Ultimate guides are all over. You’ve presumably read something reasonable, and perhaps you’ve even written a couple. They can be an extraordinary method to get traffic, build links, and increase your authority, yet they’re a far from easy to make. The issue many people run into is the sheer measure of content out there these days. How would you create an ultimate guide in case there are already huge loads of posts on your picked subject?
In this post, we’ll take a look at the steps to making a guide on pretty much anything.
Why you need to create this guide?
If you are not aware of the power of the ultimate guides, here you can learn why you need these guides.
➽ Rank for Many Keywords
The length, depth, and authority that go into guides make them an awesome weapon in your SEO arsenal. The way that they are so detailed implies they should rank for a huge number of keywords. Including internal links to your other blog posts helps their rankings, as well.
➽ Get Backlinks
A major, in-depth resource like an ultimate guide can be a phenomenal source of links. Not exclusively would you be able to utilize it to go out there and request a backlink as a component of your link building strategy, but different sites normally begin linking to an authoritative resource, as well. To such an extent that your ultimate guide can keep on attracting links for quite a long time to come.
➽ Build Your Authority
There are not many bits of marketing collateral better at situating your brand as an authority in your industry than an ultimate guide. This is your chance to showcase the amount you know about your subject to the world and go above and beyond what has previously been expounded on your topic.
How to select topics for your guide
Selecting a topic can be a huge obstacle for many aspiring writers. But do not slow down overthinking it, though. Here are some ways you can find the perfect topic quickly
➽ Select a topic you know about
The first point is very obvious, but it is still important to say it. You should know your topic inside and out if you want to write an exceptional guide. That does not in any way mean that you cannot hire a freelance writer, but you should give them a thorough brief and make an outline of the guide yourself.
➽ Select a topic with high search traffic
It is not necessary that every guide needs to be returned with the express purpose of ranking in Google. But it is a fact that it can seriously help drive traffic and generate customers. So, you can pick the topic that has the main keyword with the highest search volume. However, you may also find other topics that have many more related keywords which could actually generate more traffic overall.
➽ Select a topic that is trending
Guides are mostly successful when they are written about trending topics. When something goes viral or and even starts trending, people get excited about it, they want to consume all the information they can find about it. Hence, your guide should be a part of that as well. And it is equally important that your post should be uploaded as soon as a news breakout.
How to create a guide to drive leads, traffic and conversions
Now that you have your topic, it is time to start creating your guide. Here are some ways you can use to create a guide to drive leads, traffic and conversions
➽ Consume as much content as you can
No matter how much expert you are in your field, you will still need to read blog posts on your topic before you start writing. This will help you understand the level of content existing out there, the common threads writers pull, and the things you have to mention. You need to pay attention to the results that Google serves up as well. By doing so, you will find that specific formats are more popular than others. So, you will try to mirror these when it comes to writing your content.
➽ Identify what is missing
When you read other people’s content, you should make a note of everything that is missing from the posts. If you are writing a how-to-post, make sure you go through the steps yourself after reading posts by others. Then, narrow down things you notice during the process might have missed or not explained thoroughly. It also may help to sit down with someone who is not familiar with your topic and see what questions they come up with.
➽ Do your research
Of course you can write a guide off the back of your expertise alone, but you can make it exceptional and stand out over everyone else’s content if you conduct your research. Some people do this by contacting their colleagues for their opinion on a certain topic. Others may want to commit to more detailed research and partner with a market research company that will carry out a study on their behalf. You will be able to create more valuable and link worthy guide by putting more and more efforts into the research.
➽ Bring it all together
In order to create a guide, you have to just combine the basics plus the extra details you found were missing from other posts and your research. This will help people coming across your guide as the first piece of content they have read about a topic will get all of the basic information, and people who have read many other guides will be surprised by all the missing pieces that you included.
➽ Promote it very well
Your guide is of no use if no one reads it. I mean the amount of time and energy you spend on creating your guide; you owe it to yourself and your readers to promote it very well. You can promote it by sharing it on all of your social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can promote it on your personal and business accounts as well. Another way of sharing it is in groups on social networks. For instance, LinkedIn has some great groups on particular topics. Facebook also has some groups as well. This will give your guide more exposure from just your network to all of the members of the groups you select. By re purposing your content you can turn your guide into an infographic, PDF document, slide presentation, or video, you can share it on even more networks.
Some tricks to create an exceptional guide
You must consider these tip if you want to take your guide to the next level.
➽ Add images
Images can make your guides more attractive and engaging. This will make it easier for people to follow along and visualize the process.
Related article: How to optimize images to get better search results?
➽ Write clearly and format properly
You must write with clarity so that your audience can easily understand what you want to convey to them. The sentences can be short, clear, and punchy when writing thousands of words on a topic. Formatting also helps in this regard. You can make your guide much more digestible by clearly labeling titles and subheadings. Short paragraphs also help in making your guide digestible.
➽ Use real life examples
It is always helpful to look for some good examples of your tips in action. If we are talking about creating a great timeline cover photo, then some examples can be included from pages in different industries. If you are using Pinterest to drive traffic, then link to top Pinterest users who are doing things right. Consider your target audience and then find examples that they can easily relate to so they feel they must follow your advice to be successful.
The bottom line
Ultimate or definite guides are an amazing valuable marketing resource. Marketers constantly use them to generate huge levels of traffic, build brands reputation as an authority in the industry, and improve the websites search engine optimization. By following the advice given above, you can make your way to achieving your content marketing goals while sharing valuable insight about your selected topic.
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