To get traffic and revenue to your resume business, there’s a lot to be gained through content creation and improving upon your current content offers.
For many resume writers, taking the steps to drive website traffic can be the best use of time, so let’s dive in and talk about how to generate leads and drive the overall return-on-investment (ROI) of your time, money, and resources.
1. START WITH LANDING PAGES (NOT BLOG POSTS)
Let’s start with what you have complete control of: the content, design, and layout of your landing pages.
Landing pages offer products and services, while blog posts are informational pieces of content that complement the prime topic(s) of your website.
For example, an informative blog post could be titled, “5 Ways For Improving Your Resume,” while a landing page would be titled based on the service or offering, such as “Professional Resume Writing Services for Sales Professionals” or “Submit Your Resume for a Free Resume Review.”
Because landing pages are conversion pages, these require more attention (e.g., content revision and split testing) to increase conversions.
Conversions could include:
- Lead Generation
- Purchase
- Appointment Scheduling
- Newsletter Sign-up
Resume writers often think they have a traffic problem when they have a conversion problem instead.
This is why you MUST take an active role and give your landing pages a critical eye, critiquing the content, outgoing links, color schemes, and so on. Do this several times a year.
A. Ensure your landing pages each have a clear, easy-to-find call-to-action. A call-to-action is most often a text link, button, or image. Examples of call-to-action content could include “Click Here to Schedule a Call,” “Buy Now,” “Subscribe to Our Blog,” “Learn More Here,” “Claim Your Spot Now,” and “Claim Your Free Resume Review.”
B. Expand the content of your landing pages. If that short 200-word landing page hasn’t done much for you, test an 800-word landing page instead.
C. Verify that each of your landing pages has stayed on topic. A landing page about LinkedIn writing services should talk ONLY about LinkedIn. Not about references or interviewing strategies.
Once you’ve overhauled your existing pages, look for new topic opportunities, and repurpose content into other media, such as video, infographics, and the like.
[RELATED ARTICLE: To learn more about the dos and don’ts with websites, be sure to read “Top 6 Mistakes Resume Writers Make on Their Websites.”]
2. MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO CONTACT YOU HOW THEY PLEASE
This means, put your phone number, email address, and contact form in quick reach of site visitors.
By including multiple easy-to-use contact methods, you’ll be more accommodating and approachable to potential buyers.
Of course, you could take this one step further by inviting prospects to click over to your LinkedIn profile for easy instant messaging too.
3. CONTENT “ALIVE”
The most difficult realization for any resume writer is that once you hit publish on that page or post, your work has only just begun.
With Google, you can no longer write and publish a blog post and forget about it.
About 90% of what you write won’t get traction at the beginning with search engines.
What ignored content teaches us is that the first content version didn’t resonate, and therefore, we need to spring into action and improve the content further.
What content should you improve?
A. Start with your blog title.
Improving blog titles often goes overlooked according to SEO experts.
To learn more about how to improve blog titles, this resource will help: 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Blog Titles.
B. Expand content the right way.
Chances are that you didn’t touch on every important point there is on the subject you wrote about.
If this is true, find ways to expand your content to make it better.
I mentioned above about before and after content examples.
You could also do this:
- Interview and quote several industry experts in your articles. This is great for dropping names and improving search rankings.
- Provide detailed how-tos on something specific. For example, if you’re writing about how to add keywords to a resume, mention 2-3 links to resources that back up your statements about the best approaches for adding keywords to resume content.
C. Don’t be afraid of linking to other’s sites.
We work so hard at attracting traffic that we cringe at the thought of seeing it go.
Unfortunately, Google prefers our websites to not be islands, meaning that outbound links (OBLs) to reputable, quality websites can actually boost our site’s search engine results.
4. GIVE YOUR WEBSITE A FACE
Most resume writing businesses are small businesses. In fact, many of us are mom-and-pop businesses run by one or two people. A small percentage of resume businesses have a team of writers working for them, but most do not.
This means, as resume writers we need to give our businesses a face. Generally, our face is the face of our businesses. Prospects want to see you. Relate to you. Ask questions. Work with you.
Prospects don’t want to work with an unknown person.
Know, like, and trust is the core of all businesses.
With a visible and skilled business person at the helm, know, like, and trust becomes much easier to achieve.
Give your website a face. Let people see you. Practice some degree of transparency. Louise Garver does a great job of this. You can see that here: https://careerdirectionsllc.com/meet-louise/
Now, let’s focus on off-site strategies …
5. OFF-SITE CONTENT PUBLISHING
Writing for other sites can be a struggle, especially when you have an active career blog of your own.
There are good reasons for writing for another career site, however.
First, you secure name recognition. This is important when trying to get your name out there.
Second, writing for other career sites enables you to build inbound links, which is important for Google rankings.
Here’s a great trick …
Let’s say you write a guest article called, “2 Easy Steps To Improving Your Resume Intro.”
Link the guest article to a newly published or updated piece of content on your site that’s of a similar topic. Topics could be “3 Before & After Resume Intro Examples” or “Simple Formula For Writing a Killer Resume Intro.”
This technique gives a reason for individuals to click from the guest article to your website.
6. FOCUS ON THE RIGHT SOCIAL SITES
Getting clicks and conversions from social media isn’t easy.
Despite this reality, you shouldn’t avoid social media altogether.
Though, planting your social media flag in only one or two places can be the most productive use of your time.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest are some of the top social media platforms.
You’ll find many resume writers carving out audiences on these sites.
Resume writers who see the best results do so by combining consistent social media updates with paid advertising.
7. DON’T GO IT ALONE
If you joined ResumeBiz.com, you’ve taken that all-important first step to expand your network. From time to time, members post prospect referrals and other opportunities, which you won’t want to miss.
>>>Click here to join the private RBIZ Facebook group.
