What type of web content to choose? The 12 content formats to include in your strategy.

Web content strategists say that "varying the pleasures" is valuable advice. When it comes to choosing the type of your web content, this is the advice to apply.

"The more quality content you create, the better your digital marketing": do you believe this axiom accepted by content marketers? It's an inescapable truth. But you need to know how to mix the types of content It's an art that is not yet an exact science.

We will introduce you to the different web content formatsincluding the advantages of each type of content. Our ambition is that you will better choose the format of your next publication.

Contents:

• Why vary the types of content?
• Content marketing: an art and approaches.
• The different types of content and their benefits
• The blog
• The webinar
• The infographic
• The tutorial
• The complete guide
• The white paper
• The checklist
• Videos
• The podcast
• The client case or success story
• The guest article
• Translation of an article by a well-known influencer

Why vary the types of content?

Before we introduce you to 12 types of Internet contentLet's share a strategic, even philosophical, reflection on the business of content creation.

Content marketing: an art and approaches.

The activity of web content editors varies from project to project, ranging from the highly analytical to the more creative. And that's good!

The debate is intense between theorists and practitioners of this digital marketing discipline. The best methodology does not yet exist. Will it ever exist? What will God Google think?

In the midst of this debate and developments, two truths stand out:

• All web content must be optimized for SEO (Search Engine Optimization): hence the usefulness of our SmartKeyword solution
• The choice of the type of web content should be optimal (publication format): depending on your target audience, your objective, your theme and to a lesser extent your budget

Varying the types of content has several advantages:

• Do not bore your audience (low abandonment rate and high click ratio)
• Increasing the relevance of content (each audience and/or message dictates a type of content)
• Search engines still prefer textual content. However, they increasingly appreciate varied content: video, podcast, infographics, vector illustrations, photos, etc.
• A site containing several types of content is more ergonomic (attractive and functional)

We will discover more benefits by presenting the 12 most effective types of content.

The different types of content and their benefits

The blog

A blog is a powerful digital marketing tool. This type of website is often the mainstay of content strategies. There are many advantages to creating a blog, as well as many objectives. We can group them into three major objectives:

1. Prospecting: attract visitors and qualify your leads
2. Conversion: encourage your leads to carry out specific actions (purchase, subscription, filling in forms with expressed consent, etc.)
3. SEO: the blog is the ideal instrument to strengthen your SEO strategy

When creating creating content for blogging, never forget to wear your two hats: SEO and marketer. Always remember to reconcile marketing and SEO objectives.

No need to introduce you to the famous WordPress CMS; here is a post that shows how to design a WordPress blog. Our SmartKeyword solution will help you optimise your blog posts.

The webinar

A webinar or webinar is a "form of interactive seminar-type meeting conducted via the Internet, generally for the purpose of collaborative work or transmission of information to a more or less large audience": definition of webinar from Wikipedia.

How to optimize your webinar ?

1. Define your objective and target
2. Launching your promotion
3. Analyse your performance (e.g. for a webinar, YouTube provides you with lots of KPIs)
4. Refine your lead nurturing strategy after broadcast (marketers' task)

As an example, here is a webinar on Google 2022.

The infographic

There is nothing like statistics to demonstrate the usefulness of infographics :

• An infographic is shared two to three times more than other content formats 
• It is remembered by 65% of the audience at D+3
• Without an illustration (infographic, photo), the information in your content is retained on average by 10% of readers (except for content that is truly premium)

Enhance your content and content marketing with well-designed infographics: aesthetically pleasing, easy to read and rich in information.

The tutorial

Have you noticed that tutorials are flooding the web? Its teaching tools have become legion on the Internet, especially in the form of videos. A tutoriall can be used to achieve several objectives, separately or together:

• Make people understand how your products work
• show your expertise
• Increase your expert reputation and authority with Google
• Position your pages on strategically selected keywords
• Improve your presence and visibility on the Internet
• Satisfy a need expressed by your customers/prospects
• Boost your prospecting

Depending on your content strategy, tutorials can be textual or audiovisual.

The complete guide

To reinforce your image as an expert in the long term, nothing beats a comprehensive guide. The same objectives of a tutorial can be better achieved with a comprehensive guide.

Your ultimate guide needs a lot of work. Without abandoning the SEO rules or restricting your imagination, it must cover all aspects of the subject. This is the case for this complete guide dedicated to emailing deliverability.

The white paper

The white paper or e-book is an ideal choice for establishing your authority and expertise. E-books also allow you to collect valuable and deeper information about your target group.

Think about intelligently integrating a white paper into your content marketing and inbound marketing. Your downloadable e-book will make your prospect more mature and less hesitant.

The checklist

A checklist is a list of actions to do in order to follow/complete a process. This type of content appeals to Internet users because of its practicality, thus generating a lot of traffic.

Here is a blog post in the form of an SEO checklist checklist to optimise your SEO efforts.

Videos

Although Google is not good at reading video, this form of web content has become an essential part of content marketing as it is very popular with internet users. The video marketing has many advantages. As an illustration, take a look at this checklist summarising the advantages of a marketing video.

Some tips for making a good marketing video :

• Write a script
• Take care of the lighting, sound and decor
• Stay consistent
• Be as short as possible
• Outsource the production of your marketing video if your budget allows

The podcast

Google had announced that podcasts could be listened to directly via the search results page. It even offers automatic transcription of this audio content and a Google Podcast. This is an official recognition of the importance of this type of type of marketing and SEO content content in a digital strategy.

Well done, you've anticipated our next tip: if your podcasts are turned into a text format, you can apply the fundamentals of SEO to them. Our digital solution promises you the best selection of your keywords.

The client case or success story

The case study or Success story is a convincing web content, therefore convertible. Pleasant to read (a story told, storytelling), factual (credible story), rational or emotional (depending on the nature of your marketing: b to b or b to c), the success story converts. The "customer case" allows for projection.

A well-written "customer story" article will positively influence your results. If you ask us in the comments, we will provide you with "SmartKeyword customer case studies". Our solution has enabled the realization of several Success stories SEO.

The guest article

A guest article or guest post is an article published on your website, but written by a third-party writer who is an expert in the subject matter.

The guest article is by nature a premium article. Google recommends that it should not be exchanged (article exchange is a prohibited netlinking practice). We have to admit that the reality is quite different! A guest article is a win-win agreement between the hosting site and the article writer.

Translation of an article by a well-known influencer

Some non-French speaking experts or influencers in your field will be happy for you to translate and publish their articles, or you can just use them as inspiration. It is ethical to quote them: never forget to do so.

The great advantage of a translated article after the author's agreement is that it is always chosen because of its high informational quality. It allows you to save budget and/or research time to create valuable content. Don't hesitate !

We hope that you are better equipped to deal with your competitors on the web. Whatever the Internet content format format you choose, remember Google's first recommendation: always create quality content!

Good writing and good choice of your content type !