With the amount of effort it take to write content that is relevant and insightful to engage your audience, then promote it using social, the last thing you need is for your content to get lost in Google’s many-page listings black hole. And while it may feel like you are searching for a secret decoder ring, one thing you can do to help you efforts is to optimize.
Let’s get down to the basics:
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.
Where do you rank?
Did you know that 75% of people never get passed the first results page in Google? Because of that fact, the level of importance placed on SEO is very high. The effort is highly competitive. And, organic listings get more clicks than a sponsored ad listing.
Here is what you can do to improve your chances for a higher ranking:
Keywords – Make sure you are the top-ranked site for key search terms. While there are many common terms that apply to a wide-array of companies, look for keyword phrases that can narrow a search to only a few. Use those keywords appropriately within your website. For example, assign 1 keyword (or keyword phrase) per page. Make sure the keyword is a part of the page title, header and sprinkled a few times throughout your content.
Content – Note that social content now contributes to your SEO ranking. Just as you create new content for web pages – tie these together with your social promotions using the same keyword phrase. Another piece is that Google is always looking for fresh content. Refresh old content that might still be relevant with new numbers or updated facts. Provide unique insights as that can be influential and often holds greater value than a simple repeat of information. And finally, content length is important. Due to the lack of depth within a short post, a longer post will typically been seen as providing content of more worth and therefore rank higher.
Links – Don’t get penalized by Google, make sure the links within your website connect to relevant content within your site or prominent and beneficial content externally. For internal links, the number of links to a web page determines importance of that page relative to the rest of the site to Google. Therefore, pages that are of high importance to your audience should have a number of internal links from within your website promoting the page. This is something will often see with company blogs. It is always helpful to get a reputable website to promote an element within your site such as your blog.
Website – A few notes about your website. The first and one that will be the number one indicator of visitors making it to your website is page loading speed. Too many large images will slow it down. Make sure your site can load in under 3 seconds (many expect 2 seconds or less). Once they get to your site make sure it is easy to understand and navigate. They will spend more time on your site, which helps your Google ranking. When people are on your website for a period of time, Google will know the information you are providing is relevant, and therefore helpful.
Think of optimization as the maintenance piece of content development. Without it, your content will get lost and quit working (to drive traffic and engage). With regular, proactive maintenance, your content will be seen, be helpful, and turn visitors into customers.