also to have long-form content. Longform content is any piece of writing that ranges between a thousand and seventy-five hundred words and provides valuable information to your readers.
This content can be challenging because you have to keep the reader’s attention for far longer, but when done right, it can be a powerful tool for connecting with an audience.
Longform content allows you to place your keyword multiple times without stuffing it in a short piece. This kind of content can often rank very high on Google’s rankings and might be your company’s top search result.
To ensure successful longform content, it may be best to break it down into multiple segments that readers can absorb and return to. This will maximize accessibility and keep people interested.
3. Highly Visual, Interactive Content
One of the biggest mistakes many people make when creating content for their website is to rely solely on written blog posts.
While those can be valuable, today’s market is trending far more towards visual and interactive content that can be shared on social media and absorbed in seconds.
This is known as “snackable” content and is ideal for today’s audience – which is seeing attention spans shrink rapidly.
Why is this happening? The main culprit is social media, which favors viral-type content like Instagram Stories. As people absorb information in seconds, it’s important to understand what makes something stick in the viewer’s mind.
Make sure your content asks a question that it answers quickly and provides several intriguing facts or visuals before your potential customer moves on to the next thing.
4. Original Content
Google’s E-A-T metric is one of the most important factors determining how highly your site ranks in search listings. They’re looking for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness – and you can’t get that without original content.
In order to make the most of your original content, it’s important to stick to the material you know a lot about and provide valuable information on it.
How do you find out what fits that bill? The best way is to conduct polls on what your customer base is interested in. Those polls can actually double as content, as market research on the current marketplace is key to many industries.
Relevant interviews with other figures in the field can also help your site come off as a knowledgeable figure in the online space.
A blog to the Future
What does the blogging world look like going forward? There’s a distinct trend away from disposable content and towards more relevant and original content. No matter your subject, you can make this work for you.
Is your content useful, original, and relevant? Do you have both long-form content and viral content? If so, your website or blog is well set up for 2023.
