Cornerstone content is content that is highly relevant to your business goals and is designed to help you start building website traffic, social media traffic and brand awareness by explaining the goods and/or services that you offer. Your cornerstone content should feature the most relevant and high trafficked keywords that potential clients or customers would use to find your business. Cornerstone content helps you establish yourself as an expert in your industry and should bring in site visitors who are likely to be interested in the goods or services that you feature.Cornerstone content is best utilized as an introduction to your brand, and should leave the website visitor with a positive feeling and the view that your firm is a leader in your vertical. It must speak to your target audience, establish your expertise and focus as a company, and leave your potential customers or clients with confidence your firm is a valuable resource. Cornerstone Content is usually designed to appeal and attract a wide audience and for that reason it will not have the most efficient conversion ratio. The goal is to create brand awareness to set the stage for future discussions, and hopefully, business.
Dictionary.com defines Cornerstone (in part) as “the chief foundation on which something is constructed or developed: ie. The cornerstone of his argument was that all people are created equal.”If you think of your brand as a series of building blocks, the foundation of the online portion of your branding is a properly optimized website with content that contains keywords that appeal to your core audience. It should explain why your firm is the best resource for the goods and services that you offer. It has to be real, it has to be relevant, and it has to be carefully crafted in brand voice.
Think of what you would say in a meeting as a response to a client or customer who is asking “why do you feel that your firm the best option for me or my business?” Make sure that you include the most relevant keyword streams to your business, and that you have hyperlinked all of the industry related terms to great explanation of those subjects on your website. Remember that the primary objective is to create confidence in your brand. Be sure to include those members of your firm who deal extensively with your customers to make sure thet the description of your goods and services is on point and in terms that anyone can understand. Feel free to test it with friends and business associates who are not current clients or customers of your firm. Many times, we are too close to our own business to realize what our own core competence really is.
Do the research to find the questions that potential customers or clients will ask and research search traffic volume and competitive index numbers. Google Adwords and Wordtracker.com offer 2 of the leading services for this. Above all, it is more important t have keywords that are relevant than keywords that have high volume.
Search engines will most likely feature search results that have the title tags and headlines for those keywords on those pages. The title tag is primarily the headline of the page, and it must be displayed in a way that your website visitors will understand.
A landing page, when properly designed. Will instantly communicate what’s going on to the visitor as soon as they arrive, it also acts as a table of contents (via links to each part) that helps to make your point.
I’ve used the word “website” throughout this post, rather than blog. However, blogging and social media are key to a successful Cornerstone Content strategy. Search engines rank websites that have a lot of relevant, frequently-updated content. They also like a lot of relevant, organic inbound links. A solid link building strategy surrounding blogs and social media is a critical way to build general site authority via links, delve into specific and related topics, and to reference your cornerstone content.What’s In It For You?Cornerstone Content, when properly created and implemented, is time consuming and complicated, but is also can offer the following benefits for your brand:1. Attracts relevant website traffic.2. Creates brand awareness for a targeted online audience.3. Provides an opportunity for intra linking and inbound link structure to help SEO.4. Establishes your firm as an expert in your vertical.5. Builds a positive perception of your brand.Conclusion:Most valuable things are constructed carefully and by following a good solid plan. Cornerstone Content is no exception. But like most valuable things, it will reap rewards in terms of a strong brand, larger client base, and strong organic search rankings.
Eric Van Cleave is the Co-CEO and Digital Marketing Director for TIV Branding
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TIV Branding is a boutique branding firm in Sonoma County, California. We specialize in building brands by using traditional, social and digital channels in unison. If you would like to discuss a project or find out more about how we do what we do, please email us at info@TIVbranding.com.
