Everyone enjoys good stories. It is for this reason that these tappable experiences continue to rise in popularity. While several existing platforms cater to the generation of this type of content, one medium that many consider being one of the best is Google Web Stories. At its core, they are embeddings or mini-AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages – that are produced for posts on websites. Usually, they appear as visual slideshows that are commonly used on social media sites channels like Instagram and Facebook.
Try to think of these Stories as sequences or successions of videos or images with accompanying text that users can go through and view the content. Once it is complete, you can add a call-to-action or CTA to encourage your intended audience to go to your home page, make a purchase, or anything else to help build awareness of your brand. Due to its efficacy, it has become commonplace amongst many businesses. In actuality, many hire experts like those from an Indianapolis digital marketing agency for services such as this.
In this article, we’ll talk about how Google Web Stories work and how it can be used to improve inbound web traffic.
How it works
As its name suggests, Google Web Stories makes use of story content to attract an audience. Through content management systems like WordPress – for which the necessary plugin for Web Stories is available – you can create the stories to captivate your viewers alongside strategies used by your chosen Indianapolis digital marketing agency. The best part is that the process is neither tricky nor complicated; Google has comprehensive documentation on the matter. But once the story has been created, the aforementioned plugin will enable users to create a custom post to publish. However, this won’t be visible on the web page’s feed.
Getting traffic to your Google Web Stories
Unlike other forms of content, Web Stories exist independently through their web pages within the WordPress platform. They don’t require embedding nor do they have to be sent traffic by the domain owner. And you won’t want to do it either. After all, Web Stories are meant to augment and enhance specific posts and uploads to attract users and keep them engaged. It is counter-productive to divert your target audience from the post to the story, after all. This is the reason why embedding isn’t recommended.
Instead, the objective is to reel in visitors through Google Discover to your Web Stories, after which, your calls-to-action at the last part of your uploaded stories will inspire and entice the audience to pay the designated website a visit, where the ads will be optimized.
- Prioritize top posts when creating stories. This might appear to be counterintuitive to ranking on the latest uploaded content, but if Google believes your brand to be an expert on specific topics, then they’ll think that it will be the same for your Web Story. Producing stories for top posts is a strategy similar to generating a video or recipe card for it; it serves as the ad for the designated content. There are two reasons why you should make use of this technique. Firstly, it will elevate your ranking on the story. More importantly, it is an opportunity to show your expertise off. And it would be extra traffic through Google Discover that you would’ve failed to capture if you stuck solely with organic ranking. Even for those who have ranked at the top for specific content, there is still a possibility of gaining more traffic.
- Avoiding embedding posts with stories. While Google may recommend publishers to embed their Web Stories in their posts. However, this strategy is ill-advised for many reasons. First of all, it will slow your web page. Furthermore, these stories are akin to previews. It won’t make sense for your ad monetization and the user experience if placed in the content. Lastly, it isn’t necessary. With the plugin and reputation management software, every story will get its respective permalinks on the website. It will also have a chance of ranking.
- Linking to Web Stories. Another Google recommendation is incorporating stories in a way that relates to the content from your website or any relevant page categories. It isn’t a bad idea, especially if the website is static and is easy to include content on. But if you lack the means to create links from categories that are relevant or have an overwhelming number of stories already, there’s a simple and easy solution for it: link from posts. As is the case with organic searches, Google will try to learn the Web Story based on its internal and external links. By linking to the stories through the content that you’ve written will give the search engine the means to find them quicker and easier without any of the embedding disadvantages.
- The landing page of the web story should be linked. Aside from embedding in posts, Google also recommends publishers to generate a separate landing page for the Web Stories and link it from the website. Making use of WordPress’s default page can make for post types that are custom. There’s a good chance that the page won’t be aesthetically pleasing, but it will undoubtedly allow you to obtain the links you’re looking for.
- Content is essential – The secret to a good ranking in any Web Story will always be the content. Without it, there’s little reason for readers to stay engaged, after all. As such, it is crucial to give it value for the audience. From conveying information regarding a post from different perspectives to give readers a much better idea of what it is about to make sure that it is understandable for your target audience, doing so will help you net more traffic.
Google Web Stories hold a lot of potential as a marketing tool for brands. However, like any other strategy, it must be used correctly to achieve the desired outcome. With the tips above and the help of an Indianapolis digital marketing agency, you’ll be able to leverage this technique to elevate your visibility online.
