Setting Up Satellite Content

Satellite content is useful, interesting, high-quality content you post on locations outside of your main site(s).

Squidoo lenses, Hub pages, FaceBook/MySpace blogs, etc. are all examples of satellite content.

Your satellite content can be an excellent long-term source of targeted traffic to your main site.

Good satellite content puts you in front of a (potentially very large) group of receptive people in your niche who may not have heard of your site before.

It can also rank well in the search engines, especially when it's posted on social media sites. Most social sites are spidered and indexed rapidly because of their constant activity.

Satellite pages often attain a respectable PR in a hurry - making their links back to your main site(s) even more valuable.

If you create your satellite content right, it can:

• rank well in the search engines
  

• send new visitors to your main site(s)
  

• increase your status as an authority in your niche
  

• help you fill more of the top spots in the search engine results for your keywords.
  

• Post only useful, high-quality content. Your satellite content may be people's first introduction to you and your site - so you want to make an outstanding impression. Focus on being a helpful resource.
  

• Add images to your content when possible. Images attract people to read more, stay longer, vote higher, and leave comments.
  

• Add video whenever possible. Social media users love videos - and love to share them with their friends!
  

• Create small, bite-sized information snippets. People on social sites click around rapidly and tend to have short attention spans because there's so much to see and do there. So instead of posting one long article, break it up into small paragraphs and use each paragraph as an individual “content bite”. This strategy also increases the number of opportunities for interested users to find your content.
  

• Also apply the “content bite” strategy to satellite pages that are expected to be longer and contain more information. For example, a Squidoo lens should be composed of several small modules of varying formats, but all targeted to the main focus/keyword of the lens.
  

• If you can do it without appearing forced, target one of your site's keywords in each piece of your satellite content. If you can't do it without seeming contrived, then go for “long-tail” keywords, which usually sound more natural in a casual setting. Never keyword-stuff your satellite pages.

• Create “top 10” lists.
  

• Create how-to posts, in step-by-step format and with related images or video.

• Be funny or shocking (without crossing the line) whenever possible and appropriate. It catches people's attention, makes them share your content - and after all, they are probably looking for entertainment when they visit social sites.
  

• Post your site's main RSS feed or individual PheedPress feeds in your satellite content.
  

• Don't fill your satellite pages with links to your main site. Link sparingly to your main site, and use deep links to your relevant inner content rather than always linking to your home page. Make good use of your anchor text.
  

• Link to your other satellite content as well - for example, link to one of your high-quality, relevant Squidoo pages from one of your HubPage articles.
  

• Encourage social site users to interact with your content - post interesting polls or Squidoo “plexo” link lists that permit people to rank or vote on things.
  

• Go back and update, refresh, and add new pages to your satellite content on a regular basis.
  

• Never market, spam, or try to sell anything in your satellite content. People don't go to social sites to see commercials, and you'll do a lot of damage to your reputation if you try to use your satellites to advertise in any way.
  

• Link to your satellite content from your main site - in your sidebar or your “About” page.
  

• Post the RSS feeds from your social media satellite content in other places.