Any business using the Internet to sell products and services knows that obtaining organic search visibility, traffic, and high rankings is a real challenge. With millions of competitors in the world of digital marketing, the work can be confusing and tough, especially for new, small businesses.
If you’re looking to catapult your business site to the top of the search engine results pages, you’ll need to work on one crucial part of any SEO: the content. Content comes in different forms, text, audio, and video, and is made to either entertain or inform the audience. But to ensure search engines will rank your content, you need to optimize it first. In creating optimized content, here are six steps to follow:
1. Establish trust in content
Creating trustworthy content is the key to appealing to potential customers. Experienced marketers suggest using the right words for conversion including explanatory and transitional terms like as a result, accordingly, for this reason, caused by, and therefore. Another set of powerful words you can use for your content include endorsed, certified, backed, best-selling, and guaranteed.
Adding other user-generated content is another smart way to build trust. This can come in the forms of customer reviews, case studies, comments, forums, and social discussions. You can also feature facts or research-backed data.
2. Focus on the quality
John Mueller from Google has long been claiming that businesses and marketers should focus on creating quality content. Not the quality standards of Google’s algorithms though. Instead, focus on creating content that is unique, accurate, compelling, and relevant to your audience. You should write for your audience, not for Google.
In terms of structure, experts recommend using proper grammar, correct spelling, clean formatting, and appropriate length. Good web content is also focused on the topic, has a relaxed and conversational tone, and is clear from start to finish.
3. Consider user intent
Another crucial part of creating quality content is user intent. Everything you produce and publish on your website or social media pages should be aligned with your targeted customer intent. A piece of content that is solely created using traditional keyword optimization isn’t likely to get the attention of your target audience.
Determine the users’ queries that apply to your strategy or campaign and write your content around them. User queries can be transactional, information, or navigational. Your content would be worthless if it does not address the right intent.
4. Use images and videos
According to surveys, content with images and videos are more likely to have a positive impact on the website’s dwell time. That means incorporating some visuals in your content can increase the length of time a user spends on your page. From that, search engines will most likely view your website or content as useful.
Plus, these can make your blog or article easier to read and understand. As a matter of fact, most people are more likely to be interested and engaged in visual content rather than an article filled with nothing but text. Ensure that you optimize your images and embed videos when using them for your piece.
5. Implement SEO practices
Using the best SEO practices when creating your content can help you guarantee that it will perform well online for many years. Speaking of keywords, SEO specialists suggest including them in your introductory paragraph, then on other parts of the content.
Another fruitful practice is writing concise and catchy title tags and meta descriptions that will encourage the uses to click on your content. Both of these are important ranking factors so be sure they are optimized.
If you’re new to this, it’s best to acquire a professional e-commerce SEO service. Most companies offering such a service can help you in various things such as web development, keyword research, and even blog content. They can also recommend other proven practices relevant to your niche or campaign goals.
6. Create search engine friendly URL
The last tip is to make sure your content’s URL is clean and search engine friendly. Avoid using confusing or complete structure. The URL should be keyword optimized, short, and directly relates to the content itself. Several studies also suggest that shorter URLs tend to have higher rankings than longer URLs. In fact, Google’s John Mueller reveals that they pick shorter URLs when choosing which one to rank on the SERPs.
By optimizing your content, you can drastically boost your brand’s online visibility and get the leads you need for better conversions and sales. Don’t let your great content be just another article floating around the web where nobody finds it or shares it. Continue working on optimized content and get that well-deserved exposure for your brand.
