If SEO were a movie, Google would be the hero and the villain of it. It is safe to say that it would be a horror movie for most webmasters since none of them knows when and where Google would blindside them. Search engine optimisation is the way to stay friendly with the leading search engines including Google and Bing, and it definitely does not have to be the horror flick.
Sadly, only about 41% of the website owners and online sellers believe that their content is ready for facing Google’s endless slew of updates and algorithm changes. They are the only people who are confident about the way their content marketing strategies look right now. It is enough to say that marketers are not utilising the real potential of SEO content right now. However, that is excellent news for you!
It is your golden opportunity to make the most of your online presence. Research shows that a meagre 50% of B2B and 20% of B2C platforms earn user engagement on a daily basis. That is a lot of wasted effort and an ample chance for you to step up your content game for better SEO.
What are the ten ways you can improve your marketing efforts by leveraging website content?
- Learn more about your audience
Website content, blogs, and articles need to be specific. You will require more than keyword research to achieve this. Getting to know your target users depending on their search trends, buying intent and social media interactions will give you a chance to provide them with the content they are looking for right now. Also, you should make use of images and create infographics to explain your content in a better way
- Choose the right format
Despite popular tendency to discard the effects of varying content format, current statistics show that visitors prefer infographics over black-and-white. Video content has been around the block for a long time, and its popularity is not diminishing. The animation is another costly, but the highly efficient format of content that increases user engagement.
- Pay more attention to SEO
Search engine optimisation should always be a core component of your SEO. In fact, it should be a part of your on-site strategy that includes search engine friendly keyword usage, heading (H1) placement, the inclusion of alt tags and descriptions for your media content. Title tags, meta descriptions, and subheads are other SEO components you need to leverage to keep your content search engine friendly at all times.
- Invest in analytics and monitoring
Just like any other form of marketing and advertising, content marketing requires tools that can measure its reach. Only about 21% of the content marketers from the B2B domain were tracking their marketing ROI in 2016, and the percentage rose to an impressive 79% in 2017. Without monitoring, you will never understand how much profits are coming directly due to your content efforts.
- Automate your SEO and marketing
While it is impossible to automate the marketing process altogether, you can achieve partial automation by identification of the patterns in data in real-time. Utilizing multiple plug-ins for SEO automation can help you understand your customer base and learn more about the competitor landscape of your brand. Automating the content component of your marketing should be able to provide your team with real-time reports of visitor activity, heatmaps, and traction.
- Never neglect technical SEO
Yes, leveraging trending keywords is indeed crucial for your website performance. However, that does not discount technical SEO completely. A balance of technical SEO will help your content perform better than non-SEO content in a competitive landscape. Technical SEO factors like website speeds redirect indices and browser cache contribute to the visibility of your site and affect the performance of the content.
- Optimize across multiple platforms
If you have video content, you might want to optimise it for YouTube only. Given that YouTube is the most significant player in the video market, your decision is both right and wrong. It is right because this platform has the potential to give you millions of views. It is also wrong because you are ignoring other video platforms that you could utilise to reach new customers. Always maximise the optimisation of your content for multi-channel performance.
- Use social media for gaining traction
Posting on one platform is not as important as sharing it across several social channels. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are all treasure troves for today’s marketers. You do not have to toil from door to door preaching your message. You merely need to share the message at the right time on each platform and start tracking the attention it is getting with the help of social media monitoring tools.
- What is SEO without CTA?
Do not ever forget to include actionable content. It can be subtle hints at your products and services, or a direct indication at the “buy” button. Always ensure that the CTA you choose is in line with your customer’s interest. Without a sound call-to-action, there is no way an SEO strategy can perform as well as it is supposed to.
- Work on the existing content strategy and marketing initiative
Do you already have an ongoing SEO campaign? Irrespective of the availability of your resources and funding you should pay attention to the existing content initiative. Sometimes, all you need is a touch of SEO to make your website visible to the world. Adding technical and non-technical SEO to existing content strategies can salvage your investment by boosting the ROI.
SEO gives direction to content marketing. It is vital for B2B and B2C content. Whether you are looking to create simple product descriptions or blogs for other marketing experts, you will need to reach them. Since there is no option of drawing the attention of your target group using glow signs and OOH screens, the only way to accomplish it is by working on your search engine friendliness. Staying on good terms with Google and other search engines will directly reflect on your SERP rankings. A shift towards better SEO strategies will boost your rankings, enhance your visibility and increase your traffic within record time.
