Today, I’d like to talk about a very powerful piece of content. The “Ultimate Guide” is a lengthy yet effective tool if you’re interested in driving search engine traffic to your site.
This content is not only informative but is also a blog post formula that is proven to work.
“Ultimate Guide”
Here are a few reasons why “Ultimate Guides” work:
1. They get links, comments, traffic, and shares: Ultimate guides are useful, valuable content that people appreciate.
Commonly, whether your blog is large or small, ultimate guide to something will be popular.
An “Ultimate Guide” I wrote about Facebook Timeline was a very popular post on our Tricks Facebook blog; with over 10,000 views and 163+ likes.
2. They teach from A to Z: An “Ultimate Guide” is usually very long, with links, infographics, videos, and actual samples that help explain a point. An easy way to look at it, writing an ultimate guide is like being a “teacher” of the subject. Oh and not just any teacher, but someone with adequate knowledge of that subject who can break it down clearly.
These guides help build your expertise to your readers and potential clients by helping them see that you know what you’re doing. An informative guide not only shows them that you know your stuff, but it also attracts them to your site.
3. Evergreen Content: Which means, they don’t expire.
If you’re developing a strong foundation by blogging, you need a few articles that won’t loose value over time, and “Ultimate Guides” don’t expire.
Just having ultimate guide in the title doesn’t mean your post is an “Ultimate Guide”.
You must put in effort to make it a useful resource. Effort usually equals: time, research and clear explanations.
You might be wondering how long is long, 2,000+ words of detail, with links to other resources, infographics and maybe even videos, and are also updated regularly.
Do you have an ultimate guide in action for your blog?
Please share in the comments below!