SEO Content Strategy
I hope you have learnt the basis of SEO till now. In this section, we are going to talk about the KING.
Well, in SEO – CONTENT IS ALWAYS THE KING”. You need to write great content to engage and hook your target audience.
You should be thinking- if CONTENT IS KING, then why we need to put so much effort into backlinks and off-page SEO? Can I just use CONTENT to RANK #1?
Like most answers in SEO, the answer is “It Depends”.
You may not be able to rank #1 without backlinks – but will be able to improve the rank just by optimizing the content.
If you are thinking of creating content in a vacuum – you can’t expect to see the results. To see profitable traffic and leads – you need a solid SEO Content Strategy.
Before we dive into content strategy, it is worth understanding why you need a content strategy.
A solid content strategy will help you provide information on what users search for, rather than publishing content on random topics.
It might be the best time to think of content in terms of information, context, medium and form. Content is the information that has a unique form and is transmitted through a medium.
As an SEO Content Strategist, it is your responsibility is to attract potential clients/customers with engaging content.
Let’s get started on how to set up an SEO content Strategy!
Steps to create an effective content strategy
Creating content without any purpose can be time consuming and end-up with poor results. Knowing the content strategy before producing content will help you gain the TRUST of your audience. Here are the 6 steps to develop a solid content strategy –
Pick topics based on target keywords
Define what you want to accomplish with your content. The goals can be - engaging the audience, generating leads, growing the network or selling your services. The nature of goals tends to change as you accomplish your short-term goals.
Your SEO content won’t reach the target audience if you ignore the “TARGET KEYWORDS”. You need to pick the topics based on your target keywords. These can be the phrases that you have discovered or your target audience want to know about.
Write for your target audience and not for search engines. You can use tools like UberSuggest, BuzzSumo, Google Trends, etc for ‘Content Ideas’ focused on any particular keyword.
Below are the ‘Content Ideas’ generated for the keyword ‘Content Writing’ on BuzzSumo, Google Trends and UberSuggest.
Image 1 – Content Ideas on BuzzSumo
Image 2 – Content Ideas on Google Trends
Image 3 – Content Ideas on UberSuggest
Focus on readability
The content that pops-up on the top of the SERPs is incredibly readable. Every single line on the page engages and hooks them till the end.
When they stay on your page for a long time to read the content – your page will look ‘Great’ to the search engines.
The Dwell Time signals the search engines that the page is relevant to a search query. Dwell time is the amount of time elapsed between the click on a page and the point when the user returns to the results page.
Readability is one of the important factors that contribute to longer Dwell Times.
The content on the page conveys all kinds of information in an informative, engaging and understandable way.
When the content is easy to understand – more and more people wish to stay on the page.
Check the content on Grammarly to find readability issues and grammatical errors.
Informative Content
Do not write content just for the sake of reaching the expected word limit. Websites or pages that provide in-depth information on any particular topic/subject are likely to rank higher.
It is advised to write longer blog posts i.e. 2000+ words. The average blog post length can be anywhere between 2,000 – 3,000 words.
You can write ultimate guides, how-to-guides, tips & tricks and all sorts of engaging content that benefits the reader. Focus on the SEARCH INTENT for a given topic or keyword.
Original research and in-depth information add value to your page. Strengthen your content by including statistics, facts, studies, information, and other pieces of research in your content.
The content of your page can be ‘Great’ but can be easily lost in an unorganized format. Break up the content into smaller paragraphs with keyword-rich headings that will keep the readers engaged.
Understand the competition
Before you finalize the content strategy, you need to look at what your competitors are doing. Use SEMrush or Alexa Site Overview Tool to spy on your competitors.
Check out their backlink profile, organic keywords, audience interest, paid ad profile etc to understand their strategy.
Stay on the top of SEO efforts by monitoring the content strategy. Track your page views, bounce rate and average time spent on a page on Google Analytics.
If you see a high drop off, it’s an indication that the content is irrelevant to what your users are looking for.
Take a look at simple metrics to get an idea of which content-pieces are well received and liked by your target audience.
Keyword frequency/keyword density
Well, keyword frequency or keyword density is the metric that determines how many times your chosen keyword appears on the web page.
Avoid on-page SEO mistakes like – overstuffing the keyword, header tag stuffing, excessive keyword usage etc. Keyword Density is one of the SEO ranking factors that determine whether the content is relevant to that particular keyword or not.
Keyword Density is calculated by the below formula –
Keyword density = No. of time the keyword appears on the page / No. of words on the webpage.
If the keyword is used 20 times on a page of 1000 words, the keyword density is 2%.
The ideal keyword density is around 1-2%. An excessively high keyword density will result in a poor user experience.
Check keyword density using Small SEO Tools.
Avoid Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s ideas or words without citing the source. It is an ethical issue that compromises the integrity of the writer. Avoiding plagiarism in SEO writing is easy with FREE tools.
Some of the best ways to avoid plagiarism are - keeping track of the sources, paraphrasing the sentence or writing in your own words, cite the original author.
You can use plagiarism checker tools like Small SEO Tools to detect unintentional plagiarism errors. This allows you to identify any parts that were too close to the original text.
There are different kinds of content like – infographics, eBooks, podcasts, social media messages, blogs, articles, press releases, web content etc to post online.
Follow the above steps to learn how to develop a great content marketing strategy in 2021. I hope you have learnt a lot about SEO Content Strategy.
If you have any confusion, go through the chapter once again and try the tools mentioned in this chapter.
