What is SEO Optimized Content

What is SEO Content?

Any written, graphical, or multimedia content that is created specifically to attract search engine traffic and improve a website's ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) is known as Search Engine Optimized Content. The content is optimized through relevant keywords, high-quality information, and various on-page SEO techniques, making it more discoverable to users searching for specific topics or information.

You can optimize the webpage meta title, description, and h1 heading by using the main keywords in them. After that, you can focus on the content within the page.

You should write content that is SEO-friendly so that it can be understood by search engines, as well as satisfy the users' intent and keep them happy.

Types of SEO content

Let's first define what content is before we discuss how it can be optimized.

Different forms of content are possible. Text, images, videos, audio, infographics, and combinations of these can be used.

In general, content is divided into the following categories:

• Blog Posts: The most popular format. A post may include text, images, or video. Articles of all types, lists, how-to guides, press releases, or general information are welcome.

• Static Pages: Pages of your website with static content, such as the 'About Us' page

• Product Pages: Pages that promote a specific product or service.

• Landing pages: Pages that are designed specifically for PPC campaigns or to appear first on a user's screen on a website.

How to Optimize your Content for SEO

When you publish content on your website, you should follow some guidelines to ensure that it is SEO optimized, regardless of the format.

1. Keyword Research 

The process of finding relevant keywords that have good volumes globally for your website is known as keyword research. Different people conduct keyword research based on different factors such as global volumes and ranking difficulty. Keyword Research is generally done before you get the content written for your website.

There are four steps in keyword research:

• The first thing you do is to write down your company's mission;

• In the next step, you create a list of keywords that you want to be found for;

• You then examine search intent

• Finally, create landing pages for each keyword

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If you perform keyword research correctly, you should have a clear picture of what people search for and what terms you want people to find on your pages. Using this overview, you can write content for your website.

How does Keyword Research Contribute to SEO Content?

Keyword research identifies the keywords your target audience uses. This is important. Here at ETTVI, we regularly encounter clients who speak about their products with particular words while their customers speak with totally different words. It makes no sense to write and optimize SEO content around words people don't use. Making sure you use the same keywords as your target audience will make your efforts to optimize your website worthwhile.

Some terms we use in Keyword Research

Keywords and Key phrases

The word 'keyword' is often thrown around, but this doesn't mean it has to mean just one word. Keywords can contain multiple words, such as 'WordPress SEO' or 'Google Analytics plugin'.

Long-tail Keywords

For long (and specific) search terms, ranking for them will be easier. Long-tail keywords are referred to as keywords that are more specific (and usually longer). These keywords are more focused on a specific niche.

How many Keywords?

Exactly how many keywords you should focus on is very hard to predict. Furthermore, it's very simple: You just have to come up with a lot - as many as you can. However, more than 1,000 keywords might be too many.

Even a small business will probably have several hundred keywords. Creating pages for them all right away is not necessary. WordPress provides an excellent Content Management System (CMS) because it allows you to add content gradually. Identify which keywords you'd like to rank for right away and which ones you don't need to rank for right away. Plan your content and determine what your priorities are.

Head or Tail?

The importance of classifying your keywords cannot be overstated. Some keywords are very common and competitive (head), and others that are more long-tail. Decide which of your high-level keywords generates the most traffic for your website and is most suitable for your business. The rest of these keywords belong more to the tail, so you will probably only have a few of them for your business. We will discuss long-tail keywords in greater detail in the next section (as well as their importance).

Content focused on common keywords should be primarily on the top-level pages of your site (homepages and pages one level underneath your homepage), whereas content focusing on long tail keywords should be there at the base of your site.

Keyword Intent and Search Intent

Considering the user's search intent is very valuable when you are conducting keyword research. If they enter your keyword in a search engine, are they looking for information? Will they buy something if they enter your keyword? For example, when searching for [buy leather sofa] or [train your puppy], the keyword intent is clear. However, it's not always that straightforward.

Four types of Intent

Four types of intent are there:

• Navigational intent: Users want to visit a specific website, but instead of typing in the URL, they enter a search term.

• Informational intent: People are seeking answers to a specific question or information about a particular subject.

• Commercial intent: Consumers are planning to buy something soon and are doing their research before they buy.

• Transactional intent: People who are searching for commercial intent are looking to make a purchase.

There's no doubt that search engines are always trying to understand what people are looking for, and they're getting better at understanding people's intent. Put simply, if 95% of people search for "change car tire", they are looking for information, and if you optimize for sales intent, you're not going to rank most of the time.

Check the SERPs

When you do keyword research, the results pages can provide a wealth of information. To find out what people are searching for when they use your keywords, simply Google them and see what comes up. Make your content specific to the needs you have distilled from the keyword results. 

Tools to Use for Keyword Research

You can conduct keyword research using multiple free and premium tools. You will also see trends in search volume and related keyphrases when using ETTVI Keyword Research SEO Tool. This isn't an exhaustive keyword research tool, but it can give you valuable insights and help you find high-performing keywords!

Adapting your Keyword Strategy

Keyword strategies aren't static. Your company's and website's keyword strategies should evolve as well. The relationship should grow and evolve with you. 

As your company changes, you should adapt your strategy at the same time. If you start selling new products in your online shop, you should include more keywords. You must also focus your keywords on these new markets if you are aiming for new markets.
Here are some keyword strategies to consider. It makes sense to start by trying to rank for long-tail keywords and then target more general ones afterward. 

2. Site structure

Image By Freepik

The structure of your site is another important aspect of content SEO. Here's how an ideal site structure looks. First, I'll explain why site structure is important. Additionally, I will explain how you can (quickly) improve your website's structure without affecting the core of it.

Why is Site Structure Important for Content SEO?

Site structure is imperative for building SEO content for two main reasons:

a. A good structure helps Google to ‘understand’ your site

Google can identify the most important content on your site based on its structure. The structure of your site determines what search engines will understand about your site and whether they will find and index content relevant to its purpose and intent. Therefore, a site with a good structure will rank higher on Google.

You can also use existing content that has generated links from other sites to rank other pages by creating such a structure. Link juice will be spread among other pages on your site thanks to your site's structure. Having created high-quality content for your commercial site will also help improve the search engine rankings of your sales pages.

b. A good structure makes sure you are not competing with your SEO Content

Most likely, you will have a number of articles related to the same topic on your website. For example, ETTVI writes about SEO. Google wouldn't be able to tell which of the eight SEO articles is the most important. We would be competing with our articles for the top spot on Google if we didn't clarify this with our site structure. Hence, by solving problems such as these with a solid internal linking structure, overall rankings can be improved.

The ideal structure of a site

Your site should be structured like a pyramid. You will find some links to other pages (such as category pages) on your homepage. Each of these links leads to another page.

Your keyword strategy and the structure of your site are integral to an effective content SEO strategy. You will need to think about both common, competitive keywords and more long-tail niche search terms when creating a keyword strategy. Your website structure should similarly include this dichotomy. It is best to place top-level pages that target the most common search terms towards the top level of your site structure, and long-tail pages at the bottom. The long-tail pages at the bottom of the pyramid must link correctly to the higher-level pages.

Practical Tips on Improving your Site Structure

Most likely, you already have a live website if you're serious about content SEO. Therefore, it may be too late to set up your site's structure in a pyramid-like manner. But don't be discouraged - you can still improve the structure and content of your site.

Decide upon Cornerstone Content

Articles that are cornerstones should be your priority. The articles that are most important to your website are those that you are most proud of. One of our cornerstone articles is this ultimate guide. These are the ones you want to rank for most. Start thinking about which articles are most important if you haven't yet. Your site's best articles will come from these articles. Update them regularly and give them extra attention.

Use Tags

Adding tags to your site will also benefit it. Tags and taxonomies will make your website more structured, or at least make it easier for Google to understand. These group your articles based on a common topic. But don't go overboard. Some people have more tags than articles. An overly-complicated website that uses too many tags will be confusing and poorly structured.

Avoid Duplicate Content

Multiple places on your site can use the same SEO content. It doesn't matter to you as a reader: you still get the information you came for. As a search engine doesn't want to display the same content twice, it must choose something to show as a result.

In addition, you may notice that some of your competitors link to your product at the first URL, while others link at the second URL. You would have a higher chance of ranking top 10 for the relevant keyword if all these duplicates were linked to the same URL. This is known as canonicalization.

Remove Old SEO Content

What should you do with old content? As part of regular SEO content maintenance, you can update, merge, or redirect it.

The content on a page should be removed if it is outdated! If there were valuable links on that page, they might be worth keeping. Even though the page no longer exists, you still want to benefit from these links, so you should redirect the URL.

Deal with Orphaned Content

A piece of content that lacks links from another article or post is called orphaned content. The search engines and your site's visitors have a hard time finding these articles because of that. Therefore, Google will rank these articles as less important. By linking to that particular article from other (related) content, you are letting Google (and your readers) know that an article is important to you.

Deal with Content Cannibalization

Depending on the topic, you may have dozens of articles to choose from once you've written content for a while. Search engines and users may be confused if these articles are saying the same thing. Due to the similarity of your content, it may appear in search engines as competing content. Search engines call this cannibalization of keywords. There is nothing inherently bad about it, but you should look into it. What is the performance of your articles or is the competition hurting your rankings? Thankfully, keyword cannibalization is relatively easy to resolve.

3. Copywriting for Content SEO

Copywriting is the third element of a successful content SEO strategy. What's important is writing articles that your audience finds interesting and that keep them on your website.

Original Idea

Creating original content is one of the first requirements for high-quality copywriting. Blog posts and articles should be original, fresh, and new. There must be something unique about it that stands out from all the other blogs and articles already on the internet. The content should be worth reading.

You should end up with a very long list of terms for which you want to be found if you did your keyword research well. Using this list can help you make your decision. However, keywords are not yet topics. To create an effective blog post, you should come up with an original idea that includes the desired focus keyword prominently.

The original content you create for SEO doesn't always have to be brand new. The story will automatically be original if it is completely new. You can also create original content by expressing your (professional) opinion on a particular topic. You will make your content unique and original by taking your stance on a story.

Think About your Audience

When writing original content, you should consider your audience. You should also consider:

• What would you like to tell your audience?

• Is there a central theme to your article?

• Why did you write it?

• What do you hope your readers will do after reading your article? Are you looking for engagement, sales, or more reading?

Your post or article will be more original if you consider these questions.

Content Design and Content SEO

Creating content based on actual user needs is called content design. Rather than just focusing on what your users want, it focuses more on what they need. As long as you regard your content in this way, your users will have access to that content in the format and language that they need, when they need it.

Content design isn't just a technique for producing better content; it's a way to approach content in a whole new way.

Copywriting Requires Readable SEO Content

Easily readable content is a key requirement for writing high-quality content. Readers and search engines alike appreciate readable content. Your articles are not only read by people, but also by Google.

A well-written and structured text will enable readers to understand your message, but also, perhaps even more importantly, it will improve Google's understanding of your content. Your main message will be much easier to understand by Google, which increases your chances of ranking well.

The readability of a document depends on many factors, including the text structure, sentence length, and the clarity of the paragraphs.

Content, Context, and Search Intent

With more and more advances in natural language processing, such as BERT, Google starts to understand the content on websites better. A keyword's visibility on a page is no longer just about how many times it appears. Additionally, it examines the context of the keywords, such as co-occurring, related, and synonym terms. Also, Google can recognize the intention of users' searches better: it tries to determine what the query is about. Does he or she want information or a product? Which pages align best with that intent?

The emergence of all these developments means that you need to do more than just use your keyword enough. Also, think about how you phrase it: does it convey what you're talking about? Are you creating a post or page with a specific purpose in mind? What is your website serving up to users, and do you think it's what they're seeking? Is it just a source of information or are you trying to sell something?

Optimize Content for Search Engines and Readers

Finally, high-quality content must be search engine optimized. Ideally, your SEO content should be easily found by search engines. Findingability involves increasing the likelihood of Google picking up your content on its search results pages. Once you've written an original and readable post, you must take this final step.

Conclusion

The importance of content SEO can't be overstated. You can write and structure the content for your website in all its aspects. This is crucial for SEO. Crappy content won't be read. Your website's text is read and scanned by Google just like a visitor. Google's algorithm heavily weighs the content you publish to determine your site's ranking. Content is king, after all. It is essential to write great SEO content, use the right keywords, and structure your website in a way that is understandable by Google. Although it will take a lot of effort, it will eventually pay off.