Interview with Regiondo’s Trifon Tsvetkov: Tips for Writing Original WordPress Posts
It’s not a secret that high-quality content is the core of successful SEO. Original, easy-to-read and easy-to-understand content that provides readers with relevant & original information benefits website in many ways. So, to boost your website’s Google ranking, conversion rate and brand awareness, you need to make sure your content is always one step ahead. But, as the amount of online content constantly increases, so do the challenges. Many content creators struggle to keep the content fresh and share it frequently while keeping it professional, fun and specifically created for one target audience. The good news is there are many things you can do to improve the quality of your website content.
We talked with Trifon Tsvetkov, experienced content creator and copywriter at Regiondo, an award-winning software company, based in Germany. In this interview, Trifon shared his thoughts on tools, plugins and blog writing tips you can use for improving both user experience and WordPress posts on your website.
What are your favorite tips for improving the user experience on WordPress websites?
My favorite tips for improving the UX on a WordPress site are as follows:
- Use a table of contents plugin on your blog such as TOC+. This lets people quickly navigate when reading longer posts and gives them an overview of the topic without having to scroll all the way down.
- Reduce image file size with a plugin like ShortPixel. This is not only good for your SEO, but it also gives people faster-loading speeds and a better experience on your website overall. And with plugins, you can do it retrospectively without manually going through your images.
- Be careful when using pop-ups. Personally, I try to avoid timed pop-ups (e.g. that show after 30 seconds of someone viewing a page) and scroll pop-ups (e.g. that show when someone scrolls through 50% of the page). Instead, you can use your chat tool or a scroll box from Sumo to promote your downloadable content. That’s a little less intrusive and (usually) shows up in the bottom right of the screen. To keep your conversion rate, you can use an exit pop up that shows before someone leaves your page.
Which areas of digital marketing growing bloggers must learn to improve their traffic and revenue?
The areas depend on the audience. The way your (potential) customers acquire information will dictate how you bring traffic and consequently revenue.
That said, there are a few major areas to explore when it comes to traffic: Organic search, Paid search, Social, Referral, and Email. In most situations, growing bloggers should understand organic search and advertising on social media (at the very least use Facebook boost). These work well together as cheap sources of traffic early on. They will let you start building an email list and a following online.
Once you have a way to monetize (e.g. some kind of physical or info product), paid search and email become more important. That’s a good way to build on top of organic search and social in order to grow revenue.
Referral traffic (e.g. links from other sites) is very important if you’re in a competitive niche with some big players AND your audience uses Google a lot. If you go that route, you should plan time and resources for guest blogging. But in most situations, I would try and niche down to cover topics that are easier to rank for.
In your opinion, what are the most frequent mistakes even experienced content marketers make?
The biggest mistakes I see (and personally made) are the following:
- Cover topics based on gut feeling rather than data. Your topics should be a) searched for; b) realistic to rank for; c) deliver value to your business. Otherwise, the rest of your efforts will be wasted.
- Look at your WordPress blog in isolation of the overall website and sales process. Your blog and other content should drive people through your marketing funnels (unless you like giving away your time for free). This means they need to supplement existing pages and be built around the way you sell a product or service. For example, create WordPress posts that cover how to perform a certain process (that your product/service helps with). Then, direct people to your sales page from the blog post. You can replace “blog post” with “eBook”, “YouTube video” or whatever content type is most suitable in the situation.
- Neglect cheap advertising options on social platforms. If you start a blog early on, you don’t have an email list or social following. So your newsletter and Facebook posts are rarely effective at bringing you traffic. Right now, there are ways to bring a decent amount of people to your blog on a low budget as most social platforms make advertising blend into the normal stream of content.
In your opinion, what is the most efficient way to repurpose your WordPress posts?
I think the most efficient way to repurpose content is starting with a video, especially screencasts (depending on your audience/content).
If you start with a video, it’s easy to create an audio file and transcribe into a blog post with minor editing.
Once you have a set of WordPress posts around a similar topic (e.g. 4-8 posts), you can convert into an eBook or an email course.
This makes it possible to create multiple types of content with a lot of speed and few resources.
What important metrics do people often miss when they analyze the success of their WordPress posts?
The important metrics depend on why your blog post was created in the first place. I think this is the root of the problem here – not setting an initial goal.
It’s easy to say that people don’t tie in blog posts with ROI but that’s not always the correct metric. I think most blog posts should aim to a) drive traffic to a downloadable landing page, or b) drive traffic to a revenue-generating page.
So the metrics I would focus on and perhaps people neglect are related to conversion rates. E.g. number of people who click on the main CTA divided by the total readers (and ideally break this down by channel). This is how you can compare your WordPress posts to see which ones are effective and which ones need improvement.
How to become a quality content writer even if you’re not a native English speaker?
I heard about a girl who got into Harvard using a cover letter without any verbs (she was worried she’ll get the past tense wrong). The point here is this: people should understand your content and that’s the most important thing unless you’re writing simply to entertain people.
That said, if you want to write in English, you might as well get really good at it. I believe people should write like they talk and you can’t really do this if you stumble over every single word.
So I would advise you to read and listen to content in English in order to solidify your understanding until you start thinking in English as seamlessly as you think in your own language.
As a non-developer, how do you manage to keep up with the latest advancements in the field and simultaneously make sure all your content is up to date?
Well, I use WordPress and this certainly makes things a lot easier. I also work with developers who can usually help when needed. If I can’t get around doing a technical task, I’ll just Google it or find a YouTube video that explains how to do it.
In terms of keeping up with advancements – I tend to learn as I go instead of reading about something before I need it.
And making sure content is up to date is determined by the content calendar – I usually split my content calendar into new and updated posts to make sure both get the attention they deserve. Updating WordPress posts often takes just as much work as writing it from scratch.
What differentiates Regiondo’s Booking plugin for WordPress from other similar plugins on the market?
Regiondo is a comprehensive booking system for tour and activity operators. The plugin makes it super easy for new customers who use WordPress to implement our solution.
So if we compare it with other booking plugins on WordPress, we specialize in the tours and activities market and therefore provide a full suite of features for this particular segment.
Regiondo is often the single most important/used system in our customers’ operations. They use it to accept payments, manage their staff, communicate with their customers, and sell through multiple affiliate partners like Viator, GetYourGuide, Expedia and so on.
The plugin is a great addition to make our onboarding experience better for WordPress users.
What kind of businesses profit the most from Regiondo Activity Booking Software?
Our core customer base consists of tour and activity operators. This could be City tour operators, Segway tour owners, Escape room owners and bigger businesses such as Theme parks, Zoos and even Football clubs who sell Stadium tours. We also work with a number of DMOs (Destination Management Organizations) who promote specific countries and regions.
What do you do for fun outside of work?
I walk, read and play football a lot.
We hope these blog writing tips were helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!
