If you’ve read anything about SEO or content marketing, then you have probably seen people say that content is king and that you need to write high-quality web copy. This is true, but what about your existing pages? And what good is compelling content if your readers can’t find it? That’s where the team at PCG Digital can help!
One of the first tasks our content and SEO teams tackle when on-boarding a new client is optimizing their website copy. Content optimization is essentially the process of enhancing content to make sure it reaches the target audience. It focuses primarily on page-level audits and, when done right, can help your page rank higher in search, hold attention longer, and even convert more visitors into leads!
Tips and Tricks on How to Optimize Your Content
As complicated as it may seem at first, optimizing content doesn’t need to be difficult. The PCG Digital team employs several different tactics to improve a page’s search rank.
Select a Clear Topical Keyword Focus: You’ll be lost in planning your content without a primary keyword. When selecting a keyword, our team looks at the keyword’s volume, difficulty, and relevancy. We then focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context. Stuffing a page full of keywords to try to skew search results can harm your site’s ranking and result in unpleasant user experiences, so lay off the block of text listing cities or phone numbers.
Ensure the Content Is Unique and Relevant: Some platform providers offer templated content. This may be fine at first as a quick fix, but Google understands that users want diversity in their search results. The search engine giant will actively consolidate and show only one version of the content which can negatively impact your website’s ranking. Take care to create content that not only speaks to your customers but also targets the local areas you serve.
Update the Metadata: Metadata, both meta title tags and meta description tags, play a major factor in helping search engines understand what your page is about. They are the first impression many users have of your page and are used by web browsers and social networks to crawl pages for information. It’s vital to have customized, relevant metadata to inform search engines, users, and ultimately stand out from your competitors.
Optimize Images: They say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Make sure the images or banners on your website convey the right message with accurate and descriptive alt text. Don’t forget to compress your images too! Doing so can help in improving page load speed, boost a websites’ SEO ranking, and enhance the overall user experience.
Optimize Videos: Similar to images and banners, videos are great at capturing attention and tend to keep readers’ hooked. Videos uploaded to YouTube actually do rank in search and may sometimes even rank on the first page of Google SERPs. Take full advantage of this by optimizing your YouTube videos!
By following all of the tips and tricks above to optimize your content, you can cut through the noise of competitors and attract the right audience to your business at the right time.