By Jawad Khan 
Who doesn’t want their content to go viral on social media, earn high authority backlinks, reach millions of potential customers, and drive thousands of dollars in sales?
But for most marketers and website owners, that’s just a dream (an unattainable dream)
The marketing team at Moz studied 1 million+ articles and found that 67% of the sampled pages had zero social shares while 70% had no backlinks.
A similar study of more than 1 billion URLs by Ahrefs revealed that nearly 91% of the sampled web pages got no organic search traffic at all.
Source: Ahrefs
So what exactly are the other 9% websites doing that’s sending them organic search traffic and loads of social media love?
It’s hard to say with certainty.
But based on research, your chances of driving more traction with your content significantly increase if you do the following.
1. Create Longer and More In-Depth Content
Longer and more in-depth content that addresses a narrow topic in detail usually performs better than short and thin content.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
- Longer content offers more value to the readers and helps them understand a topic from all angles.
- Longer content has more keywords which increase its chances of ranking for different searches in Google.
This assumption is backed by research as well.
For example, HubSpot studied all of their blog content and found that longer posts (2500+ words) got more backlinks.
Source: HubSpot
The same trend was observed when it came to social shares.
Source: HubSpot
The key to creating link-worthy and share-worthy content is to focus on just one topic in detail instead of writing about multiple unrelated or loosely related topics by barely scratching their surface.
Here’s a really good example.
Ethical is a blog that encourages its readers to live, spend and consume responsibly by ensuring that their lifestyle doesn’t harm the planet and its species.
It’s a pretty broad topic.
But here’s one of their articles that talks in detail about climate change which is a narrow sub-topic of this niche.
Source: Ethical
In more than 2000 words, this article doesn’t talk about anything else but climate change. As a result, it’s much more likely to appeal to the relevant audiences and get social shares and backlinks from climate change advocates.
So the next time you sit down to write something for your blog, make sure you dive deep into the topic, stay focused, and create a valuable resource for your readers that they’ll be happy to share.
2. Make Your Content Visually Appealing
Nobody likes reading thick blocks of plain text.
But that’s exactly what your readers get when you don’t include any visuals in your content.
On the contrary, the moment you add images, screenshots, GIFs or videos to an article, it instantly becomes more readable, linkable and share-worthy.
Research shows that the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text and retains 80% of the information transmitted visually. As a result, visual content gets much more social media traction.
Source: Undullify
There are a number of ways to use visuals in your content.
For starters, use screenshots to describe a process or explain a point in your content. Don’t just tell readers what to do, show them how it’s done.
The marketing team at 10Web, a leading Platform to build and host WordPress websites, does this really well in its blog content.
Source: 10Web
Similarly, you could hire a freelance designer or use an online tool like Canva to create infographics related to your topic and make them a part of your content.
If you don’t have the time or resources to create your own visuals, you could find already published infographics on your topic and use small sections from them (don’t forget to link back to the original source)
Or you could simply embed a relevant video from YouTube to keep your readers engaged.
In short, using a mixture of text and visuals usually results in much higher reader engagement and drives better results with your content.
3. Back Your Claims With Data and Numbers
Intelligent people talk with numbers, data, and proofs.
The less intelligent, use numbers and data frequently to look intelligent.
Both strategies work.
And that’s the reason why content that has lots of statistics and numbers usually gets more social shares and backlinks.
In a survey of hundreds of SEO professionals, 70% respondents said they considered data and original research as the best way to generate high authority backlinks to their content.
Source: Link-Assistant
If you have a large email list or social media following, you can run surveys to gather original data.
But if you don’t, there are still some intelligent ways you can use numbers in your content to drive more user engagement and attract social shares.
- By using numbers in your article title
- By using research and surveys published by other credible organizations
- By pulling statistics from infographics and other published blog articles
Instead of publishing opinionated posts all the time, try backing your arguments with undeniable proofs. This not only makes your content more credible but also encourages your readers to share it because of its authenticity.
4. Share Comparisons, Case Studies, and Success Stories
Nothing makes your content more credible and share-worthy than real-life examples and case studies of what you’re advocating.
Examples help people consume your content easily by removing their doubts and helping them understand exactly what you’re saying. It helps them compare their preconceived notions with reality.
This is also why comparison posts work so well for eCommerce companies and affiliate blogs. They help readers see the differences between different products and simplify their decision-making process.
This article, for example, compares the top eCommerce platforms and helps readers choose the best one for their needs. Look at the number of social shares it has.
Source: eCommerce Platforms
The same goes for case studies that share step by step details of how an objective was achieved.
In short, you need to give people a strong reason to believe you. And nothing does that more effectively than a real-life case study, example or a comparison post.
Wrapping Up
It really hurts when your hard written content generates no buzz and fails to drive any traffic to your site. To avoid this fate, you must learn from the successful marketers in your industry and model your content on their success. The tips I’ve shared in this post will help you create more engaging, credible, and authentic content that’ll ultimately lead to more social shares and backlinks from higher authority sites.
If you have any questions, I’d love to respond in the comments section.
SME Paid Under
Adam 
Sitetrail Research Team