Content Marketing
How to Create an Effective Content Optimization Strategy
What’s the best approach to building a content optimization strategy? Learn all about content optimization in marketing and how to create a winning strategy in this guide.
Before you ever launch your first ad campaign or promotion, you need to know how to craft the right kind of content for your target audience.
The best content optimization strategy is one that:
You know you need a solid content optimization strategy, but how exactly do you go about it?
Let’s take a closer look at what tools you need and why you need them, so that your content optimization plan starts to come together into a full-fledged strategy.
The first step in any content marketing strategy is keyword optimization. Once you know what your target audience is searching for, you can make sure your content strategy lines up with their search queries.
In order to choose the right keywords, it’s a good idea to start with a broad list.
You can use Google’s keyword planner to create a basic list of keywords, check how often they’re searched (search volume), and see what competition is out there.
Next, consider the intent of your audience:
Knowing where they are in terms of intent can help you tailor your offer to match what they’re looking for in that moment, boosting your search relevance.
Keyword density is the percentage of times your target keyword appears in your content. If it appears too little, you risk not being found for the very words and phrases you’re targeting.
However, if keywords appear too often, you risk not appearing in the search engine results pages at all because of “keyword stuffing.” Keyword stuffing happens when you use a keyword so often in your content that it borders on spam.
When checking keyword density in content, you can use a free tool like Originality.ai’s Content Optimizer tool. It’s an excellent MarketMuse and SurferSEO alternative that lets you compare your content with up to ten of your competitors in terms of keyword density and other content highlights.
If your keyword density percentage is too high, make sure you’re applying strategies to avoid keyword stuffing, such as using your keywords in a way that flows naturally in your content.
Take advantage of synonyms and alternative versions of the keyword as well.
Example: If you’re optimizing for “digital marketing strategy,” for example, rather than repeat that keyphrase again and again, you could consider other options like “marketing strategies for online businesses” or “online marketing plan.”
How well-optimized is your content in terms of readability? For many content publishers, readability is more of an afterthought, if it’s considered at all.
Make sure your content is structured in a way that’s easy to read on multiple devices. That means using headings and subheadings to break up your text, as well as bullet points and lists where it makes sense.
Long blocks of text are particularly hard to read (especially on mobile devices) and tiresome to read on screen, so breaking up long paragraphs makes your content more visually digestible.
If you’re curious how readable your content is currently, check out Originality.ai’s readability checker.
It compares the readability of your content across several different formulas, including the popular Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and many others. People appreciate it, search engines appreciate it — everyone wins!
Linking your content pages helps you strengthen multiple pages on your website. In terms of search engine optimization, this helps the search engine index more of your pages while presenting people with options to help them learn more about what you offer or what you have to share.
Interlinking your content should be a natural process, just like adding relevant keywords.
Always keep an eye out for opportunities to link to other pieces you’ve written. In fact, as you write more and more around specific keywords or phrases, you’ll start to build a kind of “content hub” around that term. In the SEO world, this is known as a “pillar page” or “content cluster”.
There’s no one right answer to this question. Even search engine experts debate the “perfect” length for content. A simple question might only take you around 500-700 words to answer, whereas a more in-depth post could take 2,000 words or more.
The important thing to remember is that content quality is by far the most important indicator. Remember to follow Google’s EEAT guidelines for people-first content (that is, experience, expertise, authenticity and trust) when you write, and you won’t need to stress about how long or short your content is.
Long gone are the days when meta tags directly affected your search engine ranking. Yet they’re still around, why is that? These days, meta tags like your title and meta description are designed not to help search engines categorize your pages, but to encourage click-throughs from users.
A well-crafted, keyword-rich title, along with a clear and compelling meta description can do a great deal of the heavy lifting needed to make your site stand out from the competition in the search engine results pages.
It’s a small step as part of your overall content optimization strategy, but it’s an important one!
So far in your content optimization strategy, we’ve talked about all the different things you need to adjust: everything from interlinking your pages to making sure your meta tags are compelling enough to click.
While the bulk of content optimization strategy is about text optimization, let’s not forget optimizing different types of media too!
Multimedia adds to your content, like icing on a cake. Fast-loading images, relevant videos (especially explainer videos that break down complex topics or terms) and features like infographics can all help to boost a page’s ranking in the search engines.
Depending on the content management system (CMS) you’re using, there are plenty of image optimization tools and plugins. Google itself offers a helpful guide for developers on how to optimize images for the best possible results.
While you’re optimizing your images, don’t forget to add in alt text. Not only does it help search engines understand what your images are about, but screen readers for the visually impaired also use this information to explain images in greater detail to their users.
With so many users accessing your pages on a variety of devices, making sure your pages load quickly and look great on mobile is no longer something to just “think about doing in the future.”
Search engines like Google place a priority on fast, mobile-responsive pages, which automatically adjust the layout to fit whatever device the user is browsing with.
Beyond responsive pages, including large, touch-friendly navigation, using tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights can help you increase ‘Time on Page’ and reduce ‘Bounce Rates’ for your mobile users.
Now that you know what’s involved in optimizing your content, the only thing left is to get started!
Take the time to:
Your content won’t rank at the top of Google overnight with these changes, but as you consistently apply these steps to every piece you write, you’ll notice much higher visibility in the results pages, higher rankings, more traffic and more user engagement, and what content publisher doesn’t want more of that?!
