Content marketing and creation is the foundational pillar of any successful digital marketing strategy nowadays. No matter if you’re running a marketing department in a small business or if you’re managing your own marketing strategy as a solopreneur, you need to publish quality, SEO-driven content on a regular basis. Why? Because SEO-driven content will get your brand on the competitive online map, boost brand awareness and trust, and build an authoritative image in your field.
And that’s just scratching the surface of the true potential of content marketing and search engine optimization. That said, keep in mind that it’s not enough to simply publish blog posts every once in a while, because there are some key steps you need to take in order to make your website content stand out and propel you up the search results.
Let’s take a look at these important factors and talk about the five effective ways you can optimize your website content for stellar ranking. Here’s how content can take your business forward in the online world.
It all starts with keyword research
There are many SEO factors that you need to take into consideration when optimizing your entire digital presence for maximum visibility. That said, when it comes to creating optimized content, one of the most important elements of your approach should be to research and find the relevant keywords that you’re going to integrate into your blog posts and website copy.
Your goal should be to find the keywords, or search terms, that your ideal customers are typing into the search box, which are also closely related to your business and your unique niche. That said, each keyword you put in your articles and website copy should be relevant to the topic of the page, because stuffing irrelevant keywords will lead to a penalty.
Make sure to target low competition keywords to maximize your chances of ranking above the competition, but don’t forget to include some general search terms in your industry. You should end up with an extensive list of keywords that you can pick and choose for different posts and new landing pages.
Optimizing the titles and meta descriptions
Google doesn’t just look at the meat of the content, it also takes a look at the title, subtitle, and the meta description of the page. You need to optimize the titles and subtitles with relevant keywords if you can while making them sound natural, to help Google crawl through the page and rank it properly. You also need to optimize the meta description of every new article and every page on your website to help Google and the users figure out what the page is about.
The meta description is the box of text that appears just below the link in the search results that leads people to your page, and it will either attract visitors or drive people away – it will depend on how you optimize it. It’s important to optimize meta descriptions for your local SEO strategy as well, as they will play an instrumental role in ranking your content higher in the local search results.
Developing a long-term content approach
It should go without saying that you need a long-term strategy for content creation and marketing if you are to improve your ranking on Google consistently in different local and global markets. Building a long-term strategy becomes more important the more competitive your market is, and we can safely say that markets like the US, Australia, and Central Europe are some of the most competitive regions on the planet.
In Australia, for example, professional content marketing is heavily focused on optimizing the content for local search, but the overarching strategy is geared towards steady expansion and growth. If a company is based in Sydney but wants to expand to other locations digitally, it will create content for Sydney and other lucrative markets at the same time.
The same goes for the US and the rest of the world, so no matter where you’re operating from, use the same approach to develop a long-term content approach and create SEO-driven copy that will rank your website high in different markets where you want to grow.
Do the technical work
Of course, there are some technical factors that you need to take into consideration, which will significantly improve the content’s ranking on Google. For example, it’s important to optimize all your web pages for seamless mobile browsing, and make it easy for them to load properly on all handheld devices. Google is big on mobile optimization nowadays, and if your content is optimized for different devices, it will become more visible to different types of users, which is a great way to make your business more effective overall.
Next, make sure to optimize all images and visuals. Use the right alt-text for every image and credit the authors with image sources. Be sure to compress the images as well if they are too big to make the page easier to load. Lastly, always make sure that the URL to your blog post or landing page is clear, short, and simple. Let the URL describe what the page is all about, which will boost your SEO score and make it easier for the users to find.
Voice search is the future
Lastly, keep in mind that voice search is the future of digital marketing, and that you need to start optimizing your content for this rising demographic. While many users are still typing keywords and phrases, more and more people are searching by asking their virtual assistant a question or typing a query into the search box. If you want to rank high for those voice search terms, make sure to include the question-based keywords and phrases into your blogs and website copy.
Over to you
Ranking higher on Google should be one of your top priorities if you want to grow your business in a sustainable way. Be sure to use these tips to improve your content strategy and create optimized articles and web copy that will consistently rank on the first page of Google.
Image source: freepik.com
