Before getting deep into SEO content strategy, you must get to know, what SEO content is. SEO content is any content developed with the intention of grabbing in more search engine traffic.
For your content to be SEO online, you’ll need keyword research, content organization, keyword optimization as well as content promotion. A mandatory part of SEO is a content strategy where links and contents are amongst the main ranking aspects.
There are millions of blogs published each day and hence contents developed should stand out of the rest and be capable of earning links. Here content strategy comes into play. Let’s run through a few tips about SEO content strategy.
How to Develop Your SEO Content Strategy?
1. Target market research:
While developing an SEO content marketing strategy, all you need to initially do is to explore about your target market. For your SEO content strategy to be successful, it is important to know the audience who are apt for your products and services. Hence target market research is important. Buyer’s personas can be created for business. In these personas, your ideal buyers would have fictionalized profiles.
These contain demographic data such as location, gender, age, etc. of the buyers. The buyers buying behaviors as well as interest are also included. With such details about the target audience, better contents can be developed. It is better to know the target audience challenges so that the requirement and search can be calculated. This requires content marketing topic generation and SEO keyword research.
2. Creating quality content:
Targeted keywords list is important to be prepared based on which content topic ideas can be generated. With the help of the topics, blogs can be developed and also keywords can be planned and used to develop extra pages for the website or for the long form of contents such as white papers or eBooks. Video contents are also good to be created related to the topic.
High-quality content is a must instead of just sprinkling keywords in it. After customers read the content, it should be developed in a manner that they take immediate action. It is important to remember that penalization is done for low-quality contents and this, in turn, affects the SEO capability to reach great heights and SEO rankings. There are a few tips to be followed while developing SEO content.
- While handling complex ideas or topics, it is important to make use of examples. This would be beneficial for the customer as they are linked easily with the product or brand.
- The content developed should be of high quality, hence spelling errors and grammar should be checked. There should also be perfect readability and flow of content.
- The content should have breakups with bullet points and short paragraphs. This makes the content easy to read and understandable.
- The content must be written in a way focused on the audience so that they can relate themselves and understand. Developing a relationship with the customer is strong when the content is in a conversational manner.
3. Expert area:
The very basic aspect in SEO content strategy is to define the area you are expert in. You must be aware that there are hundreds of companies competing and hence it is necessary to narrow down and focus on your particular niche. This is done to avert competing with many competitors. It would be great to create contents based on a particular topic and add additional posts.
4. Qualifying keywords:
The perfect predictable way to reap results is to base decisions on data. This is also considered as an important step for developing SEO content that is effective. The real meaning to qualify keywords is to make sure if the keyword being used is beneficial or not. In order to qualify keywords, there are few tips to be followed.
Google trends:
Is one of the best ways to find out if the keywords are trending or not. In today’s scenario, we should concentrate on keywords that are trending ahead. Though this may seem impossible, the Google trends tool can be employed for the keyword qualification process.
Search volume:
The most familiar method from Google keyword planner is the search volume for qualifying keywords. In utilizing this tool many people decide based on the percent of search volume a keyword obtains. But it is important to remember that search volumes may be less for certain keywords but they would have been qualified in many other ways.
The worthiness of links:
The main aspects of SEO puzzles are backlinks. This is the main reason to make sure if your target keywords are link worthy. This means that whether other websites are ready to associate with SEO content. For this purpose, Ahrefs can be utilized where target keywords are to be entered in the keyword explorer. The next step is to scroll down and check the backlinks part. Suppose the competitors possess backlinks, then, then it is considered as a link worthy keyword. There may be few keywords that fall under not worthy and in those cases; the overall website authority should be developed. Also remember that when a keyword isn’t linked worthy, it implies that it isn’t competitive.
Social signals:
checking for social signals is mandatory. Users can check out BuzzSumo and enter keywords and make sure if the words possess social signals.
User engagement:
It is considered as a great qualifier. Users can get online to Quora, Reddit, and Facebook and find out the topics that get more comments, views, and engagement. All these user signals can be considered as the qualification. For example, if you have any keyword that is tagged with search volume and if you wanted to qualify it further. You just need to paste the word in the website like Reddit and search on it. User engagement can also be gauged with Google. Here the user signals are monitored as the search volume isn’t spread.
5. SEO strategy goals set
An SEO strategy is made successful only after goals are planned. Objectives need to be planned because it is the only way to predict performance and also make sure if plans work. The main intention of SEO content strategy is to grab in more traffic. Traffic presents the main optimization goal as websites are able to capitalize on it. This is mainly achieved by direct e-commerce sales or through advertising. The other main goal of SEO strategy is to enhance brand awareness. It is the idea of the marketers for setting up such an aim in order to present the business to the outside world.
6. Optimizing:
After the ROI keywords are ready these can be utilized to elevate the content during development. It is necessary to optimize in an intelligent manner to get hold of all the chances of search engines to rank the content. This needs to take into account aspects such as developing high quality, Content relevant and comprehensive ones. Target keywords are to be used in H1, H2 as well as in Meta description. Also, a permanent publishing schedule must be made and be followed.
7. Content to be developed on own internet base:
It is mandatory to remember that before sharing and publishing the content, the content should have a place where it can reside; develop authority, trust as well as relevance. It is very mandatory for any individuals to publish contents in their own platforms first. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and content sites such as medium, etc. are mentioned as borrowed space or proprietary platforms. There isn’t any guarantee when posting in such sites.
8. Editorial calendar:
An editorial calendar for your content can be developed with the keyword research done. Remember to include the target of your keyword. There are few resources that can be utilized for this purpose as mentioned. The content marketing institutes free editorial calendar template and HubSpot’s free editorial calendar templates.
9. Content audit:
A content audit is important in developing a content strategy and is considered as an important part of building an effective strategy. Ones who desire to have a deep look about content audit can take a look at Michael King’s presentation about the personas use, and also check Everest Sizemore’s guide. Few tips are to be followed for content audit as mentioned below.
Inventory present content:
An inventory of the content is to be developed before a content audit. This can be achieved manually and also crawlers can be utilized by marketers such as screaming frog. This helps in getting the complete list of URL from the site.
Content to be organized and tagged:
the topic is to be planned initially. Make sure the topic speaks about what you’re selling, finalize if the content is educational, make sure if the content is about content marketing, conversion rate optimization, social media, A/B tests, landing pages, etc. Hence it is important to come up with a list.
Length:
The length of the content is to be finalized. This will have an impact on the way it is shared and viewed. You can find out if your readers are looking for long or short contents.
Tone:
The tone of the content is important. Decide if the content needs a funny tone, jargon licious, professional. It is equally good to present descriptors that describe the content.
Datedness:
There are few contents that are evergreen and few do not. It is good to understand where every piece resides.
Relevance:
Make sure if your topic is associated with the business. Also, ensure if the content speaks about the product and what is done. Maintain a scale and find out where each piece stands on it.
Features:
This depends on the types of contents included, the way they are delivered, are there any embedded videos, infographics, images, etc. Check if it has proper meta descriptions, title tags, headings throughout, etc.
10. Regular update and maintenance of content:
Present pages and contents are important in content strategy rather than creating new contents often. Content gaps and link opportunities do not leave behind the present content. It is true that updating present content is easier rather than developing something from the beginning. There are ample methods to enhance content list and can be applied to your pages. In order to upgrade the present content, Additional content types can be added and are also proved to be effective. Example, when a video is added to a form, leads addition of value as well as linkability. The additional benefit is that it grabs in more traffic and attention by means of youtube.
Another purpose instead of upgrading is by repurposing. Instead of adding extra content formats and content types an underperforming content asset can be repurposed. By this way, it is made sure it serves the requirements of the researchers. The SERP you desire to rank in is to be analyzed. In case there are prevailing content types, then it is required to match the content.
The last updated tag is important to be added to maintain your existing page fresh and at the top. This is the best tactic and can be followed in order to improve as well as update the page. The last updated date is important as it informs the readers that the information is latest and is social proof. The SEO content plan should be in a way that it delivers engaging content to the readers. Time should also be dedicated to maintaining the existing quality of pages.
Conclusion:
The biggest buzz word in the era is SEO and is for a valid reason. In order to run a profitable business, it is important to have web pages that rank in high positions in search results. It is important to develop a powerful optimization strategy for good performance and complete success in the business world.
The above tips would be beneficial for SEO content strategy and make your business more productive. There are loads of tricks and you need to design a perfect plan for SEO content strategy. Get started and generate the best plans in order to rank higher in search results and reap success.