SEO, or search engine optimization, is now an undisputed part of any marketing strategy. In order to stand out and be found online, you need to show up on search engine results pages. One unhelpful way to try to boost SEO is by jamming keywords into your existing content, a practice known as keyword stuffing. Another poor choice is paying for backlinks from disreputable websites. The best way to increase your website’s SEO is through content. It is content that should be driving your SEO marketing plan, not the other way around.
Above All: Make Your Content Valuable
Content is king. That’s probably a phrase you’ve heard many times before, and it is repeated so often that it can sound trite. To have a successful website, and to attract the audience you want, you need to have content. Content is what search engines crawl through in order to find keywords and phrases that people are searching for. If you don’t have content, you won’t appear in the search results.
Of course, getting your content to appear on the search engine results page isn’t the end goal. You want the right people to see those results, click your link before all others and then stick around to learn more about your business. To do that, your content needs to be valuable. It needs to be something that genuinely helps readers, answers their questions and meets their needs.
Therefore, content can’t just be words on a page. SEO marketing plans need to focus on quality content and bring on a team that can handle that task. That means content curation has to be a priority. Content should be original, and avoiding plagiarism must be an ongoing concern. Often, businesses who are serious about growing their online presence opt for an SEO consultant. This professional can offer the right advice for websites and companies eager to increase their SEO.
Develop a Specific Understanding About Your Desired Audience
When you’re creating content, it’s critical that the content is connecting with the right audience. If you’re selling a product, service or idea, then you probably have a rough concept of who you’re selling to. If at all possible, pull together some information about your existing clients or customers. Who are they? What kind of careers do they have? What age are they? Why are they interested in your products?
With this information, you can create a detailed description of your audience. Having even a brief summary can help with content curation. If you’re having a marketing professional or a freelance writer help with content, they should have access to this information. A clear picture of the ideal audience can ensure that your SEO marketing content hits the right tone and connects with your perfect prospective customers.
Building Content Around the Questions Your Audience Is Asking
Inbound marketing is the practice of creating content that answers questions your customers have. Once you know more about your intended audience, you can explore your pain points. You might, for example, realize that your ideal customer is someone that is regularly searching for great restaurants nearby. If you have a restaurant in the area, make sure your content addresses that.
You can make sure that your audience is getting the answers to their questions by using keywords. These are the most common words or phrases that they are using in search engines. If your restaurant is located in Manhattan and you serve pizza, then some of the questions you might want to answer will include the following keywords:
If you’re not sure how to find these keywords, don’t worry. That’s where an SEO consultant can come in. A marketing professional can figure out which keywords you need to build your SEO marketing content around, and they can even suggest types of content or article titles as well.
Let Link Building Happen Organically
One of the earliest methods of increasing search engine optimization was having lots of links that lead to your website. While that is still important for SEO, it is less critical than it used to be. Don’t focus on getting lots of backlinks. Instead, let it happen organically.
If you have relevant content that addresses the needs of your audience, then they will want to share it with their friends, family and peers. What you don’t want to do is pay money to have spammy links going to your website. If search engines determine that your backlinks aren’t natural, they may penalize you. That makes it even harder to appear in the search results pages.
SEO Details Enhance Already Great Content
When you’re creating content, SEO can ensure that most people see what you’re publishing. With the right keywords, your content will come up in search engine results. With an appealing meta description, more people will click your link instead of the next one on the list. With alt text, people will be more likely to find your images on search engines. When you add the right HTML to your headers, search engines will recognize what your content is all about. SEO is the ultimate way to bring your content to a wider audience, and it would be a mistake to ignore its capabilities.
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Consistent Content Is Key
Search engines operate using algorithms. These are complex formulas that take a number of factors into consideration when generating search results. In addition to keywords and website ranking, search engines consider freshness. That’s something important to keep in mind when creating content.
A search engine like Google will prioritize newer content over older content. This is true across the board, but it’s especially relevant in fast-moving industries like medicine or finance. That means you need to add regular content to your website consistently.
Many businesses find it helpful to have an editorial calendar. They can schedule the release of content at regular intervals, ensuring that content doesn’t get ignored or forgotten about. You can also go back to old content and update it, adding in new information if necessary. This can make your content more helpful to new readers, and it can also improve your search engine optimization.
More Content Equals More Readers
Do you want to have your content show up more often in search engines? Do you want more people to read your content and find your website? The easiest way to get more readers is to create more content. There is virtually no limit to how much content you can create. The more blog posts and helpful information you have on your website, the more keywords and topics search engine bots will crawl through.
Just be careful not to duplicate content. Plagiarism is often not intentional, but authors may repeat the same phrases or ideas in multiple blog posts. Make sure that all your content is unique because copied or duplicate content may cause you to be penalized by search engines.
Use Inbound Links to Reduce Bounce Rate
A website’s bounce rate is the total percentage of readers who leave the site after viewing just one page. If you have a lot of great content, it is normal for people to find what they are looking for on a single page and then leave. However, you want to work on reducing that bounce rate as much as possible. Inbound links are often the most effective way of doing just that.
Inbound links are hyperlinks that go to another page on your website. At the end of a blog post, for example, you could link back to your shop. You could also hyperlink key phrases in your content that can direct people to related posts or pages. These links keep people on your website for longer, giving you a better chance of converting them into a lead and allowing them to learn more about your business.
Understand the Inseparable Nature of SEO Marketing and Content
You can have content without SEO, and you can focus on SEO without having great content. However, both routes are ultimately going to be less successful than a comprehensive plan that incorporates both. SEO tools can help you find relevant keywords, which can then guide your content. Once you’ve created that content, you can use further SEO techniques to ensure that more people find, read and appreciate your content. In this way, content and SEO form a critical combination. Content on its own won’t be enough, but SEO without great content won’t deliver the results you want either.
SEO Strategy
Even if you’re familiar with the principles of basic SEO, or search engine optimization, it can be overwhelming to put together a complete SEO strategy. While it is true that every business is unique, most websites can benefit from the same SEO marketing tips. Here are some of the most commonly used SEO strategies as well as helpful suggestions about how you can increase the SEO for your website.
Focus on Long-Tail Keywords
Even if you’re new to the world of SEO, you’re probably familiar with the concept of keywords. These are words or phrases that you’ll want to include in your content so that your content appears in search engine results pages. However, many businesses make the mistake of choosing keywords that are too common and far too competitive.
If you run a landscaping business in Orlando, Florida, you don’t want to count on keywords like landscaping or gardening. Those are too general, and they are used by millions of websites. That means that your audience probably won’t ever find your site through these keywords because you’ll be several pages into the search results.
Instead, you’ll want to focus on long-tail keywords. These are longer phrases that narrow down what people are searching for, which yields a more targeted audience for you. It also means that there is a lot less competition from national or global brands. In the example of the landscaping business above, some effective long-tail keywords might include any or all of the following:
Create Captivating Introductions to Keep People on the Page
Remember that getting to the top of a search engine results page is just the first step. You also want people to click on your link and then fully experience your content. If they click your link, don’t like what they see and then leave right away, search engines like Google will think that your website is less valuable. That’s why it is important to increase the amount of time the average person spends on your site.
One way to ensure that viewers don’t leave within a matter of seconds is to start with a captivating introduction. Don’t dive straight into the content, and try to make that first sentence something that will draw people in. You can also lead with a graphic or a photo to help attract and retain your audience. This might seem like a small detail, but repeated across all of your content it can have a significant impact on your search engine optimization.
Establish a Presence on Social Media
If you bring on an SEO consultant, one of the first things they will tell you is to boost your social media presence. In today’s modern world, having social media accounts is a standard practice. What you might not know, however, is that this can also help boost your rankings in search engine results pages.
If you have a large following on a social media platform like Facebook or Twitter, you can share your content with a larger audience. When more people click on your links and see your content, search engines register that. That will count positively for the content, helping to give it a boost among search engines.
Learn From Your Competitors
You never want to outright copy the content of your competitors. Doing so is plagiarism, and it can backfire on you quickly. What you can do is learn what your competitors are doing right and then follow suit.
Every so often, you might want to check out the blog of a competitor that tends to do slightly better than you. What kind of topics are they writing about? How are they sharing their content? Do they send newsletters? Do they come up in search engine results ahead of you? All of this information can be used to shape your own marketing strategy. When it comes to content curation, there are plenty of tools that can help you come up with new titles and new articles. However, seeing what does well in your existing market can also spark some ideas and help with content development. You might even be able to fill in some gaps left by your competitors or offer your audience a new perspective on similar topics.
Jumping Ahead of the Competition with a Keyword Analysis Tool
The easiest way to check exactly how a blog is performing is to use a keyword planner or competitor keyword analysis tool. This will give you the best insight as to how well your existing market is performing. Simply doing a Google search to find high-valued keywords is no longer enough.
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Track Your Progress With Analytics
One of the most commonly ignored aspects of an SEO strategy is analytics. Creating a detailed strategy for your website is a great idea, and having a wide range of SEO practices is wonderful. However, there is no way to know what is working until you’ve taken a closer look at the analytics.
Tools like Google Analytics can show you exactly how your website is doing. You’ll be able to see which keywords are driving traffic to your website and how long readers are staying on each individual post. Then, make sure you use what you’ve learned to replicate success and avoid future flops. If certain topics get lots of traction online and help you generate leads, then it is something that you’ll want to do again. If one social networking site outperforms all others in terms of traffic forwarding, then focus your advertising on that area. Analytics can show you what you’re doing right and prevent you from making the same mistake twice.
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