Great! You’ve completed your SEO audit to make your blog Google-friendly.
You’re now left wondering why you’re not making any affiliate sales in your posts?
And also struggling with decreasing bounce rates and increasing session duration of your visitors?
The answer is most likely that it’s because you’re not targeting the right visitors!
Imagine if you’re selling furniture. Who would be interested in buying furniture? If we’re on the same page, you’re most likely thinking: new homeowners.
In the same way, when you write blog posts, you have to keep in mind who the target audience you want to attract are. What search terms would they use in search engines to get their answers?
Only when you’re clear on what keywords they’re using can you craft an article with the right keywords that attracts the visitors that are ready to purchase.
That’s what they call search intent.
Since we want to target organic traffic via SEO, it’s thus paramount to be clear on what the intent of the searcher is so we can target those keywords and deliver the exact content they’re looking for.
And this, my friend, is your answer to the nagging question:
“Why aren’t visitors clicking through my affiliate links to make purchases?”
To give you a more concrete example, let’s look at these 2 titles:
- How to make a terrarium
- Things you need to create a terrarium
Which do you think will attract people who are looking to buy items to create a terrarium?
An often missed step in the process of content creation is having a content strategy when it comes to creating new content. Most bloggers just write anything that comes to mind, without so much as a clear direction on what the purpose of the post is, thus wasting precious time creating them.
Who’s guilty of writing posts like these:
- “A day in Disneyland”
- “Celebrating Christmas in Iceland”
- “My experience with Dyson hairdryer”
I’ll admit, I do. Or I did.
If you want to create posts that attract the right buying audience (keyword here is “buying”), it’s time to reverse engineer your way of writing.
[activecampaign form=7 css=1]Knowing the search intent of your audience is important as it helps you figure out what they’re looking for, what exactly they want.
Go into the minds of your target audience. What keywords would the audience who are ready to buy use in their search query?
Here’s a Content Strategy exercise for you to do an inventory of your existing posts, organize them, and identify loopholes to maximize their potentials and turn them into affiliate-generating posts.
First, classify your existing posts into the following 3 categories of Search Intent:
1. Inspirational
These are the window shoppers who’re just browsing what you have to offer, with no real intention of buying anything.
For example: best beaches in Asia, a list of inspirational quotes, how Person Y transformed his life with [X].
2. Informational
Informational posts answer specific questions or teach something. They target people who’re asking the 5Ws and 1H – why, when, where, who, which, how.
For example: where to find a lash curler, how to use a gorilla pod, how to shoot in low lighting, what is the best kebab store in Lisbon.
They are the potential customers who enter your shop and have one foot in the door. Your job as a shop owner/ content creator is to then get them more interested in the products/ services you’re showcasing and to entice them to browse more.
3. Transactional
Transactional posts cater to searches performed to buy something. They are the potential customers who already know what they want to buy and have both feet in your shop. You hold the key to switch their Consideration mindset to a Confirm mindset, by convincing and reaffirming their choice to purchase.
For example: best credit card for low income earners, best boots for alpine trekking, best toner for acne skin, best campervan rental in New Zealand.
Sounds easy enough?
By classifying your posts into these 3 broad categories, it gives you a top-down view of what type of content you’re putting out there on your blog. It can help you analyse why you might be having trouble monetizing with your posts.
Scenario #1: You have tons of Informational posts.
This is the most common scenario.
Are most people landing on your Inspirational or Informational posts and dropping out instead of navigating to your Transactional posts? Perhaps they’re totally unaware you have related Transactional posts?
Then, you’ll need to work on leading them on from Inspirational > Informational > Transactional with clear buttons or anchor texts to your related posts.
Think about how intuitive it is for a reader to click through with your buttons or anchor texts to a related post. Are they large, bold and obvious enough?
Scenario #2: Hi, and bye.
After they’ve consumed the free information you shared with your Informational posts and answered their question, they leave your site and are never seen again.
That’s your valuable readers slipping out of your fingers!
If you want to increase time visitors spend on your site and reduce bounce rates of your readers, your job is to wiggle in the minds of your audience, figure out what other related topics they would be interested in, create those content, and point them in the right direction.
For example: How to pack a wardrobe
Related topics in that area would include: decluttering, productivity tips, organizing home, wardrobe essentials.
Scenario #3: You have tons of Inspirational posts.
Is there any value in creating them? Are you able to establish trust/ credibility/ authority in your niche by doing so? Would that convince them to transact through the products you recommend?
In my experience, Inspirational posts are good for Pinterest traffic, but they have no real value since visitors would just be browsing for fun and to get inspiration, with no real goal in mind. Most drop out without as much as navigating to other posts on my site.
The problem with transactional posts is that the keywords are usually very competitive and hard to rank, though not impossible.
That’s why it’s more strategic to draw your potential customers through keyword-optimised Inspirational and Informational posts, then lead them towards your Transactional posts.
[activecampaign form=26 css=1]Now that you know how to better strategize your content, do a stocktake of all your posts and categorize them so you have a clearer direction of where each new post is headed, instead of deviating from your main goal:
Make money blogging by attracting and converting the right readers.
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