A very common problem for publishers, bloggers and content creators in general is to increase their traffic volumes. Even though we spend hours researching, planning and writing, we don’t always manage to attract more people to our websites. In this case, something that could revert the situation is content curation. This activity should complement the effort made to create content. Now, here is how to use content curation to increase your traffic. Keep reading.
First of all… what is actually content curation?
According to Wikipedia, content curation is “the process of gathering information relevant to a particular topic or area of interest, usually with the intention of adding value, selecting, organizing, and looking after the items in a collection or exhibition”.
But what types of content can we work on? In other words: how do we have to use content in order to reach our goal?
Ever thought about curating your own content?
Let’s just start by the basics. Can you improve your own content?
Identify your most popular articles or posts, compare them with others about the same topic and analyze them. What are you missing? How can you complete the information? Anything you can add or change to make everything more useful or easier to understand?
You can also reorganize your content based on the most popular keywords that define it. Remember to link together all the pieces of content and you will see an increase in traffic volume and referrals.
Lists of resources are really useful to everybody.
Surely you have your own lists of resources: blogs or magazines that you read to learn more about a specific topic. Maybe tools, guides or other relevant elements.
Have you ever thought about organizing all the info and describing exactly what people will find when they click on the links? Take some time to go through everything and when it’s ready, share it. Your potential audience will appreciate the effort of making things easier for them.
Local practical info & news.
Have you ever moved to a new place and felt completely lost? Even if you’ve lived in the very same city your entire life, i’m sure that you often look for info about places, events or news on the Internet. So does everyone else!
Leverage your local knowledge if you can (it will depend on your niche). That’s practical information that people are going to look for sooner or later. Also, make sure to keep it updated.
Infographics, statistics, videos, guides & presentations.
Oh, yes! I know. It’s hard work, but it’s worthwhile. Also, think about it this way: creating these content pieces takes much longer than curating them.
The Internet is an endless source of knowledge and there will always be someone interested in accessing, literally, ALL the information about a specific topic. Choose carefully the most popular ones and start gathering some materials. Before you even notice it, you will have put together an amazing collection of data. The only other thing that matters apart from the quality of your work, is to always mention the source. If you can, link your content to the original source too. This way, people will see that your content is better, but also, you will make sure to behave ethically with those who helped you build a basis for your own work.
Good free pictures are always hard to find.
Do you have a bunch of pictures that you can organize in specific collections? Then go ahead, do it and share them.
Just think about how hard it is for you sometimes to get exactly the picture that you want, right? Well, I’m afraid that you are not the only one in this situation. Offering this kind of visual resources, properly organized and curated will be much appreciated by many users.
If you are using pictures taken by someone else, just remember to name the authors or even insert a link to their websites.
And what else?
Can you think about any other materials that could be curated? Keep in mind that the main goal is to provide users with valuable information, so make sure that they will have a use for your content. Otherwise, that’s just a lot of effort and time that is not going to bring any results.
In other words: analyze traffic, keywords and needs before you start gathering and curating content.
What is content curation?
Content curation refers to the process of collecting relevant information about a certain topic in order to select, organize and add value to it with the goal of exhibiting it.
Why is content curation beneficial for publishers?
Content curation can help publishers to increase their volume of traffic since it focuses on providing valuable information and solutions to your audience’s problems.