Digital Basics Part 6: Content That Ranks and Sells

Episode summary

Why do so many small business blogs go quiet after two posts, and what actually works instead? In episode six of the Design Box Digital podcast, Tristan Brunsdon explains how to create website content that shows up in Google and turns visitors into enquiries. You’ll learn what “content” really means for a small business, what Google says it rewards, a simple four-part formula for pages that sell, which pages matter most and how to lay them out, and a realistic content routine, including how to use AI without losing your own voice. Plus one simple action for this week.

In this episode

  • Why “content” is every page that helps a customer decide, not just a blog
  • One page, one main job
  • Photos, video and real examples as content, and why stock photos don’t build trust
  • What Google means by helpful, reliable, people-first content
  • Google’s self-assessment questions, and why there’s no preferred word count
  • E-E-A-T in plain English: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust (and why trust matters most)
  • Who, how and why: the questions behind every page
  • Original information, and why changing the date doesn’t make a page “fresh”
  • How Google finds new pages through links, and why descriptive link text helps
  • The formula for content that sells: answer, worries, proof, next step
  • Real proof only: the ACCC on fake and misleading reviews
  • Writing page titles and descriptions people actually want to click
  • A made-up example: rewriting a physio clinic’s “Sports Injuries” page
  • Writing in your own voice, with Australian spelling
  • The five pages that matter most: service pages, question pages, cost guides, your work, and your about page
  • How to lay out a page for people who scan, and reading it on your phone
  • FAQ pages: what belongs there and what deserves its own page
  • A content routine you can keep up: one page a month, voice memos, updating old pages and a simple twelve-month plan
  • Using AI as an assistant, not a replacement, and what Google’s spam policies say about scaled content
  • Four simple signs your content is working, and keeping a note of what you changed

Chapters

  • 0:00 – Cold open: the blog that stopped after two posts
  • 1:09 – Welcome back
  • 2:25 – Section 1: What “Content” Actually Means
  • 5:33 – Section 2: What Makes Content Rank
  • 11:08 – Section 3: What Makes Content Sell
  • 18:40 – Section 4: The Pages That Matter Most, and How to Lay Them Out
  • 22:58 – Section 5: A Content Routine You Can Actually Keep Up
  • 28:39 – Recap
  • 29:20 – Your One Action This Week
  • 30:11 – Call to Action and Episode 7 Teaser
  • 30:52 – Outro

Your one action this week

Pick your single most important service page, the one for the service you most want more of. Open it on your phone and read it as if you were a customer who’d never heard of you. Check it against the four things: does it answer the main question clearly, does it handle the worries a customer might have, does it show real proof, and is the next step obvious? Write down what’s missing, then fix just one thing this week: add a cost section, three real photos, answers to two common questions, or a clear button near the top. If you’re on a roll, do the same for your second most important service page next week.

Resources mentioned

Sources

Next episode

Episode 7 – Google Ads vs SEO: should you pay for ads, put your effort into SEO, or do both? How each one works, what they’re each good at, how long they take, and how to work out the right mix for your business and your budget. No hype, just an honest comparison.

About Design Box Digital

Design Box Digital is a Melbourne web design and digital marketing agency based at the World Trade Centre in Docklands. We build WordPress and Shopify websites, run SEO and Google Ads, and help businesses turn their websites into lead generators. Visit designbox.com.au to get in touch.

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Digital Basics Part 6: Content That Ranks and Sells
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