August 2021 I part five
5 Essential Techniques to Optimize Your Content
Content optimization is essential for a website to rank in search engines. We’ve put together an SEO Cheatsheet of 5 things that will help you optimize your content and reach the first page of Google. The first step in SEO is content optimization which helps you rank higher on search engines. The most important thing about content optimization is that it can help convert more readers into customers, but only if done correctly!
Remember, content optimization is only effective if done correctly.
SEO Cheatsheet #1: Research Keywords Before Writing An Article
Keyword research is the first step in the content optimization process and something you should consider before each post. Including keywords in your blog post helps establish what it will be about, and gives you a better chance of ranking higher in search engines. Without keyword research, you may end up optimizing your content for keywords no one is searching for!
There are a few ways to find out which keywords you should use:
- Google’s Keyword Tool – It has an entire list of potential keywords sorted by popularity
- SEM Rush – Provides a list of keywords related to your website
- Moz’s Keyword Explorer – Very helpful for finding long-tail keywords
SEO Cheatsheet #2: Use Your Keywords
So you’ve done your research and found some keywords. Now what? The next step is to use these words in strategic places throughout the post, like:
Title – It’s a no-brainer! The keyword should be at the beginning of every title if possible (although this isn’t always applicable). Make sure it has something to do with the content so that people know what they’re getting.
Introductory sentence – Introduce your post in such a way that the keyword is clear from just one sentence.
Headings – Headings are a great way of highlighting keywords, and also bring more SEO juice to your page by increasing its rank on Google
Page/post content – Use keywords throughout the article. Be sure to use synonyms and repetition.
Images – Every image should have a descriptive title and alt text that is keyword rich.
Meta title – Meta titles are the ones that appear at the top of search engine results. The meta title needs to be concise and clear, with your keyword at the beginning, if possible.
Meta description – The article’s meta description should consist of around 150 characters and include your keyword and a call to action.
SEO Cheatsheet #3: Add Links
Internal links are an important factor for SEO content optimization. Create links to the most relevant and important pages on your site from each blog post. Use anchor text in links strategically — for example, when linking to pages on your site, use a keyword you want that page to rank for as the link text. Be sure to link to other posts that are relevant on your blog and edit older posts to link to your new ones where possible. Reference articles on other websites when they provide useful information for your readers. Link only to articles that are relevant or useful for those reading the post. This will both broaden the reach of your content, as well as deepen people’s engagement.
SEO Cheatsheet #4: Include Rich Media Like Images And Video
Including images and video content in your blog posts can help keep your readers attention. For each image you add to your blog post, ensure that the title and alt text are succinctly keyword rich and describe the image. Video content can be a great addition to your blog posts, but, Google can’t read the content of videos, so you might want to include a transcript or video summary. Optimize your transcript by formatting it with appropriate headings, lists and images.
SEO Cheatsheet #5: Content Length
How long should your content be? Well, there’s no standard length for blog content.
Content length can vary from a short 300 word post to the equivalent of an entire book, and many bloggers find success in both formats. For example, if you’ve got some great tips on how to make the perfect pot of coffee, a post with one or two short paragraphs will probably do it.
The more complex your topic is and the better you are at writing about it, the longer your content can be. Lengthy posts allow for links to further reading and other sources that support your points as well as thorough research into your topic.
A good way to decide on the length of your content is to take a look at the first 5 posts that appear on Google for your focus keyword.