5 Tips to Strategically Optimize Your Content
Back links, reviews and steady traffic are indicators of a successful website. But with all the updates to Google over the past two years, it’s clear that the most powerful component of a successful website is quality, organic and optimized content. Tooling content for maximum advantage requires an investment in time, and while this can be costly, it is essential to maintaining quality ranking and solid metrics.
Several factors impact the efficacy of content and its performance on your website. If your site is not performing to expectations or its rank is starting to slip, now is the time to engage in some “quick fix” strategies to create and optimize content. Check out these 5 tips to help you organize your copy to gain the most benefit from your content. While these tips may seem quite mainstream, they are often forgotten in long-term site maintenance plans, but with these economical quick fixes, your blog or website may perform to expectations once more.
1. Retool Headers
Some of the most valuable SEO real estate on your website rests with the Headers and Subheads in your layout. The best article in the world and one that many people would like to read may be entirely overlooked if its title isn’t catchy. Compelling headers drive traffic. Your readers and website visitors want to be informed and entertained; they do not want to be fed redundant text delivered in a dry way. Write headers that shout “good info” ahead.
To freshen up older posts, consider adding subheads filled with keywords that draw in searches and more readers. For new posts, consult Google Trends for ideas or Alexa.com to research topics currently trending and incorporate them into new articles and posts, perhaps providing commentary that creates a quality tie-in to your company’s product or service.
2. Use Alexa to Drive Traffic
The plethora of tools for Web designers and developers at Alexa.com records valuable metrics on global and regional page rank as well as views and keyword associations. Also, check out Alexa’s “What’s Hot” page for interesting and useful summaries of trendy subjects on the Internet, updated every 5 minutes. When planning your content for the week, review the “What’s Hot” page for those keywords and subjects most likely to draw visits to your site. Consider incorporating some of Alexa.com’s Top 20 Hot Topics into planned content as well as reading the site’s articles, which can be a valuable source of information on what is “trending.”
3. Social Media Plug-In
One of the best tools to aggregate content is social media. After every post or change on your site, be sure to provide the URL of that page to the major social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr.
Social media and content work together to create an audience. Your website or blog generates followers for your social media channels, while sharing content from your site on social media generates subscriptions to your RSS feed or site follow list (if any). Remember: Optimize all profiles with keywords for search engine discovery.
4. Graphics and Multimedia Content
Never underestimate the value of a good graphic. From the time we are children our eyes are trained to enjoy taking in images, preferring picture books to long novels full of typed content. Mixing up content to include popular multimedia or graphic interaction is critical to the success of your site. Colorful pictures add interest, break up the density of the text and prevent “reader fatigue.” Share interesting and high-quality images that your readers will enjoy, and don’t forget to optimize the images with meta tags and appropriate keywords. And don’t underestimate the value of videos. Optimizing your YouTube page and profile will support your brand marketing in an entertaining and attractive way.
5. Interactive Elements
Building in elements that create a “call to action” in your audience keeps readers engaged and coming back for more. If you use Instagram, install the widget that shares your updates and offer visitors an opportunity to “Like” or comment on your photographs. You may also want to consider other interactive elements such as opinion polls. Switch up your content so that you can appeal to the broadest group. By creating variety in both subject matter and delivery, you gradually build community around your website. Variety is the spice of life and when you strategically optimize your content, you will see results --- increased page views, subscriptions, and overall ranking -- after a short time.
About the Author
Pratik Dholakiya has more than 5 years of experience in SEO, Social Media Marketing, Online Branding and Reputation Management. He is currently associated with E2M Solutions, a professional SEO consulting company helping every size of online businesses. You can follow him on Twitter @DholakiyaPratik.
