How To Optimize Your Content Strategy For SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization is the communication link between a web page and the search engine (Google, Bing, etc.). By integrating specific keywords and high-quality links into the web content, the search engine is able to connect search queries to relevant sites.

Digital marketers use SEO, this catch-all acronym, like a magician’s sleight of hand. They manipulate high-quality content, instilling more than what meets the eye.

The content on a webpage is meant to engage the reader, leading them further down the sales funnel. But without SEO (and its communication link to the search engine’s algorithm), the reader would never find the content. Instead, the web page would be lost amongst the thousands of other pages all vying for those precious top spots on the SERPs.

To capture the attention of Google and your Readers, you need to optimize your content strategy for SEO.

Look at Your Content Strategy Through an SEO Lens

Before you can start on the nitty-gritty details, take off your rabbit-stuffed top hat and put on your thinking cap (as all good creatives do). It’s time to strategize your overall game plan.

SEO is more than just sprinkling in keywords and links, and none of the optimization techniques detailed below will work without the foundational content. To that end, let’s build this article, as you would build your well-formed SEO strategy.

In Part 1, you will learn how to optimize the content:

    Understanding your audience

    Coming up with your article’s angle

    Considering the medium (where your content will live)

    Building quality content.

In Part 2, the SEO optimization will begin:

    Keyword optimization

    Inbound and outbound link optimization

    Semantic search platform optimization

In Part 3, it’s time to take a step back and look at your content and the SEO magic as a whole. Before you hit publish, you’ll want to answer a few fundamental questions:

    Does your article answer the article’s title and prompt?

    Does your article flow with an introduction, clear transitions, and a conclusion?

    Does your article reflect the overall tone of the brand’s voice?

Once this is done, you’ll enjoy all the fruit of your SEO-inspired labor: increased site visibility, high-quality leads, and traffic, and developed trust between you and your readers.

Remember: Your Readers are real people on the other end of a computer or phone. Treat them as such. Avoid excessive jargon and erudite vocabulary. Breathe life into your articles, create the narrative, and most importantly, make it informative.

Considering Your Audience and Your Angle

You wouldn’t write a business pitch without considering who will be at the other end of the conference table for its debut. In the same way you wouldn’t prepare for a speaking engagement by walking on stage blindfolded.

No, in order to create engaging content, you must first be engaged. That means asking yourself the following questions:

Who is your audience? Maybe you’re writing business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-customer (B2C), but either way, you need to use the language of your audience. A conversation with financial analysts in a professional work environment looks and sounds a lot different than fitness junkies about to try a new supplement.

What is the tone of the brand? Homing in on the brand’s tone will give a sense of personality and relatability in a more casual context (B2C), or establish a persuasive and authoritative voice in a business-oriented context (B2B). What is the brand trying to accomplish? Relatability? Or do they want to be the industry’s thought leaders?

What are the goals of the piece? While long-form content gives more opportunities to weave in keywords, keeping your writing on task is important. Whether there’s a follow-up step, call to action (CTA), or point of sale, readers need to be led in some direction, and the core topic should be addressed immediately.

Consider the Medium | People Are Products of The Tools They Use

According to Statista, roughly 63% of Google searches in The US came from mobile devices in 2019. This means that not only does your site need to be optimized for mobile, but the content does too.

How does one optimize content for mobile?

Shorter paragraphs.

Basically, if you’re fluffing up your content, your readers will look at your giant text paragraphs through their small screens and decide that this waste of time does not mesh with their on-the-go lifestyles. (Oh snap!)

SEO Loyalty from Beginning to End

Optimizing content strategy for SEO purposes requires setting tone and intention beforehand, carefully integrating keywords and links during, and making structural revisions after (in that order). Optimizing content isn’t something you can do at the last second and expect everything to come together.

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