“To be momentous, create content
with purpose.”
– Russell Sparkman,
In case you weren’t already aware,
content is extremely important to a brand’s SEO efforts. In fact, Google has
come out and stated that content is within its top three ranking factors.
Unfortunately, most publications
are content to merely push the “if you build it, they will come” philosophy.
If you follow this path, you may
as well be launching your content into outer space because just as many people
are likely to find it out there without any clear marketing efforts.
If your brand wants to make its
content efforts worthwhile, materials must be crafted and optimized with SEO in
mind.
This is how your content gets
found. This is how your content gets read. This is how you educate and convert
consumers into customers.
Ready to start ensuring that your
content is driving the kinds of results you imagined when you wrote it? Then
let’s discuss how to achieve this goal so that all your creations can garner
the attention they deserve.
1. Lay the Groundwork
Any content strategy worth its
weight in salt begins with keyword and user intent research.
While keywords are losing their
power to user intent thanks to Google’s Hummingbird algorithm, both are still
an important part of the probing process.
Start by figuring out the queries
that your audience is searching and link that with their intent; what is the
searcher trying to achieve or understand? You can accomplish this with Google’s
Keyword Planner or any number of keyword research tools.
After uncovering what your
audience is searching for, you can then develop a content strategy that
directly addresses those questions in order to usher consumers through your
marketing funnel.
You can also use tools like
BuzzSumo to uncover popular content in your niche to help understand what
resonates with your audience.
2. Use the Right Ingredients
When you craft great content,
users become engaged and consume more materials, interact with them more
frequently and share those pieces with their followings.
But great content doesn’t just
mean that it’s packed with info and addresses the user’s intent. Content should
also have an appealing and easily scan-able layout while incorporating some of
the following characteristics:
- Clear and easy to read
- Credible – is well-researched and leverages authoritative links
- Taps into emotions (anger, sadness, frustration, humor, etc.)
- Comprehensive
- Unique or unexpected
- Entertaining
Additionally, the formatting and
design of the article is particularly important. A scan-able piece is crafted
when writers leverage bold text, short paragraphs, bulleted or numbered lists,
strong sub-headers, quotes, and similar components. This is also what helps to
make content more sharable.
Be sure that your content includes
a prominent and compelling call-to-action to help guide users to the next step
in the buyer’s journey.
Finally, check out similar content
that resides at the top of the SERPs. This is what you are aiming to beat so be
sure that your content is better than these materials. Better means more
current, deeper research, more compelling conclusions, and similar strategies.
Above all else, however, your
content should help readers complete a specific task. Long-form content is
particularly suited for this (and ranks better in the SERPs) because it is
thorough and ensures this goal is achieved. This is another important point
because thin content can hurt your SEO efforts.
3. Check Your Sources
If you want to be a thought-leader
in your niche (or not tick off any potential customers), you need to ensure
that your content is fact-checked and wholly accurate.
A great way to do this is by
citing a variety of authoritative sources through your outbound links. This is
also a foundational practice of good SEO.
Links that point to high-profile,
authoritative sites let Google know that you are sharing reputable and factual
information with your audiences; this is a signal to promote your site.
Additionally, if at all possible,
be sure that some of your outbound links point toward other pieces of relevant
content on your website. This will help to keep users on your site longer and
increase your chances of gaining a conversion.
4. Check Your Technical Specs
Technical SEO is something that is
normally more complex and relates to a brand’s overall website.
There are, however, some specific
aspects that relate to the content optimization process that are just as vital
as many other components.
Firstly, you need to ensure that
your content loads quickly. This is particularly important if you have included
any optimized images, gifs, or other visual elements that may bog down your
page. If your page loads slowly, you will lose readers and likely get dinged by
Google. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to confirm an optimized speed.
The next thing you need to verify
is that your content appears well on mobile. This likely won’t be an issue for
any site leveraging a responsive design, however, you do still need to ensure
that images are aligning correctly, CTAs are easily tap-able, and all elements
are loading correctly.
It is also important to establish
that your content is using the best anchor text for its outbound links. This is
done by using relevant keywords to the content you are linking to or its URL.
Speaking of URLs, be sure to
optimize you content’s Web address as well. To ensure its effectiveness, give
it a short URL; about 59 characters long seems to be the average for top
ranking sites.
If your website is failing to
optimize its content, you are busy wasting lots of time, energy, and money;
three things that no small business owner can afford to do.
You have poured your heart and
soul into creating a premium piece of content; go the extra mile by optimizing
it for SEO purposes so that your audience – and your business – can benefit
from your hard work and stellar content.
Source: - http://www.sitepronews.com/2017/07/17/4-steps-to-creating-seo-optimized-content/
Do you think keywords will soon be
a thing of the past as user intent becomes a more heavily-weighted factor? What
keyword research tool do you find most useful?
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