Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital part of content marketing. In order to attract visitors to your website and boost brand awareness, you need to proactively optimize your content for SEO.
In this post, we’ll touch upon the recent trend of on-SERP SEO for voice search and also reinforce the importance of long-tail keywords. But since those topics each demand more attention on their own, we’ll offer a longer list of techniques you can use to optimize content for SEO.
1. Link each topic you cover to a core aspect of your value proposition.
Ask yourself this; Why are you planning to publish this piece of content?
Do you find the topic interesting? Or do you just feel obligated to cover it?
Good content takes a lot of work to produce. You may be sold on the idea that you need to publish fresh content regularly (and we agree). But unless you have a clear purpose for offering your thoughts on a given topic, it may not be worth doing.
Go back to the buyer personas you created. Does the topic you have in mind really address some of their key challenges?
2. Perform SEO research during the content strategy phase.
Though it may be easy to determine which topics should be covered on your website, applying SEO keywords shouldn’t be an afterthought. While developing your content strategy, begin thinking about the keywords you’ll want to rank for. It may not be practical to finalize the long-tail keyword you’ll use for each piece until the research and writing process is underway – but don’t leave it for last.
3. Identify long-tail keywords that align with your offerings.
Think beyond a two-word search term that broadly describes your business. What’s your niche? What do you offer that differentiates you from your fiercest competitors? Plug a few searches into Google to see what autocomplete results appear. If one of the suggested phrases really matches up with the value you deliver, consider adopting it as a long-tail keyword you’ll focus on for a particular page.
4. Weave long-tail keywords into each post.
Ensure that your long-tail keywords appear a few times in your posts. However, resist the temptation to “stuff” keywords throughout your pieces just to increase the frequency. Let the ideas in your copy flow naturally – and even use some variations on your keyword now and again.
5. Apply the long-tail keyword to technical elements of the page.
When you optimize content for SEO, don’t skip past the technical details. Make sure your long-tail keyword appears in the title, URL, and the alt tags in images.
6. Rephrase your long-tail keyword as a question in your meta description.
If your page ranks well based on a search, the meta description will also appear, offering the searcher more context for what they’ll read before they click. The first 50-160 characters are most important to focus on. Rephrasing your long-tail keyword as a question to kick off your meta description can encourage more clicks – and readers.
7. Develop several related blog posts around a topic cluster.
If, during the content strategy phase, you can identify broad ideas that can be supported by specific blog posts, aim to create topic clusters. Topic clusters are worth exploring in a post of its own, but the idea is fairly simple. You create one comprehensive blog post to serve as a central pillar – then publish a number of related posts around that pillar post. Once these posts are live, apply links to related “connector” words so curious readers can explore more of your content.
8. Cite authoritative sources with outbound links.
It may sound counterintuitive, but outbound links help your SEO efforts. Search engines view outbound links to reputable sources as helpful recommendations. Your site is essentially rewarded for that helpfulness.
9. Adhere to mobile-first best practices.
A few years ago, when the number of searches performed on mobile devices outpaced those from desktops, Google introduced its mobile-first index. Though this is not too much of an issue with most newer sites, make sure yours features a responsive design that’s optimized for mobile. Break your ideas up into shorter paragraphs – then include photos and infographics that help support the ideas you’re trying to convey.
10. Monitor and improve page speed.
If your website pages take a long time to load, Google will penalize you for it. It makes sense when you think about someone trying to view a web page on their smartphone. If the data from your page takes too long to parse, they’ll probably give up and move on. So, why should Google recommend that page as useful? Certainly, you’ll want to make sure all images used on your site are as light as possible while still retaining a fair amount of quality. But there are also plugins and other software solutions that can help you optimize your pages to achieve faster loading speeds.
11. Track relevant page metrics and work to improve them.
How many other high-quality sites have linked to your content? How much organic search traffic is your site attracting? Do your pages gather lots of impressions but have a poor click-through-rate (CTR)? Invest the time to set up goals in Google Analytics to better track your conversions.
12. Revisit and optimize your content on an ongoing basis.
First, focus-in on your top five or ten blog posts. Since these have attracted the most traffic over time, they stand the best chance of continuing to do so – as long as you keep them fresh and updated. Don’t overhaul them from scratch, but you can scan each post to see if it can be enhanced or streamlined. Can any of the stats or quotes be updated?
From a technical standpoint, there are a number of tools you can use to assess your current posts and optimize them as well.
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13. Aim to achieve “SERP Position Zero” for voice search.
For some businesses, it’s no longer good enough to strive for inclusion on the first page of Google results. You’ve got to aim higher.
The ability to rank above number one in Google results, along with the opportunity to provide a featured snippet of content is a powerful way to improve your lead-related metrics. The practice, known as “On-SERP SEO” is designed to help you claim top ranking for voice search results.
Striving to achieve this for content most relevant to your value prop is certainly worth investing some time and effort.
Summary & Takeaways
Today’s ultra-competitive business environment demands that B2B brands optimize content for SEO. Doing so makes it far easier for people to find your website and learn what you can offer them. Remember:
- Aim to cover topics that specifically align with aspects of your value prop.
- Identify optimal long-tail keywords that can be weaved into your web pages.
- Make sure your keywords and content are optimized for voice search.
- Consider developing several related blog posts around a topic cluster.
- Revisit and optimize your content on an ongoing basis.
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Sources may include:
“Smart Bidding in Google Ads: An Up-to-Date Guide,” Daniel Gilbert, Search Engine Journal, May 2019
“A Look Inside AdWords Smart Bidding & Automated Bidding Strategies,” Emma Franks, Instapage, July 2019
“Top Marketing Trends For 2020,” Christian Thomson & Forbes Agency Council, Forbes, October 2019