Content Marketing
10 Types of Content Optimization Tools
Improve your content with a closer look at 10 different types of content optimization tools to help with meta tags, keywords, AI content and more.
You’re a professional at writing content, but how well does that content perform? Can your target audience easily understand it? Do search engines rank what you’re writing? Are people reading what you post?
No matter what type of content you’re producing or publishing, a content optimization tool can help improve it from every angle.
From choosing the right keyword to improving readability and everything in between, we’re highlighting ten types of content optimization tools you should use to make your content flow flawlessly.
Keyword research tools are designed to look for relevant keywords that your audience is searching for, making it easier for you to select the right terms so that they can find you in the search engines.
This content optimization tool usually includes information like:
Using a keyword research tool can help you spot “gold nuggets,” those keywords with high search volume and low competition levels. They also give you better insights into user intent.
You might be surprised to learn that the keywords you’d ordinarily think your audience would use may not be exactly the terms they’re searching for. A keyword research tool can let you know this, plus show you what words and phrases your competition is ranking for.
Keyword research tools are a great way to spot words or phrases your competitors may be overlooking or opportunities they haven’t uncovered yet.
Examples of keyword research tools: Ahrefs and Semrush.
AI content optimization tools look at your content and how it compares to your competition. These tools use AI to suggest ways that you can improve your content to outrank them and may review:
Some of these tools can also create more optimized content outlines. If you’re working in a highly competitive niche and concerned that your content is missing something, an AI content optimization tool is a good idea.
AI helps make sure your content “covers all the bases,” so you have the right keyword density and much more. These tools are often designed to keep up with search engine algorithm changes to keep your content consistently performing well.
Examples of content optimization tools: Originality.ai’s Content Optimizer and MarketMuse.
One of the key parts of search engine optimization means striking the fine balance between using your chosen keywords enough to attract search engines but not so much that your content reads as spammy or gets penalized for keyword stuffing.
So, what is the correct amount? That’s what a keyword density tool looks for.
Keyword density tools look at keyword density or how keywords are distributed in text and how often they occur in the text overall.
To avoid keyword stuffing, you want to ensure that your keywords appear naturally and flow within your content, without making it sound awkward or forced.
Keyword density checkers typically give a percentage as well as an ideal range.
Examples of keyword density tools: Originality.ai Content Optimizer and Semrush
Writing good quality content doesn’t just mean educating, informing or entertaining your audience; it also means being understood.
The goal of a readability checker is to tell you approximately at which grade level or age range your content can easily be read (depending on the type of readability score).
Some readability tools offer suggestions on how to simplify your writing if you feel the level is too high or how to make it more professional if it’s a bit too simple.
Readability tools, like Originality.ai’s Readability tool, can help you evaluate your writing and check to see if it can be understood by your target audience.
Rather than just relying on a single readability formula, the Originality.ai readability checker analyzes your writing according to several different formulas so that you can tailor your writing more precisely for your ideal customer.
Examples of readability tools: Originality.ai Readability Checker, Grammarly, and Hemingway.
Meta descriptions are those small snippets of text that often appear below the website title in the search engine results pages. Meta description tools help you write meta descriptions that include relevant keywords and increase the chances that people will click on your page.
Well-crafted meta descriptions encourage higher click-through rates. Although meta descriptions no longer directly influence your search engine ranking like they did in the past, they’re still relevant.
Examples of meta description tools: Originality.ai Meta Description Generator and Yoast SEO
Like meta description optimization tools, title optimization tools help website owners and content publishers adjust their website titles to be more impactful. Optimizing your website title helps entice users to click and learn more.
Good SEO titles need to be clear, concise and compelling. A title optimization tool can help you create a title that builds curiosity and encourages users to take action. Title optimization tools also help you insert your keywords in a way that flows naturally while still getting the search engine’s (and user’s) attention.
Examples of title optimization tools: Originality.ai SEO Title Generator and Yoast SEO
Content structure and outlining tools are often included as features alongside other tools, like grammar and spelling checkers or plagiarism detection tools.
Essentially, these tools work by helping content creators and publishers to properly structure content and make sure that ideas flow seamlessly from one to another.
A good content structure is easy for users and search engines alike to navigate, which improves the overall user experience and can improve your rankings. A good content outlining tool also makes sure that your article doesn’t veer off on a tangent and covers all the points you want to make.
Examples of content structure and outlining tools: Originality.ai Outline Generator
Among content optimization tools, content performance tools are one of the most sought-after tools in content marketing, and it’s easy to understand why. These tools are designed to track how your content is performing. They look at key metrics, including:
Determine what’s working and what isn’t, so that you can adjust your content accordingly.
Content analytics tools look at how users interact with your pages. They use data to determine which of your articles or other types of content resonate the most with your users, so that you can create future articles along those same lines. This in turn means less guesswork as you and your team better understand what type of content moves the needle to help you reach your goals.
Examples of content performance tools: Semrush and Google Analytics
Split testing tools let you test different versions of your content to determine which combination of content, images, calls to action and more resonate most with your readers.
Split testing tools can help clarify these queries.
These types of tools help you better understand your audience so that you can tailor your content for higher conversion rates.
As you continue testing different variations against your “control” (the version that currently has the highest levels of engagement), you’ll start to learn what attracts and retains your ideal customer, so that you can create more of it!
Examples of split testing tools: Semrush (offers split testing tools on their Enterprise platform)
Image and video optimization tools help reduce the size of large images or videos without sacrificing quality. Smaller videos and images load faster, and with page speed being one of the factors for a higher ranking in the search engines, image and video optimization tools are worth having in your toolkit.
Tools that help crunch images and videos without a noticeable effect on quality help improve the overall user experience (especially for those browsing on mobile), since they don’t need to wait for images or videos to download.
Examples of image and video optimization tools: Canva and Tinypng.com
Each one of these tools works great on its own, but for the best possible results, it’s best practice to pair a few of them together.
Use a content outlining tool to structure your writing and a keyword research tool to make sure you’re writing relevant content for your target audience. Use a title tag optimizer and a split-testing tool to see which landing page title increases your click-through rates.
Try a variety of these tools for yourself. Once you get the relevant data behind your experiments, you’ll be able to take your content even further, reach more customers and increase your ranking in the search engines.
Ready to start optimizing your content? Check out the Originality.ai Content Optimizer today!
