Google Shares Five Steps For Creating Web Stories

Google recently published an article and a video detailing how expert SEO consultants and site owners can create web stories in just five easy steps. The video guides SEO consultants and webmasters through the entire process, from planning a web story to publishing it.

The search engine company claims that one can create a web story in just five minutes. However, some SEOs and site owners might take longer than usual when creating web stories, depending on how much time they need to plan before they publish content.

But no matter how much time it takes for them to create web stories, the process is simple and easy, and that is the main point of Google’s blog post and video content.

What Are Web Stories?

Web stories are Google’s latest form of content, specifically designed to provide short and informative pieces of content to users. This type of content typically targets busy readers who want shorter and more precise answers – for instance, someone who has a few minutes to consume content but not enough time to read an entire blog post.

According to Google’s developers, web stories are the web-based version of the “Stories” one could see on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. The content format can blend audio, images, videos, text, and animation to provide the reader with a dynamic consumption experience.

The visual format allows readers to interact with the content at their own pace, either by swiping or tapping to get to the next piece of content, just like in social media stories.

Many people think they can use web stories to publish advertisements to boost their site traffic; however, it is not a channel to gain more content clicks and views.

Google might penalise publishers who want to abuse the web stories format by showing a little bit of content as teasers. Such SEOs aim to take advantage of the new format to make readers click through to the regular part of their site.

Instead, online businesses and website owners should consider web stories as their own kind of content, like podcasts or videos. They are also independent channels for gaining more advertising revenue and traffic.

SEO consultants and webmasters can promote their web stories on Google Discover, Google Images, and Google Search.

How To Create Web Stories

According to Google’s blog post and published video, there are five steps for creating web stories.

• Step 1: Choose a visual editor.
  
  Web stories consist of panels or pages that a reader can swipe or tap through to get to the next piece of content. Each panel can contain images, text, and even videos.
  
  Using a visual editor or other similar plugin, software, or online service can help one create a great web story suited to their brand’s needs. Visual editors have a graphic user interface that lets publishers design their panels for their web stories.
  
  Content creators can use the official Web Stories WordPress plugin to publish their web stories on WordPress. They can also select from Google’s list of web stories tools to create their web stories.
• Step 2: Draft the story.
  
  Google encourages the SEO community to create a narrative outline about what they will show in each panel of their web story.
  
  Like a story, a narrative outline could have a beginning, a middle, and an end, or even an epilogue to summarise the whole web story. Google points out that the best web stories are in this prose form, with a beginning and an end.
  
  Google provides users with a simple PDF template called Web Story – Script Template (PDF) to help them craft their web story’s narrative outline.
• Step 3: Find the visual assets.
  
  Finding the visual assets involves choosing pictures and videos that one will use in their web stories. It is crucial to note that this content format is vertical, like a mobile phone’s screen. Therefore, SEOs should stick to the vertical format, whether they are uploading photos or videos. Google’s video and blog post also show how to integrate videos into a web story.
• Step 4: Create the web story.
  
  Google also advise the SEO community to use pre-made templates that the visual editors provide. Once they have garnered enough experience in creating web stories, they start making their own templates to incorporate a unique visual identity or website branding.
• Step 5: Publish the web story.
  
  Once SEOs and webmasters are satisfied with their web story, they can publish it immediately. It does not matter what kind of plugin or tool they use to publish their web stories; getting this type of content is as easy as clicking the publish button.
  
  After publishing, Google and other search engines can link to and index them, just like regular web pages.

Web Stories: A New Channel To Boost Traffic

More SEOs are jumping on the web stories bandwagon as they are an excellent opportunity to get ahead of their competitors to boost search rankings, site traffic and, eventually, profits.

Moreover, one can reap all the benefits without any competition. Whether a business site offers hardware products, web design services, or healthcare, one can promote their website and achieve opportunities for building brand awareness using this new format.

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