Welcome to another edition of Sites Weekly.
In this week’s edition, you will find links to articles about the following:
- Content. How a journalist constructs an article that Google will love
- Design. How to use handwritten typography in website design
- Technology. How to improve your content marketing using digital analytics
- Strategy. How to create opportunity, build trust, and stay top of mind with your audience
- Bonus. Unusual signs on the path to a breakthrough
But first …
Last week on Sites
This episode begins a short two-part series about getting your initial design ready to go. We start with three macro questions that will help you determine the right kind of design to move forward with.
Listen: [43] 3Q for Choosing the Right Kind of Design for Your WordPress Site
And now, on to this week’s links …
Content: How a journalist constructs an article that Google will love
At this point, I hope you trust that I’ll never link to advice about Google that isn’t grounded in this simple truism: The best way to create content that Google will like is to create content that your readers will love.
So, spoiler alert: this post explicitly spells that out.
But there are also some other useful tips in here from a journalist-turned-content marketer who has learned how to marry the goals and tools of journalism with the objectives of content marketing.
One in particular that stood out:
“Finally, what emotional response will your idea trigger? It might make someone smile or become excited or reassured. If there’s an emotion involved, then the reader is more likely to remember and return for more.”
Design: How to use handwritten typography in website design
Have you ever thought about using a handwritten font for the hero section of your website? I hadn’t, but then I looked at the examples in this post … and now I want to.
Learn more about the how and why of handwritten typography in this post.
Two of the most important decisions you will make about your WordPress website are your theme and your hosting. Wouldn’t it be great if they worked together to make your website more powerful?
Now they can.
Discover why over 213,675 website owners trust StudioPress.
Technology: How to improve your content marketing using digital analytics
Creating content consistently is all well and good, but how do you know if your content is actually achieving the goal you want it to achieve?
Chances are, especially if you’re a one-person shop, you’ll have a pretty good general idea of how your content as a whole, or individual content, is doing. But if you want to get specific, then you’ll need to take an intrepid dive into your analytics.
This post from The Daily Egg will show you how to analyze the success of individual pieces of content at actually driving conversions.
Strategy: How to create opportunity, build trust, and stay top of mind with your audience
This post is an excerpt from a book by John Hall, the entrepreneur who started Influence & Co. I was especially struck by this section (emphasis mine):
“Why couldn’t I connect? Why was everyone so guarded? The answer was simple: because nobody trusted me. No one even knew who I was. It wasn’t enough to be charming. I walked into a roomful of strangers (most of whom already knew one another and had done business together) with nothing to show that I was worthy of their trust. I was just another random guy making a cold pitch — the human equivalent of a pop-up ad.”
If you want to create meaningful connections and build trust, and avoid being a human pop-up ad, read this article and take the advice to heart.
Bonus article: Unusual signs on the path to a breakthrough
Stefanie Flaxman has done it again. She’s written a post over at Copyblogger that has me motivated and excited. And this time, my motivation and excitement is about getting smacked in the face with my next roadblock!
Wait … what?
Just read the post. You’ll see.
So …
Which of the ideas in these posts will you put to good use immediately?
I’ll be back with a new edition next week.
Keep building.