If you have any questions about strategies
for SEO content creation that I don’t answer here, let me know
in the comments and I’ll answer them here or in a future blog post.
Let’s get started!
What Is SEO Content?
To understand what marketers mean by SEO content, it’s helpful to
break down the phrase into its component parts:
“SEO” refers to search engine optimization, orthe
process of optimizing a website so that people can easily find it
via search engines like Google.
By “content,” we
mean any information that lives on the web and can be consumed on
the web (more on the various types of content below).
So, putting these two concepts together: SEO
content is any content created with the goal of attracting search
engine traffic.
I’m not going to tell you everything you need to know about
optimizing your content for search engines here; that’s a whole
‘nother guide. But here’s a super-quick refresher on what you’ll
need to do in order to SEO your web content:
Keyword Research: If you want to generate traffic through
search, it’s best to do keyword research before you
start writing. This way, you can focus on keywords for which a
certain amount of search volume already exists – in other words,
write toward topics that people are already searching for
information about.
Keyword Optimization:
Know where and how to use keywords in your content for maximum
searchability. (SEOMoz offers a great guide to on-page
optimization.)
Content Organization:
The content on your site should be organized in a logical way.
This is not only good for SEO, it also helps visitors on your site
find other related content easily. (The longer they stay on your
site, the better.)
Content Promotion:
Increase visibility to new content you create by sharing it on
social networks and building links to your content (both
internally and from external sites).
A keyword research tool like
the Keyword Niche Finder will help you identify specific topics to
target in your SEO content.
A Quick Word on Intentions
It’s important to keep in mind that if search engine traffic is youronly goal,
your results will probably suffer. In order to please both the
search engines (who will reward you with high rankings over time)
and potential customers and return visitors, you need to offer value
above and beyond search engine optimization. In other words, don’t
produce “thin” content that ranks and get clicks, but doesn’t
provide any additional value to the search engine user. Sites that
promote “thin,” low-value content run the risk of being penalized by
Google; they also tend to have high bounce rates and low conversion
rates.
Types of SEO Content
SEO content can include any of the following:
Product Pages –
These are the bread and butter of any retail e-commerce site. A
good product page can serve as both SEO content and a PPC landing
page.
Blog Posts – A blog
is one of the easiest ways to create a regular stream of SEO
content. In general, blog posts are more engaging and more likely
to attract links than product pages, so they can be a great way to
build some authority for your site. (Keep in mind that blogs are
very flexible, and you can use them to host any of the below types
of content in this list.)
Articles – Think
news article, interview, or feature piece. This is the main kind
of content you’ll find on most newspaper- or magazine-style
websites.
Lists – A list is
really just a kind of article, but framing it as a list (such as
“10 Ways to Lower Your Energy Bill” or “101 Things I Hate About
Google”) makes it easier to scan. These types of titles also seem
to be more clickable when found in search results or in social
media feeds.
Guides – A guide is
a longer piece of content that explains in detail how to do
something. (Guides are often broken up onto multiple web pages,
though it’s a best practice to allow users toview
long content as a single page if they wish.) You can post a full
guide on your website, or you can post a summary or excerpt,
requiring visitors to fill out a registration form to read the
full guide. This can be a good way to generate leads, but keep in
mind that putting up a registration wall will likely reduce the
amount of SEO traffic you can drive to that guide.
Videos – In general
there are fewer videos on the web than pages of text;
consequently, it can be easier to rank on the first page for a
competitive keyword by creating a video instead of an article.
Depending on what type of site or business you run, videos can be
a great way to attract and reach an audience. Consider creating
video tutorials of how to use your products. Or illustrate a
process that is related to your business – for example, a plumber
could make a video showing how to unclog a sink.
Infographics –Infographics,
or large-format images that contain a lot of data (often in the
form of graphs or charts) on a single subject, can rack up a lot
of page views and links. However, because so much of the content
is embedded in the image and therefore not readable as text by
search engines, it’s important to carefully optimize the rest of
the page. You can use one of these five free infographic
templates to get started.
Slideshows – A
slideshow is a way to display a series of related images.
Sometimes pictures are more important than text – say you’re
trying to show what all the stars wore to the Oscars. Here again,
SEO of your title, captions, image file names and so on is
important because there is less for the search engines to “read.”
Glossaries – I swear
more people use Google to look up terms than they use a
dictionary. (Do you even know where your dictionary is?) If you
work in a specialized industry, a well built-out glossary can be a
good way to capture some search traffic. Think cooking terms,
medical terms, fashion terms, architectural terms …
Directories – A
directory is a useful taxonomy of links to sites or resources
around a given topic. For example, a perfume blog might create a
directory of places to buy perfume, from major department stores
to independent shops around the country.
These are just some of the basic types of SEO
content, but don’t let this list limit you – the possibilities are
virtually endless.
How to Develop an SEO Content Strategy
If you’ve been producing content in a haphazard
manner, hoping and praying that some of it eventually ranks, it’s
time to buckle down and commit to a more methodical SEO content
strategy for the web.
Here are four steps to defining and refining your SEO content
strategy:
Define your goals
First, determine your
goals as a website or business. Are you looking to drive sales
through your website? Do you monetize your site via ads and
therefore just want to increase traffic and return readership?
Your goals will determine what types of content you should focus
on.
A great example
of a minimal, yet sleek and elegant, product page
If you’re primarily trying to drive product
sales, your primary focus should be attractive, informative
product pages that are optimized for both search and
conversions. Your secondary focus could be helpful blog content
that illustrates when and how to use your products, linking to
those pages where relevant (it’s best if your blog is not
entirely self-promotional, though).
If your site operates on an advertising model and
the goal is to attract new readers through search, you’ll want
to focus on rich content (such as long-form articles or video
resources that are informative, entertaining or both) with
“stickiness” (“sticky” content keeps visitors on your site
longer or encourages them to return).
Consider your audience
Know your audience –
surveys and your analytics software can help you get a better
picture of your typical visitor or client. Consider developing
marketing personas, or characters that represent your ideal site
visitors and customers. Then think about what kinds of content
those personas would be looking for.
For example, if you operate a B2B website that
targets C-level executives, you might want to create high-level
white papers that can be downloaded and saved to read later.
If your business targets teens and tweens, you
might want to focus on frequent updates with less text and more
images and video. You’ll also want to be sure your site is
optimized for mobile usage.
Create an editorial calendar
Once you have an idea
of who you are targeting and why, you can start to build out an
editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is a schedule that
dictates when you will publish new content and what type of
content it will be. This will help you stick to a regular
schedule (it’s especially important to create new content on a
regular basis if you have a blog), as well as prevent you from
scrambling to come up with a topic for new content at the last
minute.
A few tips for creating and adhering to an
editorial calendar:
Use
Outlook (or Google Calendar) –
Share the editorial calendar with your whole marketing team.
Set up reminders for authors so they get a notification when a
deadline is coming up.
Consider creating ongoing
features – For example, a food blog might do a
meatless recipe every Monday. Many blogs do link roundups once
per week (including this one). Create a category page for each
ongoing feature, so visitors can find all of your Meatless
Monday recipes or link roundups in one place.
Give yourself plenty of
lead time when producing more complicated types of
content, such as videos and infographics. These often need
multiple rounds of edits to perfect and can be more
complicated to optimize for search.
Don’t plan too far out in
advance – Calendars often get derailed after a month
or two, due to changes in marketing goals, budgets, or staff,
so don’t try to plan out a schedule for the next year and risk
wasting a lot of time and effort.
Analyze and re-assess
Finally, stay on top of
your site’s analytics. Regularly analyze your SEO content to see
what’s working and what isn’t. Good measures of success and
engagement include page views, links, comments (on blog posts
and some other types of content), social shares (Facebook likes,
tweets, etc.), and conversion rates. Your analysis should have
two goals:
Study your
successes so you can repeat those strategies –
Look for patterns. Does your audience love videos? Then make
more videos! Adjust your editorial calendar going forward so
you can focus more time and effort on the content types that
really resonate.
Carve out time for
updating and improving older SEO content – If you
tried to optimize an article for a certain keyword, but it’s
getting more traffic for a different variation of that
keyword, then go back in and re-optimize it for the new
keyword. You might be able to significantly increase traffic
by putting that keyword in the title, for example.
