Here is how you should proceed.
More excellent content, higher is the probability of the reader to stick around on the company’s site. Keeping the target audience on the website for longer helps to maximize conversions. Few people do it by adding internal links in each content piece. It is a simple way to entice readers to the tunnel deeper within your website, particularly if you ensure to keep the linked content relevant. However, there is another method, which works quite well i.e highlighting linked content or the relevant resources towards the end of the content piece. Doing so even grabs the attention of the website visitors, who are already reading your site.
Benefits of having related posts
Placement of related posts towards the end of the content to entice your target audience comes with various benefits. Firstly, it lowers the bounce rate. A high bounce rate infers target audiences have not found what they were looking for. However, a lower bounce rate infers the website is capable of meeting the reader’s needs. If the readers are following up with links around your website, then they surely are not bouncing away from your site in seconds, which sums down to excellent news.
Having related content also can assist to convert the search traffic into repetitive visitors. As per findings, when people find your website on search, it is just because they are out searching for specific data/information. Many readers leave immediately after getting what they were searching for. However, if you are successful in showing them some other write up in link to their interest, they are sure to check it out.
Related content even enhances conversions because the longer your target visitors remain, the higher is the chances that they would like to connect with you, even sign up for mailing lists and take up enticing offers.
But, the question arises is ‘how to utilize the related content effectively?’
There stand 2 major strategies: firstly is by using your personal content or through use of content created by someone else.
How can you show related content to the WordPress websites?
By using content specifically from your own website, you can keep mostly everything in-house. As nearly a quarter of all the websites function on WordPress, let us begin with few of the most popular options for this platform.
JetPack Plugin
In every WordPress installation, JetPack Plugin is by default available. It includes a related module of posts. For those who have activated the JetPack already, activating the related module of content & configuring minimal layout options is all they require doing. The plugin chooses the related content basis, the post content, tags, and categories. Creators say that it has got a massive benefit over various other plugins as all such processing is carried out by WordPress.com, there are zero additional loads on the company’s server.
YARPP or Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
It is the next popular alternative for WordPress enabling you to show related pages, posts, and custom posts. Install the same in the usual manner & then you can fix parameters for how the plugin selects related content. One can use categories, tags, titles and also do few manual configuration in case they like playing with the codes. YARPP allows you to select how posts would get displayed. Also, there is a pro version that enables added customization, in-depth reporting, and even the potential to pull the content from various other websites.
Social sharing plugin called shareaholic
This includes the choice to display related content. The user once signed into the Shareaholic on the web, it would enable the functionality through your website dashboard and select the number of related & promoted posts you would want to display. Also, you can select these options through shareaholic’s app manager. At the first glance, the options for the plugin would appear limited as compared to others in the list. However, ensure to check this on your own.
Contextual linked posts
It uses post content & title to automatically recognize the required content, while you can easily exclude the categories from the display. Also, plugin enables you to easily customize the excerpts & change the filters to modify the output easily. The list is not that exhaustive, however it is for sure a good beginning point to include few of the most popular choices. If none of it works well, check out alternatives in such selection ranging between WPMU Dev and Followistic.
Related content & content discovery
One can even make their creative website design more appealing just by showcasing content from various other websites. Tools linked to content discovery promote your content on various other websites, which sounds counterintuitive. However, the payoff is those websites even display your content, which puts it right in front of potential new audiences.
Is the content discovery podium exclusively a good complement to the related content?
These will not work for all, but if you are seriously into creating a good quality content in a popular niche, they can be worth giving a try.
Options involve:
Outbrain: Features your content on few high end media websites.
Taboola: Recommends content and drives revenue and engagement.
Zemanta: Amplifies content advertisements through promoted recommendations & other methods.
Gravity: Personalization of content discovered with the matching advertisers, publishers and target audience.
mGiD: Native content advertising platforms displaying related content across the web.
No idea how they can work for you? Just give a thought. If your web content appears as related content on the high quality and most trusted websites, some of the trust even gets rubbed over you. And, audiences will even start trusting you. It is just like pre-selling those people who follow such links on the value of your content and site.
Some tips on utilizing the related content effectively to ameliorate conversions
If you are one of those going to utilize the related content on your website, here are few of the additional tips to assist you to make the most from such a strategy.
Search engine watch
It suggests you utilize personas to take the decision on the related content. While this blog is suggesting utilizing categories and tags for identifying them, there is a whole lot of numerous analytics data present out there that can help you know who is sharing and reading your content. Thus, ensure to use it.
Optimize smart
It suggests you to use the related content not only on obvious pages, but on pages such as your about us page, which endows visitors a way to follow up with you. Also, you can give the individuals additional content pathways when they complete purchase/sign up.
Nanorep
It suggests utilizing related content for moving further along the funnel by advising something specifically in relation to where they really are now.