What’s an authority site?
An authority site is any site that contains original, useful content that can’t be found elsewhere. It’s a site that people would seek out to find answers to their questions or solutions to their problems.
Most businesses with websites fail to meet this criteria. Their only interest is to sell. So their websites end up looking like online brochures or multi-page advertisements.
Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting to sell your product or service. But if that becomes the primary focus of your online presence, you will turn more people away than you would if you also took the time to provide useful information.
Throughout this site I often use a photography business as my example case. So that’s what I’ll use in this example. Let’s say you run a photography business and you make most of your money doing wedding photography. So you put up a website showcasing your previous work. You then direct people to a contact page where they will have to contact you if they want to get a quote.
After a month or so you get a couple of calls and maybe even some business. So you’re pretty happy with yourself. But let’s say you check your analytics (you are tracking your analytics aren’t you?), and you notice that you’re getting a lot of visitors but they’re not sticking around. They browse one or two pages and then leave the site.
Why? Because you’re not providing them with any useful content. What if you had a page explaining the process you go through from the initial phone call to the delivery of the finished wedding album, video, or digital photo album. The user is looking for more than your prices. The more information you provide the more likely they’ll stick around.
Why you need a blog
The best way to create an authority site is with a blog. If you don’t like the idea of becoming a blogger, just relabel it to something like articles. Writing articles on specific topics related to your product or service is how you create an authority site.
The purpose of the article should be to educate not sell. Write an article on how to choose the right wedding photographer. Since the article is on your blog, the user should be able to link directly to your site if they want to find additional information. Insert links within the article to specific pages on your site. The links create backlinks to your site which tell search engines that these pages are important. They also provides an easy way for the reader to get additional information from within the article.
Another benefit of writing articles designed to educate rather than sell, is that you will drive more traffic to your site. Your article on how to choose a wedding photographer just might pop up in a search for “choosing the right wedding photographer.”
When done right with effective backlinks, use of keywords, and proper promotion through automatic feeds, your one article can do more for you than any single page on your site.
If you don’t have time to create this original content, then you can have someone else within the company do it. Or you can hire a company like us at Click Here Online Marketing and sign up for are professional SEO copy-writing service.
Another option for time strapped business owners is to write articles for other sites like hub pages. You’ll get many of the same benefits but won’t have to worry about creating a steady stream of content.
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