Hello, Nick Ponte here. I help local businesses ramp up their online strategy so they can improve their sales beyond their brick-and-mortar locations. I often share about how businesses can take steps to increase leads and revenue by improving their web presence.
Today, I want to share some specific ways you can use content optimization and publishing to make improvements to your SEO strategy. Though it takes some consistent and detailed work, making these changes will significantly improve search engine results… and thus, your website traffic!
Also Read: 3 Ways to Optimize Your Website and Google My Business to Drive Leads
Why You Should Consider Content Optimization
In all of your website’s content, you have the opportunity to work in keywords and improve your chances of popping up in search results. This is part of content marketing, a crucial area of drawing in customers from online sources!
While the content itself is vital to your website, you also need the right keywords, headers, and tags to draw in your audience. We call this “optimization.” Optimization will increase your online leads and conversions, ultimately increasing your revenue. It will also increase the efficiency of your communications with customers, because they will already have the answers to some of their questions. Think of it as a way to engage the customer before you have any in-person contact.
Content optimization may take some time on the back end, but you’ll find that the investment is well worth the increase in traffic and leads!
If you don’t optimize your content, you risk losing any new business leads from people searching online because you don’t have the right information. Whether your content leads to confusion or just irrelevance on the internet, users won’t find your business, or if they do, they won’t stay on your site when they can’t find the answers they need.
Since this process can take some time when you do it on your own, I’ve put together three tips for you as you work through content optimization for your website.
Also Read: Content Marketing: How We Drive Rankings and Traffic With Content
3 Ways to Improve Your Website’s Optimization
Here are three basic steps to help you get started optimizing your content:
- Focus on Keywords
When you work on your content strategy, come up with relevant keywords to use. Think about the topics you need to create content about, and fill in any gaps of missing information the customer might search for. Think of terms to string together and figure out what resonates with your audience. Your goals should include informing, educating, and even occasionally entertaining.
These keywords need to be targeted and relevant. Make sure to periodically evaluate whether you use all the best keywords in your content.
- Build Quality Content
Think about where your website needs to have content, and start there! You’ll have content anywhere you need to fill informational areas on your website: introductions, descriptions, FAQs, product guides… anywhere you need text. Make it clear and easy to read so it will attract, not distract, users who want to find out more.
Blogs are a great way to increase the amount and quality of your content, so I recommend starting one if you haven’t already.
If you don’t know what to post about, think about the kinds of questions you get from customers and answer them thoroughly. Look up some of the news in your industry and write your thoughts and reactions to it. Think of useful processes in your craft and write how-to guides about them. Make sure to work in keywords and think about how each post will add to search rankings.
One way to improve the connections between your site’s pages, and simultaneously improve rankings: Link building. You can use backlinks to your own webpages, and you can include external links to others. You can even find software that makes this process easier, like LinkWhisper. These work effectively when built right into the text so that they add to, and don’t take away from, the content. They will also improve your site engagement as they encourage users to keep exploring new pages.
- Analyze and Edit Content Before You Publish
If you don’t have someone to edit your content, it could hurt you. You can ask a word-savvy person on staff or hire an editor. They need to check for keywords, content direction, and, of course, typos. Nothing screams “unprofessional” more than text with a bunch of grammar mistakes.
You want to have polished and pointed content before you hit “publish.”
In my marketing firm, we run through every aspect of SEO and content production with a fine-toothed comb. We won’t publish until every line is excellent and accurate. If you need any help with this process or want to find out more information about how you can exponentially improve, reach out to us today!
Further Reading: The Importance of Websites for Small Businesses in Hawaii
Photos Courtesy of Glenn Carstens-Peters, Dennis Kummer, Brett Jordan