Just when you’ve adapted to the idea that your company or clients needs a content marketing strategy to excel online, Google has changed the rules of the game. With the introduction of Google Hummingbird earlier this month, priorities shifted from a general marketing strategy to a mobile one. But executing a content marketing strategy that responds to mobile and the changes of Google Hummingbird in an intelligent way requires shifts in both mindset and technique.
The Fundamentals of a Good Content Strategy Still Apply
Many SEOs and business owners panicked upon hearing “mobile content strategy” for the first time. You’ve just got your content strategy in place, and now you’re being asked to revise it or even throw it out and start again?! Not quite. While Hummingbird means that simply having mobile as one “channel” of your content strategy is no longer sufficient, it doesn’t mean that you need to completely reboot.
Many of the fundamentals you’ve learned about building a good content strategy still apply. Steps like developing an editorial calendar, crafting messages that resonate with your audience, understanding your overall audience profile, and rigorously measuring outcomes are all still important. What’s changed is that you need to adapt your mindset: mobile is no longer just one consideration in a content strategy. It needs to be a central focus, and you need to ask tough questions about whether your site’s mobile experience is up to par in terms of design, content creation, and overall delivery.
If you want more context on creating an effective content strategy, I recommend the following articles:
Work with the Data
The mobile landscape is shifting rapidly. Recent statistics on mobile usage are mind-blowing and are no doubt driving Google’s algorithm updates. More than half of all Americans own smartphones, and one third of all Americans have a tablet. Mobile searches are through the roof, with one study finding that 46% of searchers used mobile exclusively.
Even more important than understanding the general context is taking a look at your own data. Do you know, for example, what percentage of your customers visit your website on mobile and what devices they’re using? All this information is contained within tools such as Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. This information can help you make important decisions about mobile priorities and investments.
Change your Design Mindset from Scaling Down to Scaling Up
A well-designed site sends powerful signals to search engines that you’re a legitimate business with a well-planned and effective site. Google’s manual reviewers certainly take design into consideration. With the release of Google Hummingbird, sites without a mobile responsive design are going to be at a disadvantage in search results. If not immediately, certainly in the long-run. If your site isn’t rendering well across a range of devices, then it’s important to make that your first design priority. All other mobile content decisions (and I would argue, even design and probably SEO) should take a backseat until you solve this glaring issue. For help with that, see this article: ”Responsive Design & Mobile SEO: Best Practices for 2013.”
So what makes a good mobile design? The old practice was to scale down for mobile. You developed a site that functioned well on a desktop, and then scaled it down to work on mobile devices. This might involve stripping out certain elements or limiting functionality. But consumers today are demanding full featured, effective mobile experiences – and Google is going to make sure they get it.
Great designers are now thinking about design challenges from a mobile-first perspective. Many think in terms of optimizing the organization, functionality and flow for a mobile environment. Once that’s been perfected, it’s easier to scale up to work well on a standard computer as well. There are a number of design considerations that need to be taken into account for mobile users – font size, white space, the clickability of links, and more. But these formatting changes should occur within a broader framework of evaluating the effectiveness of mobile design.
Find Ways to Create Mobile-First Content
Mobile-first also impacts your content creation process and cycle. The old mindset around content was to look at long pieces of material created for SEO purposes, and find ways to break them down. Paragraphs were made shorter, design created more white space and used visuals sparingly. While making older content easier to consume is always a smart idea, it’s important to apply the same principles of “mobile first” to your content creation. Here are some key things to consider when you’re developing topics, writing content, and thinking about dissemination:
Length: as I’ll explore below, shorter tends to play better on mobile. Yet long posts are necessary for great SEO. Can you use introductions or targeted blog posts for your mobile readers?
Visual and Audio Content: Are you using visual content such as images, infographics, video, and micro-video to support your content efforts? Mobile users consume visual content much easier and faster than text-based content, so it’s important to think in these terms.
Socially Friendly: Is your content social media friendly and easy to share? Mobile users tend to have a high degree of social shares and this can be a great way to build your shares with minimal effort.
Topic Focus: Use tools such as Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to determine what people are doing on your site. Are they shopping? If so, product guides would be a great way to focus your content development. Are they looking for more product information, or for original pieces related to industry trends? When you have a better understanding of how your mobile audience is spending their time, you’ll be in an excellent position to develop topics of interest.
Make Peace with the Long vs. Short Debate
As most SEOs know, there’s a strong emphasis on in-depth, high quality content. Longer articles tend to rank well in the SERPs and are a great way to show your expertise in a meaningful way. But the challenge with long pieces is that users on mobile devices, especially smartphones with small screens, are less likely to read them. This is where your reformatting and other strategies become really important.
But I would argue that mobile sites make a compelling case for the relevancy of shorter content. Consider the fact that the de facto length of posts has increased from 550 words to 1000 words. This migration is for primarily SEO-driven reasons. In most cases, it’s not the actual readers that are begging for longer pieces (unless they’re well-written, insightful, and delivering a ton of the value).
Readers want the exact information they need to answer a question or complete a task without having to wade through a lot of fluff. This supports the argument that there is a place for short, to the point pieces that focus on a specific issue. Considered within the mobile context, these pieces become even more valuable.
Another approach is to consider the role of short summaries or introductions. Longer pieces need some kind of intro to be digestible. It’s possible that you could offer long and short versions of each piece, and use the intro for your mobile site.
Assess your Distribution Channels
Thought leaders like Derek Halpern have suggested that writing your content is 20% of the battle, and disseminating it effectively is 80%. I agree, and a mobile content marketing strategy requires special considerations for how to effectively get your content to mobile users. Here are a few areas to bear in mind:
Are your site and blog optimized for mobile? If not, your most important channel just became inefficient. If you’d like to learn more about why any good SEO strategy needs an active blog, see my article Why an Active Blog Is Necessary for a Successful SEO Initiative.
Actively engage on your social media channels, and tailor your activities to when your mobile users are most active. Ensure that all your share plugins are compatible with a wide range of mobile devices.
Ensure that you’re using a mobile-compatible email marketing template for your newsletters and subscriber outreach. Focus on your headlines and keep them short (under 60 characters) to ensure they don’t get cut off. Develop a system of call to actions in your emails that’s both clear and easy to execute.
Conclusion
With the introduction of Google Hummingbird, the search engine giant insists that businesses focus on their mobile presence. By developing a mobile content marketing strategy, you’ll be setting your site up for better search rankings and increased revenue streams in the future. What steps are you taking with a mobile content strategy in the face on Hummingbird?
Jayson DeMers is the founder & CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based content marketing & social media agency. You can contact him on LinkedIn, Google+, or Twitter.