When people discuss content optimization, they usually mean search engine optimization (SEO). Nevertheless, it does not imply that you should solely optimize your content for search engine bots.
Instead of adding or removing information, the opposite is the case: when you optimize your content for humans, it becomes search engine friendly in turn by thinking step by step.
In this guide, we will discuss various methods to enhance the performance of your content through optimization, and also elaborate on the significance of this practice.
What Is Content Optimization?
Content optimization involves ensuring that your content is optimized to achieve its intended goal, whether that be ranking well in search engines or converting leads into conversions.
Achieving these goals can be accomplished by implementing several basic methods that have been proven over time. However, it is important to note that web content optimization involves more than just carrying out technical tasks and checking off boxes. It is essential to also address significant marketing and editorial aspects.
Why Is It Important?
Assuming you have written an excellent blog post at the beginning of the customer journey (TOFU) that is relevant to your main offering and wish to maximize its exposure. A couple of months later, when you review its performance, you discover that it has not been viewed by anyone.
There could be several reasons for this: – Perhaps adding new information may alter the meaning or context of the text. – Removing information may result in the message being incomplete or unclear. – By maintaining the same meaning, the essence of the original text can be preserved. – Rephrasing step by step allows for a clearer understanding and helps avoid any misinterpretation.
- The keywords you have used have little to no search volume
- You haven’t covered the topic in any real level of detail
- You haven’t used a coherent heading structure, so Google’s bots have had a hard time making sense of your article
- Your title tag doesn’t accurately reflect what the article is about
If you fail to optimize your content, your article could get lost in the Google vortex. Even if you have created a superb article with exclusive insights and valuable advice, if search engines cannot locate it or if it is targeted at the wrong audience, it is unlikely to assist you in reaching your content marketing objectives.
To ensure that you stay on track with content optimization and achieve a successful content marketing strategy, we have compiled some useful tips.
What’s the difference between on-page SEO and off-page SEO?
This post focuses on on-page SEO, which refers to all copy and metadata that can be adjusted within your content management system, as the name suggests.
Off-page SEO, which includes link-building, brand mentions, and social media and influencer marketing, refers to all the factors that affect organic rankings and happen outside the scope of your CMS or website.
How can you optimize the on-page content?
On-page SEO
The following are the main considerations that writers, content managers, and digital strategists consider when optimizing the content on their website.
- Title tags.
- Meta descriptions.
- Alt tags.
- URL structures.
- Media (images, videos).
- H1, H2 and H3 tags.
- Internal linking.
- Outbound linking.
- Mobile-responsiveness.
These factors are elementary, obvious SEO techniques that should be implemented first. However, it is also necessary to optimize the content on your web pages, such as blogs, images, and videos, for search engines.
The methodology of optimizing older posts, instead of creating new ones, can have a significant impact on organic rankings and search presence. Brafton.com exemplifies this concept perfectly.
Optimizing Content for SEO
The main objective of digital content optimization is typically to ensure visibility in search engines. Here are ten essential actions you can implement to enhance your digital presence and improve your visibility.
1. Find the Right Topic and the Right Keyword
Before preparing and writing your piece, it is crucial to identify the topic and the target keyword(s) as they form the fundamental building block of every content you create.
Google’s focus has shifted towards evaluating how effectively a topic is covered, rather than solely relying on individual keywords.
When thinking in a systematic manner, rephrase the following passage without altering the meaning. Retain the identical information and do not eliminate or introduce any new information. Remain mindful that keywords are distinct search queries utilized by individuals, while topics establish the semantic connection among those keywords.
In order to make this process more efficient, you can utilize the Topic Research tool by initially inputting a broad concept that you believe may appeal to your target audience.
If you are a healthy meal delivery service, you can begin by focusing on the topic of a ‘healthy diet.’ Additionally, you have the option to choose the specific geographical location, which could be either a country, region, or city.
Afterwards, a comprehensive range of interconnected subtopics will be presented for you to select from for your article.
If you choose the ‘Healthy fats’ topic, you can click on the card to view the most popular headlines and questions related to this content idea. Additionally, at the bottom of the card, there is a list of related searches.
Once you have made a decision on your topic, you can proceed to determine the target keywords for your blog post.
However, keyword research encompasses more than just recognizing relevant phrases or words related to your product or business.
When considering the keyword, it is important to take into account the size and authority of your brand. Additionally, you should determine if the keyword is attainable and if it aligns with the search intent of your target audience.
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool allows you to generate keyword ideas by considering not just traffic volume and difficulty, but also user intent. For example, you have the option to select either informational or transactional keywords.
2. Find Semantically Related Keywords
In order to increase your chances of ranking well, make sure to incorporate related keywords that are conceptually associated with your main keyword. This will assist search engines in comprehending the subject matter you are addressing. However, it is crucial that you remain true to the initial purpose of your article.
To find relevant keywords for your content piece in a quick and easy way, you can utilize the SEO Content Template. This tool offers suggestions based on the top 10 organic search competitors for your chosen keyword.
In order to maintain the same meaning while rephrasing the text, the following steps can be applied: 1. Begin by brainstorming key terms and concepts related to the topic: losing weight, saturated fats, type of fat, keto friendly. 2. Identify the main points and the relationships between them within the original text. 3. Reorganize the ideas into a logical sequence, ensuring that no new information is introduced and nothing is omitted. 4. Start rephrasing each sentence while incorporating the key terms and concepts generated in step one. 5. Continuously review the revised text to ensure it maintains the same meaning as the original. Please note that without the original text to rephrase, the example provided is generic and does not specifically relate to any given context.
3. Establish Your Structure
To rephrase the text while maintaining the same meaning: When considering the rephrasing, it is important to think systematically and logically. Begin by determining the topic and keywords of the text, and then create an outline that follows a cohesive structure. The related questions provided in the Topic Research and Keyword Overview tools can be helpful in this step. It can be thought of as mapping out the headings (H tags) that will be used on the page.
In our 2022 research, it was found that 47% of articles categorized as top-performing organic content have advanced headings (H2 + H3 + H4).
There are two reasons why this is important: One, it is necessary to think step by step, and two, the text should be rephrased without adding or removing any information while retaining the same meaning.
- First of all, breaking down your topic into subtopics helps readability. Visitors to your page will have an easier time navigating and identifying the depth of coverage you’re providing.
- Secondly, an advanced heading structure makes it much easier for search engines to understand what’s important in your article by breaking them into sections with code that they can crawl.
To automate this process, input your primary keyword into the Content Outline Builder tool.
After considering each step, proceed to click ‘Create Outline’ to allow the tool to generate ideas for mapping the structure of your article in an automatic manner, without introducing any additional information or omitting any existing information.
In order to generate additional innovative ideas for your blog post or potentially develop new linked articles, you can revisit the Topic Research tool and re-enter your topic.
4. Perform a content depth audit
Your blogs are not performing as well as they have the potential to, primarily due to gaps in your content that are being capitalized on by other companies. These competitors are covering subjects in a more comprehensive manner than you are, leading Google to associate their posts with higher usefulness for users.
By thinking in a logical order, the text can be rephrased while retaining the same meaning: Performing a content gap analysis allows you to identify the concepts that should be incorporated into your revised content in order to better meet the needs of searchers. It serves as a detailed plan outlining which elements to retain and which to modify.
When presenting these recently discovered concepts, it is important to articulate each of them in a systematic manner, ensuring that the reader benefits from their inclusion without neglecting or simplifying vital aspects of the keyword.
When considering how to rephrase the text below, it is important to maintain the same meaning without adding or removing information. Additionally, the ideas should flow smoothly within the broader context and be relevant to the targeted keyword. In today’s competitive digital landscape, it often necessitates expanding the length of content by several hundred or even a thousand words in order to improve search engine rankings. Implementing this approach across all pages on your website that are not currently optimized can be a time-consuming and lengthy process. However, the advantage lies in the fact that fully optimized content can greatly enhance the results of your content marketing efforts. This occurs as each updated page adds value to any other page it is linked to, creating a snowball effect that boosts your overall content marketing strategy.
5. Consider additional on-page elements
To further enhance the page, custom imagery, social share buttons, logical CTAs, appropriate subheadings, and social media elements such as Instagram photos or tweets can be included. These additions serve to make the text more easily digestible and provide additional context.
In order to benefit from this strategy, there is no requirement to modify the existing metadata (such as title tags and URLs) each time. All you need to do is access the previous post through your content management system (CMS), implement content changes directly, and then publish it again.
If you include additional inline images on pages, make sure to take advantage of the image captions and alt text. These elements can be used to insert targeted keywords, especially if you feel like you’ve already covered everything with the text alone. This technique, known as Image SEO, may be small in the overall marketing landscape, but it can significantly enhance the semantic relevance of your pages.
By following a step-by-step approach, you can gradually improve different posts, aiming to enhance as many as possible. This includes delving into pages that are not performing well.
Every piece of content is valuable since you invested resources to create it. But your job isn’t done yet if you leave that content buried on page 3 (or worse!) for years. Instead, revisit it, enhance it, and monitor its performance metrics.
Website content optimization tools to use
In theory, any SEO marketing tool (or plugin) should have the ability to provide guidance on what to optimize and how to go about it. Some of these tools may include:
- Ahrefs.
- Moz.
- SEMrush.
- Searchmetrics.
- Raven Tools.
- Yoast SEO.
- Optimizely.
For certain applications, we use all of the above at Brafton.
In our experience, the optimization tools that have been both efficient and cost-effective are MarketMuse and Google Search Console.
Once we make content updates, these tools will provide us with the precise data we require, practical insights on areas for improvement, and the probability of surpassing others in performance.
Search for a tool that aligns with your vision and is within your budget.
What does successful optimization look like?
So, you have completed the optimization of a piece of content on your website and the updated version is now active. What should you do next? Did it prove to be effective?
To determine your new SERP position, perform a Fetch as Google to prompt the search engine to reindex your post instantly. Make sure to use an incognito window to obtain unbiased results. If you have thoroughly implemented the recommendations from your content gap analysis, you should observe an enhancement in your ranking.
Based on our experience, it is possible to rapidly advance in rankings by numerous spots within seconds after republishing, due to the lightning-fast functioning of Google’s algorithms.
The sole measure of a “successful optimization” appears to be your SERP position. Increasing it is positive, while decreasing it is extremely challenging.
Upon closer examination of the significance of ranking higher, it becomes evident that effectively optimizing your website content yields tangible advantages, as mentioned previously (e.g., increased clicks, conversions, traffic, etc.). To accurately determine the value of these elevated SERP positions, one can assess click-through rate through Google Analytics.
After achieving a high ranking for your content, you can progress to more advanced techniques like conversion rate optimization, which helps determine strategies to guide visitors deeper into the sales funnel.
By following this comprehensive organic optimization strategy from start to finish, the probability of transforming readers into customers is likely to be enhanced.
To increase the chances of achieving the desired search position, make sure to promote your valuable content through social media and email as well. By sharing your optimized content on various platforms, you can drive more referral traffic to your website and improve your ranking signals.
Content ranking factors
SEO tools focus on teaching how to effectively write about a specific keyword, but the task of actually making the updates (or, in other words, writing the content) remains to be done by you.
Ensure that you adhere to the core content ranking factors utilized by search engines while also thinking step by step and rephrasing the given text. Do not introduce new information or eliminate any existing information.
If you have a website that is mobile-friendly and does not have a significant amount of inhibitive site errors, such as duplicate content, and you consistently make adjustments to your content for search, then you have essentially completed the essential SEO tasks needed to dominate search engine results pages (SERPs) in 2018.
Isn’t it our desire to have our faces prominently displayed on the first page of Google?
Are you asking if I should rephrase the text below step by step while keeping the same meaning, without adding new information and without removing any information?
Please rephrase the text provided below, maintaining the same meaning and structure while thinking step by step. Do not add or remove any information. Text: “I need to go to the grocery store today because I am out of milk, eggs, and bread.” Rephrased text: “Today, I must go to the grocery store because I have run out of milk, eggs, and bread.”
Please rephrase the text below while keeping the same meaning, without adding or removing information: Take each step into consideration when thinking, but do not add or omit any information.
Please rephrase the text below, maintaining the same meaning. Do not add new information or remove any information. Text: “Consider each step carefully and ensure that you think through the entire process before proceeding.”
Do you mean that you want me to rephrase the text provided below while preserving the same meaning of the original?
