Types of Content To Grow WordPress Site Traffic

Any experienced entrepreneur will tell you that thorough market analysis is a critical step that every business should take before attempting entry. That applies to bloggers as well. Before starting the blog and writing content, you should assess the competition. 

If you haven’t done so already, I’ve got some news for you. 

According to simple calculations done by using the data from Internet Live Stats, the world produces about 6 million blog articles daily. This means that your competitors are publishing roughly 250,000 articles per hour. 

Try to compete with that. 

While this sounds like an unbelievable competition, the good news is that you won’t have to compete with all that content. The only competitors that you need to worry about are those who operate in the same niche as you.

This reduces the competition by quite a bit, but still, you have a lot of people to compete with for Google’s attention. To get a competitive edge and rank higher, you have to create content that meets a wide range of SEO requirements from Google, which is, of course, far from easy. 

Some WordPress bloggers even say that the best way to achieve this goal is to create viral content or the content that gets a great deal of attention and spreads across the Internet quickly. While this sounds good, one simply can’t base their content strategy on creating this kind of content.

To give your WordPress website the best chance of ranking high and getting your fair share of attention, you have to create:

• Reader-centered
• Easy-to-read
• Engaging
• Interesting content.

Agree, this is definitely easier said than done. However, we’re not just going to talk about what your content should be like but also how to create it. That’s right, in this article, we’re going to cover data-backed HOW MANY content types that will give you the best chance to skyrocket your traffic.

Let’s go.

1. Infographics

It’s a known fact that most people are visual learners, so they often look for information represented in an easy-to-digest visual format. That’s why infographics are without a doubt one of the most important content types to target for content producers who want to increase readership on their websites.

In fact, a recent study of viral content by OkDork and Buzzsumo found that infographics were one of the content formats that Internet users were more likely to share on social media. 

Credit: OkDork and Buzzsumo

As you can see, infographics were shared more times than such popular content types as video and how-to articles. This means that creating them is a good idea to attract the attention of Internet users. 

Since Google’s content guidelines command us to create content that has value for its users, making visual content as infographics certainly meets this requirement. Besides, this content type can work for blogs because it’s possible to represent almost any kind of information there. 

Let’s consider an example. Wine Folly, a well-known wine blog, uses infographics for a lot of purposes; since their target audience are people who are interested in wine and would like to increase their knowledge about it, the blog utilizes infographics to give this information in a user-friendly, engaging way. 

For example, take a look at how they use an infographic to explain the contents of a typical bottle of wine for beginners.

Credit: Wine Folly

This simple infographic is quite informative and provides the viewers with useful information such as calories, content details, and even how many grades are used to produce a typical bottle of wine. This is an excellent example of how such content can be used by blogs to share reader-focused, useful content, so you should definitely make infographics a part of your content strategy.

Fortunately, you don’t need advanced web design skills to create them. Free online infographic tools like Canva can make it much easier for you by supplying templates, images, fonts, and design ideas. 

So, to sum up, infographics can help to increase your WordPress blog’s traffic because:

• They make complex information easy to understand
• They are reader-centered
• They can make boring information more interesting and engaging
• Many people like to share infographics on social media
• They can be repurposed and shared on different channels in addition to a blog.

2. Long-Form Articles (Why, What, List, How-to)

Some people think that long articles are boring, so no one really reads them unless they have to. Well, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. According to the abovementioned study of viral content by OkDork and Buzzsumo, long-form content – 1,000+ words – gets more shares than short, bite-sized content.

Credit: OkDork and Buzzsumo

As you can see, the longer the content is, the more social media shares it receives, which completely busts the myth about long-form online content being boring and unpopular. The truth is that a lot of people seek long-form content because:

• It provides an in-depth analysis of the topic
• It provides professional advice 
• It has more useful details.

All these benefits mean that long-form content has the best chance to work for blogs that provide information that people need to be carefully explained with details (which basically includes 90+ percent of blogs). 

Otherwise, how can you explain the fact that 3,000 – 10,000-word content gets the most average shares?

Here’s a great example, and it also comes from Wine Folly. This article called Learn How to Taste Wine and Develop Your Palate has almost 2,500 words! This is a perfect length considering that the topic of wine tasting is quite complex and requires a lot of information to be explained in detail. 

Source: Screenshot

If you would like to create such quality, long-form, detailed articles that bring a lot of traffic, let’s take a closer look at what makes this article great.

Short, Digestible Paragraphs

“Long-form content works better if the information is presented in an easy-to-read format,” explains Adam Short, a content editor from BeGraded. “Short paragraphs are without a doubt a critical part of that, as they make understanding the information much easier.” 

For example, the below image shows the typical part of the article under consideration; it’s composed of fairly short sections. 

Source: Screenshot

Each paragraph has its own goal and topic to discuss, but the flow of information is logical. This format is definitely the best for presenting information in textual format. 

Please note that the article uses headings (“A Detailed look at the 4 steps for Tasting Wine”) and subheadings (“Step 1: Look”), too, as they contribute to making the text scannable and easy to understand.

Natural Language Style

Writing in a complex language is the real thing that gives long-form content a bad name. If you choose to write about, say, wine tasting, in a complex language that uses a lot of words that a typical reader may be unfamiliar with, chances are that your content won’t enjoy a lot of attention. 

Because reading such content is like doing work or analyzing a scholar study.

As you can see from the above image of Wine Folly article, the text is written in an easy-to-read, natural language that we use to communicate with other people on a daily basis. In fact, reading the article feels almost like having a conversation with the writer. 

“Pay attention to the language style if your blog produces content in different languages, too” advises Monica Van Roten, a translation specialist from Subjecto. “Having content written for the international audience in different styles creates branding inconsistencies.”

Good thing that WordPress comes with a lot of quality translation plugins for multilingual blogs, too. 

Images

In addition to language style and short paragraphs, images are another critical consideration that makes complex information easy to understand. 

Bloggers and other content producers should definitely use images to complement their long-form content, as they serve as a perfect addition that gives the readers that extra help needed to understand specific concepts or terms.

And that’s what content writers do. According to a recent survey by Orbit Media, more than 50 percent of bloggers use multiple images in their posts.

Credit: Orbit Media

The percentage of bloggers utilizing this technique has been fairly constant since 2014, which provides strong evidence that content producers realize the importance of visuals in textual posts. 

Another reason why your long-form content should include images is their effectiveness for making blog posts more shareable. As another prominent study from OkDork found, articles with at least one image were much more likely to be shared than those without. 

Credit: OkDork and Buzzsumo

As you can see, twice as many readers shared blog posts with at least one image than posts without any images. 

By the way, the Wine Folly article that we’ve been analyzing has 10 images to complement the text (you’ve seen some of them on screenshots that I’ve taken). For example, the one below explains the origin of wine aromas with a simple illustration and a concise text.

Source: Screenshot

I think you’ll agree that illustrates this concept is a much better idea than describing it with words only. Besides, creating such an image doesn’t require any professional design skills, but has tons of value for readers. 

Okay, now that you know how to make long-form content that has the best chance of ranking high and bringing a lot of traffic to your WordPress website, let’s give you some ideas of topics. The most popular posts, according to BackLinko, are List posts, Why posts, What posts, and How-to posts.

Credit: Backlinko

This means that the titles of posts begin with these words, as in:

• 4 Reasons Why You Should Move to Another State Next Year (“List” post)
• Why Conan O’Brien’s Show Should be on Every Channel (“Why” post)
• How to Become a Wine Expert in a Month (“How-to” post)
• What is Your Spirit Animal is Based on Your Birthday (“What” post).

If you’ve been blogging for some time, coming up with such topics shouldn’t be hard. By focusing on the needs of your target readers and the latest trends in your writing niche, you should be able to come up with some topics without any problems.

3. Videos

Videos have been mentioned multiple times in content studies we’ve used above, and for a good reason. Video combines advantages of all content types, so many content writers consider it the ultimate one (the good news is that embedding videos in WordPress is easy). While one may think that content writing and videos aren’t really connected, writing scripts for videos is really important.

In fact, many bloggers use videos to complement textual content and increase reader engagement. In fact, the Wine Folly article that we’ve been so carefully analyzing also has a video at the end.

Credit: Screenshot

If you’re planning to include short videos to your WordPress content, here are some tips to keep in mind when writing a script for them.

• Keep it short. While the length of the script depends on the topic of the video, try your best to keep the script limited to the most relevant information for the viewers
• Use natural language. This technique applies to video scripts, too, as it’s the easiest way to explain concepts and make the information easy to understand; for example, it includes using personal pronouns like “you” and “your.” Imagine that you’re writing a message to a friend, and your script will be easy to understand
• Keep sentences short and sweet. This is another thing to keep in mind to avoid making your audience bored after watching your video for 30 seconds.

Over To You

Even though the content competition is so crazy, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a chance to get your fair share of traffic. By now, you should be feeling pretty good about your content knowledge and maybe even have some content ideas in mind, so let me finish here and wish you happy writing and lots of traffic! 

Estelle Liotard is an experienced blogger and content marketing specialist who is currently working on a book about how small businesses can use content to get a competitive edge. She has contributed to many online publications and works as an editor for TopEssayWriting and ClassyEssay and loves every second of it.