Increasing your online authority is a great way to build an audience and direct more traffic to your business, but how exactly do you become an authority when there are so many people out there producing excellent content?
Know Your Stuff
It’s obvious, but if you want to put yourself or your company as an authority in any given niche, you really need to know your stuff. Making even a single mistake and including a single piece of incorrect information could damage your credibility for good, and who’s going to want to buy from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about?
That’s right, no one!
Your audience can spot a fake from a thousand paces, so if you don’t do anything else, get to know your subject inside and out.
Create Shareable Content
No matter how much you know, there’s going to be someone out there who knows just as much as you, which means that you need to find a way of standing out. The best way to do this is by creating content that is more shareable than the rest.
This could mean creating more easy-to-digest infographics, writing in more exciting ways, like using the storybook form to get your point across or even creating viral videos—it doesn’t matter as long as you make it interesting and make them want to not only consume but share.
Be Consistent
I can’t overstate just how important it is that you be consistent in all the content you create if you want to increase your online authority and boost your brand reach.
To be an authority, you need to be trustworthy and it’s hard to build trust if your ideas, language, and style are all over the place–that will just make you look fake.
That’s why you should think about using a good content marketing platform to keep things consistent, especially if you have some help with your content. It’ll help to keep things organized and on message at all times.
Appear in the Media
Rightly or wrongly, people are going to trust you and your business more if they have seen you on the TV or heard you being interviewed on the radio, and no I don’t mean in your own commercials!
If you’re knowledgeable enough that someone on TV wants to talk to you, that’s a sure sign to your audience that you know your stuff, and that they can trust you enough to use your business in the future.
Guest Post
A great way to build authority in your niche is to write guest posts for other related authority sites. The more guest posts you can place on the more websites in your field, the more known your face will be, and the more links you will be able to place back to your business website. It really is a win-win.
Becoming an authority is hugely beneficial to your business, so use the above tips to increase your reach and build your reputation now to benefit your bottom line later.