Powerful storytelling with google web stories

According to Forbes, Audiences are consuming content in new ways, from more portable screens on mobile screens to third-party apps and discovery platforms. 91% of consumers now prefer interactive and visual content over traditional, text-based or static media. To stay current, businesses in every industry are striving to revise the content strategies.

From alien theories to digital trends - the increasing popularity of a visual world is inevitable. From large eyed cartoons to visual first technology - we have seen an evolution in the content world that has to be acknowledged.

A visual story is an image based mobile responsive story in tappable format. You can split the content in a sequence which the audience will see in the order you’ve formatted. This gives the storyteller complete control on the delivery. Users’ can prompt through clicks or swipes.

Unlike stories on Instagram stories, web stories do not have a time limit. Allowing creators to repurpose or reuse the content.

To explain simply, the technology behind web stories is AMP, which means it has all the good parts about AMP:

• Embedded on any website

• Works on all browsers,

• High loading speed

• Discoverable in Google

1. Web stories are HTML pages with a unique URL. This means that they can be shared and embedded anywhere.

2. Google let’s you include all sorts of visual content: images, sound, video or animations.

3. A web story can be indexed by search engines and surfaced to answer a user’s query. Google mobile search engine presents them in a search snippet for news-related search queries.

4. Web stories can be made responsive, which means that they will adapt to the screen size of the user.

5. Add links and call to action anywhere on a page. Drive engaged users to continue their journey on your site.

6. You can add social sharing and related links to web stories.

1. Use different tools

Having quality content is important. But when you have a mobile-first audience you need to explore all your options. Give them options through audio/video/visual stories/ interactive stories etc. This helps increase engagement while bringing dynamic storytelling into the forefront for better feedback.

2. Are you visible?

SEO, as you know, is important. It’s been said many times. But did you know visual stories rank easy? Google search engine presents them in a search snippet for Top Stories when searching for a news-related search query increases the viewability.

3. Cater to all your audience

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the content formats. Learn who you’re catering to. Do your audiences prefer a type of content for ease or comfort? How user-friendly is your site? Have you diversified to cater to every audience on your site? Use your audience feedback for improved results. Features like Text-to-speech, translations, can help more than you’d presume.

1. You can complete control

The stories can be hosted on your website and the copyright stays with you. There are no strict limitations with the potential of web stories. The use of content is also with you and google claims no rights whatsoever.

2. Monetization

As a content creator you have control over the ads that appear on the web stories. If you host ads on your web stories, you get 100% of the ad revenue. Google also released a programmatic ads solution for web stories through Ad manager and AdSense.

3. Google analytics

Web stories act like web pages and they can be linked to google analytics. User analytics are available and can work as an integral part of assessing how valuable web stories are to your marketing strategy.

4. Responsive stories

Web stories are designed to fit all devices - hence they are more responsive. There is no need to create separate content for desktop and mobile.

5. Interact better

Web stories allow you to host interactive experiences like polls and q&a.

Google web stories are an interesting space for content creators. They help create snack sized content pieces that can be consumed quickly and rank easy. As content formats evolve it’s time we create content that paces with it.

Create google web stories today to cater to your mobile-first audience with Bold CMS. Does your CMS allow you to create visual stories easily?

Schedule a free demo with us to understand how you can benefit from this feature in more detail here.