SEO traffic is something you don’t want to miss out on. Reports show that 69% of digital traffic is from local and organic searches. You can’t get that traffic if you don’t rank on the first page.
But it takes more than putting a website online to rank on Google. You need the correct SEO strategies to rank.
Do you want to learn what to include in your SEO content strategy? Read the guide below to learn how to handle search engine optimization correctly.
Table of Contents
Choose the Right Keywords
Competition is fierce in the search results. The keywords that get the most searches are populated with huge websites that are tough to pass. It’s even harder if you’re building on a new site that hasn’t established itself.
But you can shortcut getting SEO traffic by targeting the right keywords. Although high-volume terms are problematic for less-established websites, you can go after low-competition terms that the big players aren’t targeting.
Look at the common questions people ask in your industry and the variations of those questions. Find search results that have lower-quality websites and user-generated content.
These search pages are easier to rank for and will result in quicker rankings.
Use Different Content Formats
Google considers more than text today. It wants to offer searches a complete experience — which means it also values images and videos in your website content.
Think of the content types that make sense for your SEO content. If you’re in a visually appealing industry, such as home decor, take pictures of your projects and what goes into each design. For content that demonstrates the steps to do something, think about adding a video.
Since Google wants to rank authoritative content from real people, the more you can show experience in what you talk about, the better your chance of ranking.
Of course, it takes a lot of work for these types of content creation. Reach out to affordable digital marketing services if you need help.
Make a List of Every Topic
Topical authority is a growing priority for Google. It wants to rank content that authority experts write. This means you must prove that you have the knowledge to discuss a subject.
It’s hard to do this when you only have a single post about a topic. There’s no way for you to fully cover a subject this way.
Instead, make a list of every single topic about a specific category in your industry. Find which keywords match those subjects to create a list of topics to write about.
Your aim is to write about the subject from every angle possible. Once you build your topic clusters, interlink them on your website to inform Google about each blog post.
Learn About Search Intent
It’s tempting to make every piece of content on your website a sales article. You want to make as many sales as possible, so you heavily promote products on each piece of content you make.
The problem is that this isn’t a good experience for users. People don’t want a sales pitch when they visit a page to get information about a problem. They want to learn how to fix things, and if they don’t want to handle the problem themself, maybe look for a paid solution.
Optimizing for specific features in search results can help establish topical authority. Ranking in People also Ask sections is a great way to appear as a trusted source for information, as it puts your content in front of users seeking direct answers to their questions. This will help you appeal more to those looking for information.
Make sure your content matches the search intent of your visitors. It will increase your visitors’ time on-site and show Google that your ultimate goal is to please your visitors.
Create Linkable Content
Great content won’t always be enough to rank in many situations. Since there is so much competition, your website’s authority won’t be able to overtake the winning pages — even if you have better content.
That’s why you need to get backlinks to your website. A backlink acts as a boosting signal for your website. When another high-value website trusts yours with a link, your own website’s authority increases.
But you can’t get links if you don’t create great content that people want to share. Think about the information other content creators search for and link to on their websites. These are pages that have good data that people reference in articles.
Once you have these pages, you have a better chance of naturally acquiring backlinks.
Create an Update Schedule
Google doesn’t want to show old information to users. Information goes out of date, and when people rely on that information to be accurate, it offers a poor user experience when your website is wrong.
In cases where freshness matters, create a list of your website content that needs review. Schedule time during the year to audit your content.
If you find anything that needs to be updated, make those changes and let Google know your website content is up to date.
Track Your Performance
SEO isn’t a one-time process. Rankings will fluctuate over time, and content that does well today may fall in the future.
You need to stay on top of these changes to maintain your website traffic. Use rank trackers to list the keywords you rank for and turn on notifications for drastic changes.
If you see yourself moving down the rankings, look at the websites on the top to see what kind of content they have. If they have better content, see what they did better and try to outdo them.
Build Your SEO Content Strategy Today
SEO takes time to work. You have to spend time crafting the perfect content and waiting on Google to see what you’ve done and rank your website higher. And if you do things the wrong way, you’ll wait even longer for Google to notice and start sending traffic.
That’s why you must do things right when building an SEO content strategy. Remember the things above when creating SEO content to maximize your chance of getting good rankings.
Do you want to learn more internet marketing strategies to use after you craft an effective SEO plan? Learn more about generating website traffic on the blog.
