Content marketing optimizations are the secret to ranking well, driving traffic and reaching your audience. Highly saturated SERPs bring stiff competition that make it necessary to deliver content tailored to the needs of your audience and search engines.
So how can you guarantee your content is optimized for conversion? There’s several marketing techniques that will help enhance the quality of your content and land your blog post on the first page of search engines.
Key Takeaways
- More than 90% of businesses use content marketing optimizations to connect with audiences
- Google receives about 3.5 billion searches per day, all of which generate relevant results via keywords
- 72% of consumers say that they “prefer videos” over text-based content
- Including a clear and concise CTA invites readers to take steps towards becoming paying customers
- Consistent brands are worth 20% more than those with inconsistencies in their messaging
Through optimizing your content, you provide valuable information to both readers and search engines, ultimately heightening your chances of creating top-ranking content.
What Is Optimized Content?
More than 90% of businesses use content marketing optimizations to connect with audiences and about 4.4 million blog posts are published each day. If you want to keep up with the competition, it’s time to optimize your content marketing strategy.
Optimized content is created and shared specifically to improve search results and ranking. This way, it will reach the largest target audience possible, resulting in a higher likelihood of conversion.
Some of the most popular ways to optimize marketing content is by using:
- Keywords
- Meta descriptions
- Title tags
- Relevant linking
Although, these methods aren’t always enough to get your content to page one of SERPs. There’s several additional marketing and editorial elements to web optimization that you also need to consider.
The Importance of Content Marketing Optimizations
Optimizing your content is critical to improving visibility and reaching your target market. Focusing on simple techniques specifically designed to optimize your webpage will:
- Improve overall quality of your content
- Encourage search engines to highly rank your content
- Boost conversions
- Enhance reader comprehension
- Build loyal customer relationships
Simply sharing helpful content doesn’t guarantee reaching your target audience. The best way to achieve top rankings, improve branding, drive traffic and increase revenue is by optimizing your marketing strategy for conversion.
How To Optimize Your Content
If search engines can’t find your high-quality content, then you’re less likely to achieve your marketing goals. Here’s how to develop an optimized content marketing strategy for both search engines and readers.
Research Keywords
Google receives about 3.5 billion searches per day, all of which generate relevant results via keywords. By using data to determine keywords most likely to rank, you can optimize your chances of top ranking content. There’s many components that make up SEO, or search engine optimization, but keyword research is an essential part of reaching your audience.
Image Source: Hurix
When conducting keyword research, look for long tail keywords or multi-word phrases. These generate more specific information on searches and are easier to rank, making it more likely for your audience to find your content.
It’s also important to only use keywords that represent your brand. Just because a keyword is easy to rank for doesn’t mean it should be featured in your next blog post. Optimizing your content with keywords is only helpful if you’re still answering the questions and concerns of readers.
Watch Your Competition
Outshine the competition by beating them at their own game. Learn competitor tactics by checking out their top ranking articles. Take note of how your brand can improve and align your own marketing strategy with their successful content.
Doing so will heighten your chances of out-ranking your competitors. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) copy exactly what they’re doing – but if they’re beating you, there’s an opportunity to learn from their strategy.
Use a Compelling CTA
Including a CTA, or call-to-action, is key to conversion. This is the strategy used for gently encouraging visitors to become paying customers. A great CTA is relevant to your content and feels natural to visitors. It helps them through their journey and advises them to take advantage of your business’s services.
Consider offering your audience a free trial, email sign ups and links to relevant products or services. Keep your CTAs clear and concise, and use action words to create a sense of urgency, such as:
- Learn more today
- Get started
- Join Free
- Buy now
The placement of your CTA is key to enticing the reader and guiding them towards making a purchase. Include your CTA at the fold of a landing page or bottom of a blog post to feel like a natural next step. Enjoy the short video below to learn more about creating the perfect CTA.
Video Source: Lemonlight
CTAs are also more effective when they’re personalized, and according to HubSpot they can convert up to 202% better than default CTAs. Use available data to adjust your CTA according to any relevant factors, such location or loyalty status. This makes your audience feel special and more likely to convert.
Perfect Your Layout
Commit to a layout that’s both visually pleasing and easy to digest. Decide on a preferable format for your target audience and create a uniform layout based on what they want to see.
For your blog post template, include the following features in the design:
- Table of contents
- Bullet points
- Headings & subheadings
- Pleasing visuals
- Key takeaways
- CTA
Doing so will help ensure readability and comprehension, ultimately making readers comfortable and increasing your chances of conversion.
Maximize Visual Appeal
A huge wall of text is intimidating, even if it’s full of quality information. Featuring images and short videos will help break up lengthy text and clarify what you’re talking about. In fact, content with relevant images receives 94% more views than content without.
Image Source: Venngage
Enhance visual appeal and drive more traffic to your content by including:
- Photos
- Videos
- Charts and graphs
- Illustrations
- Infographics
- Animated Gifs
As technology evolves, people are looking for the easiest way to consume information. In fact, 72% of consumers say that they prefer videos over text-based content. Including informational photos and videos in your content will heighten your rate of viewer engagement.
Deliver High-Quality Information
Content with valuable information is the cornerstone of successful content marketing. Optimize the quality of your content by:
- Going in depth – 2,000-word articles are most likely to get social shares. Get to 2,000 words by noting what’s missing from high ranking articles and diving deeper.
- Give a unique perspective – share an interesting point of view and demonstrate expertise. This will create trust between you, your readers and search engines.
- Outshining Competition – remember, take a look at top-ranking articles and make them more interesting, entertaining and valuable.
- Prioritizing Readability – high-quality content is free of grammatical errors. People trust content that’s clear and easy to understand.
Image Source: Growth Badger
Enhance the quality of your content by being clear and concise. Get to the point, eliminate fluff, use spell-check tools and commit to an engaging tone.
Add Links
Linking to popular content on your site can trigger a significant improvement in search rankings. Not only can this increase your number of readers, but it will also help Google search bots find your page.
Simply place relevant links within the text of your content to encourage readers to click and learn more. Cross-linking to your high traffic pages also makes your content more likely to be found.
Revisit Old Content
Repurpose old content to scale your strategy. Not only will it increase engagement, but it’ll also enhance brand awareness and drive more traffic to your site.
Image Source: Referral Rock
Be sure to regularly return to the content you’ve already shared and give it a refresh. Search engines are constantly changing, and your initial marketing strategy may not be what’s best for optimization anymore.
Update old content with new:
- Statistics
- Relevant keywords
- Videos and images
- Titles, tags and headers
Giving your old, poorly-performing posts a fresh start will enhance the overall quality of your content and heighten your chances of a high-ranking article.
Use Catchy Headlines
The headline of your content is crucial to the success of an article. With so much saturation on SERPS, you have to stand out in the crowd. Utilize content marketing optimizations by using headlines that readers can’t resist to click.
Make your readers curious, mix in powerful signal words and ask questions to create intrigue in your audience. Great, high-quality content won’t do you any good if no one is interested enough to read it.
Prioritize Consistency
Consistent content creates a sense of awareness, trust and loyalty within your audience.
Prioritize consistency by designing a content calendar and sticking to it. When you aren’t consistent with your content, customers become confused and begin to lose faith in your brand. Keeping up with your schedule enhances the customer experience, credibility and your brand’s reputation.
According to Techipedia, consistent brands are worth 20% more than those with inconsistencies in their messaging. Additionally, 78% of high-ranking content has a consistent tone of voice. Show your audience you care by demonstrating dedication through consistent content.
Image Source: Semrush
Start slow with 2-4 content posts per week and work your way up to once per day. Remember, a great way to avoid time-consuming content creation is by giving old content a re-fresh!
Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is critical to creating well-received content. Optimize your content by first understanding of your audience and identifying their demographics:
- Age
- Salary
- Educational attainment
- Hobbies and passions
Clarifying these factors will help shape your buyer persona. Use the data found to create content that will appeal to the needs and wants of your audience. This will help you clarify which questions and concerns to answer in your content.
Connect with your audience to help increase your conversion rate and rake in more revenue for your business.
Optimize Your Content Today
Stop your content from disappearing into the Google vortex and start optimizing content marketing today. Content marketing optimizations are critical to driving traffic, reaching your audience and securing conversions.
Make the most of your content marketing strategy by publishing consistent, high-quality content. Marketing Insider Group’s team of writers and SEO experts can help you deliver optimized, ready-to-publish content every week.
Check out our SEO Blog Writing Service today or schedule a quick consultation now to learn more!
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