In the old days of the web (two or three years ago), pretty much all a business had to do in order to sell products on the web was hang out their shingle: put up a website, add ecommerce, and watch the orders roll in.

Now the internet is a very different environment, with an evolving emphasis on “real time” in search and interaction. This real time nature demands a new model for dealing with your website, a content strategy. This content strategy is proactive, rather than reactive. Rather than responding to new situations and demands, a company must be out in front of developments, publishing new, current content on a regular basis.

Without a strategy, it is impossible to get ahead. Search engines today respond to constant updates and fresh content. Marketing yourself on Face book, Twitter and the like is impossible without a stream of new information and ideas emanating from within your company. That’s why a forward-looking plan is absolutely essential.

Here are some of the components that make up a sound content strategy:

Blog
A blog that is hosted on your own website that integrates your static web content with constantly updated news, information and insights about your company and products will go a long way toward achieving content freshness. It also provides an avenue for customer feedback via comments, and gives search engines a steady supply of new content and pages to spider, helping bump up your site in search results.

Mission
Before beginning your blog and online content strategy, you must have a mission. What is the purpose of your site? What is your blog going to cover? How will you ensure that all content you produced is relevant and useful to your audience of current and prospective customers?

Your mission must include more than just information about products. It should provide critical news and insights into your industry, how-to guides, and other content that will keep people coming back time and again. By ensuring that your content keeps within this mission, you will provide timely information that is timely and relevant.

Search Engine Optimization
A website and blog without search engine optimization (SEO) is like a publisher releasing a book but not making it available to libraries and bookstores. How will anyone find out about this timely, useful content and you and your industry if it’s not searchable? Part of your content strategy must include SEO tactics like the use of keywords, categories, and properly labeled images and file names.

Social Media

Beyond SEO, you can proactively share information with the general public by utilizing social media. A basic Facebook fan page and Twitter account will allow you to instantly push out all your content updates, news and announcements. Customers should begin to “follow” or “like” your updates, subscribing to them so they are the first to know when you’ve got something new to say

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