Storytelling and SEO: Create valuable content for your website

A bit has changed since those days, when storytelling was the primary entertainment - but not our ability to be captivated by a good story. Many companies have picked up on this and incorporated it as a regular part of their marketing strategy. However, it can be difficult to create a story that is both exciting, compelling and has a relevant point. If they are also working with SEO, the good story can easily get lost in the work of keywords and technical optimisation.

This is where Storytelling comes in. A well-executed storytelling can be the missing piece to the ultimate SEO hack. To ensure you're in the best position to create valuable content for your website, we've put together a few simple tips you can use to write the perfect story.

Before we get into the meat of how the two techniques work, it is quite relevant to know what Storytelling and SEO actually are. Storytelling refers to a narrative that can either help to engage an audience or to explain something.

A particular feature of the concept is that it likes to include actions such as physical movements and statements. The aim is to create engaging content that can raise awareness and engage and inspire the reader to act.

Good storytelling helps boost credibility and the page's shareability, which are factors search engines take into account when ranking pages. Here are a few focus points to help you knit together a good storytelling:

• The topic - should be emotional, relevant and relatable to your readers.
• Numbers and percentages help to increase credibility.
• Images and videos make it easier for users to relate and understand content

If you haven't yet heard of SEO, you may not know what it is. First of all, welcome! At Webamp we are specialists in SEO and SEO advice. If you have any questions about how it works, don't hesitate to send us a message.

That said, here's a brief intro.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization
Translated into English: Søgemaskineoptimering

The work of SEO deals with the process of boosting traffic to a website by making it more visible to search engine results. That may sound broad - it is, because there are many ways you can work with SEO.

SEO is the inclusion of the following techniques in your marketing campaign:

• Content based on keywords that people use to search on Google.
• Text constitution.
• Optimisation of image descriptions.
• Linkbuilding.
• Keyword optimized meta tags.
  Optimisation of the site for mobile users.

The principle of Storytelling is that it's not about you and your business. Long-haired stories about the company's rise to prominence are unlikely to hold the reader's interest for very long. The primary focus is therefore on the user.

When writing a text, you can think about answering the questions:

• Who is your main customer?
• What do they get from using your brand?
• Why should they choose your brand over a competitor?

The Danish dictionary defines excitement as; 'anticipation of an activity, event or experience with a nerve-racking, unknown or otherwise captivating course or content.'

It's precisely this phenomenon that allows us to sit glued to a screen for hours without blinking when Netflix releases a new season of Stranger Things. Capture your reader's attention and make them so invested in your story that they have to finish reading.

The trick to storytelling is to strike a balance between telling your story and keeping the reader engaged. When you create content to increase brand awareness, you help the reader learn about your company and your products or services. The focus should therefore be angled towards your brand and what it does for the reader. Make it relatable so the user has the opportunity to imagine a situation where they are using the product themselves.

SEO is about incorporating specific keywords that give you a better ranking with search engines. There are many recommendations for what you can do to optimise your ranking, and it's easy to get carried away. That's why we're reminding you to write to real people first, not Google.

It's about balancing storytelling and working with SEO, so it doesn't look like you're overloading your story with specific keywords. The content should still be readable, make sense and create enough interest to make the reader want to finish reading.

Although combining the two methods may sound a bit complex, it is actually a relatively simple concept. It's all about writing a good story and carefully incorporating your SEO techniques into it. Most importantly, your stories should be relevant, genuine and credible. There is no room for exaggerated and self-invented stories when you want to increase your brand awareness.

If you still think it seems a bit cumbersome, or that you could use a sparring partner in developing the interaction between good storytelling and SEO, don't hesitate to contact us. Webamp is an ambitious and data-driven marketing agency that specialises in creating online success. We have specialists who can help with both SEO, Google Ads advertising, social media marketing and much more! If you need help, please contact Webamp on 70 60 50 28 or info@webamp.dk.

If you want to know more about working with SEO and Storytelling, you can read more about Yoast recommendations here.