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Besides keywords, your SEO strategy should consider your audience, current trends, content formatting, and data analysis.
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Keywords come second to good content writing. Trust copywriters to do their jobs, and strive to develop an SEO strategy that combines writerly instincts with data-driven research.
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Don’t forget about technical SEO, which can lower bounce rates, ensure better security, and tidy up content indexing.
For years, SEO practitioners have relied heavily on keyword optimizations to increase rankings and grow traffic. However, there’s a fine line between creating search engine content that is keyword-rich, but too dry, and creating quality content that truly resonates with a target audience. Keyword research aside, here a few rules to abide by when developing content with an eye toward on-page SEO:
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Know your audience: Good content writing starts with identifying your target audience. Get a handle on demographics to learn more about what resonates with them and then start creating content around the topics they’re most likely to engage with.
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Know what’s trending: Choosing keywords solely on search volume and opportunity is not a well-rounded approach. Instead, use an engagement tool like Buzzsumo to discover what content is performing the strongest.
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Format correctly: Audience fatigue is a real thing, so consider different ways to spice up the presentation of on-page content. This can range from simply bulleting out info as a list, to adding calls to action, to embedding visually appealing videos or GIFs.
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Leverage your data: Once the compass is set, pay close attention to what the data tells you. Did a new post garner an unusual amount of likes on social? Did a newly released product page receive more on-page engagement? Keeping an eye on your data gives you clues about how your content is resonating.
Informed copywriting
Professional copywriters are responsible for creating original and engaging content for brands, so let them do what they do best. However, you can inform copywriters of target keywords so they can naturally work them into copy without sounding too dry.
Informing copywriters of the types of topics that are resonating online helps them develop content that is tonally unique to the brand while still sending positive search engine ranking signals.
When it comes to working with copywriters, check out a few dos and don’ts below:
Do:
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Map relevant keywords to relevant creative assets. Don’t just post whatever comes to mind – content opportunities should be vetted with real-life engagement metrics.
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Provide a few variations of related keywords, and/or questions based on search intent and opportunity. If one keyword sounds too dry, perhaps a related keyword will suffice.
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Provide informed recommendations for formatting. This can be pulled from Google Analytics or Search Console. For example, how many answer box listings did your site occupy last month? Share the correlation between engagement and content structure with copywriters when giving assignments.
Don’t:
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Dictate what they should write solely based on keyword research. Copywriters are creative individuals who take pride in their work. Trust their judgment when it comes to stylistic word choices and structure.
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Retroactively inform copy from an SEO perspective. At the very least, make it a habit to interject your recommendations prior to content deployment. This will alleviate the stress of having to backtrack and re-optimize content with unnatural-sounding keywords.
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Choose keywords just based on volume. Instead, choose keywords based on how accurately they describe a product or page.
Technical SEO: why it helps
When done correctly, technical SEO will give your on-page content the boost it needs to show up in search engine results – and be discovered by interested users.
When determining rankings, algorithms take into account the way your content is presented. Technical SEO will reinforce the hierarchy of ranking pages so that search engines know whether or not content is secure, what exactly the page is about, and how long it takes to load. These all add up to a better user experience and stronger trust between you and your readers.
In a nutshell, a good technical SEO strategy can help optimize content by ensuring:
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Content loads quickly, thus decreasing bounce rates
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Content is secure for the purposes of protecting sensitive information
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Broken or missing pages are kept to a minimum
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Fresh content is indexed through updated sitemaps
Give your page the professional SEO treatment
When it comes to creating optimized and engaging onsite, content there is no substitute for due diligence. Do your research to discover who your audience is and what resonates with them. Work with both your technical teams and copywriters to develop content that is unique to the brand, keyword-vetted, and technically sound so that search engines and users can access content quickly, easily, and securely.
Have additional questions about technical SEO or on-page content writing? Give RMG a call today!
