Internet users are more empowered than ever to find what they’re looking for online, regardless of where that content lives. Content destination websites, whose business model centers around not only having what searchers are looking for, but having content that will keep them there once they arrive, have gotten very good at driving website visits and converting visitors to customers using content.

Not every business should be a destination or attempt to be. Every business, however, can learn from the tactics content destination sites employ to acquire and convert traffic. Here are three organizations from the Percussion family that fit the content destination profile, and what marketers can learn from how they succeed online.

Examples of Successful Content Destinations

BabyCenter.com

Articles, from “8 Ways to Get your Toddler to Listen” to “32 Ways Your Life Will Change,” are just the tip of the iceberg for the Web’s #1 global interactive parenting network. Expert answers, “Mom” answers, informational videos, baby names, a community in which users can form groups and post stories, photos, tips, and journals, and a bevy of useful tools such as Ovulation Calculator and Pregnancy Weight Tracker keep users finding the site - and coming back.

Visit London

VisitLondon.com hopes that leisure and business travelers to London (as well as Londoners!) will book accommodations using the website after learning about things to do, events, shopping, restaurants, and other attractions at VisitLondon.com. They can also get maps and guides to the city, as well as access a huge amount of information on travel logistics, customs and visas. User reviews of thousands of hotels from Trip Advisor often seal the deal.

The Motley Fool

Fool.com calls itself The World’s Greatest Investing Community, and provides its readers with stock tips, articles on how to invest and plan for retirement, regular columns by experts, a platform to rate and research stocks while sharing ideas, a radio show, and hundreds of community discussion boards. Overall, the site reaches millions each month through a combination of free and premium content.

The sites above use very effective techniques to be trusted sources for content in their industry. Here are some things marketers can learn from what they've accomplished:

It's About The Content

Consider all the different types of content that your readers might find useful (or entertaining): articles, blog posts, instructional videos or video interviews, how-to guides, podcasts, glossaries, diagrams, trade or industry statistics, social content, the voice of their own peers in the form of comments and reviews. Iterate and test what works on a small scale, then make the most effective content types a regular part of your content pipeline.

It's About The Experience

As much as users are empowered to find things on their own, compare the user experience of trying to find out what makes a good diaper on Google vs. BabyCenter, or try searching for which car to buy on Yahoo instead of AutoTrader.com. Good content destinations are an oasis in the desert of noise that often accompanies search engine results. They know that because you came for this thing, you might also want to see this thing. Once you find a good content destination, you're more likely to stay. Focus your planning on why the visitor should care and ask yourself whether every new piece of content or feature would add value to those who consume your content. Relevance and context are tremendously important here. That's what web content management helps you do: you've got the content - use it to interact with your customers in the most effective way possible.

3rd Party Content: Be an aggregator

As much as making your website a successful destination is about original content, its about having what your visitors are looking for. There is a wealth of content online on the topics that interest your readers, but often it's difficult to find. There's an opportunity to become the trusted destination for your readers by aggregating it. The content exists, you can help visitors find it. Import feeds directly into your CMS as reusable content items to publish on your site in lists of popular and useful content and license content from trusted sources to massively increase the amount of information you make available to your readers.

3rd Party Channels: Be ubiquitous

It's also important to get found by the people you're trying to convert, and search engines aren't the only place this happens. Find out which channels (from mainstream social networks like Facebook and Twitter to more specific communities like LinkedIn Groups and niche websites) your users are using most and link your content to them in an appropriate way. Submit articles to LinkedIn groups, comment on industry blog posts with links to your own take, offer up morsels to followers on Twitter with links to a bigger story.

Employ the Tools of Engagement

RSS: To both allow visitors to subscribe to your blog, increasing the likelihood that they will return to your site for content, as well as enable your own content for syndication.

Comments: To allow readers to build a connection with you around your content as well as source user-generated content.

Ratings: A simple engagement mechanism which also enables you to automate the generation of lists and suggest popular content to other readers.

Polls: Source input from your readers while allowing them to interact with the community on your website.

"Share" buttons: Whether using ShareThis, AddThis, or your own tool, give your reader's the ability to pass along your content conveniently to their friends and network. While sharing widgets have become pervasive on blogs and other forms of social content, consider adding them to all of your content.

Widgets: Create applications that, while connected to your website and content, can be placed on other sites by users. Flu.gov, for instance, allows visitors to embed Flu Vaccine Locator, Flu Map, and News widgets on their own websites and blogs, significantly expanding their content's reach to citizens.

Personalization: In web content management, relevance and context are critical. Websites can use personalization to track their visitors interests based on any kind of site interaction, referring sites, keywords searched (or even referring keywords), or explicit inputs to show them the most relevant content at exactly the right time.