5 Steps to Optimize Content for SEO

The statistics are in, and they confirm that we’ve moved past the Information Age, and entered the glorious Age of Content:

2% of businesses say that effective content marketing increases their lead quality and quantity. (Source: Curata)
95% of customers view business-produced content as trustworthy. (Source: DemandGen Report)
Customers access content and advance 66% on the buyer’s journey before seriously engaging a seller or sales rep. (Source: SiriusDecisions)
Content marketing leaders experience nearly 800% more site traffic than non-leaders. (Source: Kapost)
Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates 300% more leads. (Source: Demand Metric)

However, businesses cannot expect to reap these results and rewards if their content is buried deep on a website – or worse, stuck on a sales rep’s computer. It has to be easy to find at the top of the funnel, and that’s where optimizing content for SEO enters the picture and makes all the difference. Here are 5 steps to keep in mind:

Optimize Content for SEO Step 1: Conduct Search and Intent Research

The right place to start content optimization isn’t at the creation stage. Rather, it’s at the search and user intent research stage, which reveals two critical things: what search terms (keywords) prospects are using to find solutions to their problems; and what mindset they have (pain points, motivations, aspirations, etc.). These insights form the basis of the content marketing strategy, and answer the questions “who are we trying to reach?”, “what topics and issues do we need to address?”, and “what is the most influential and impactful way to get our message across to these people?”

Optimize Content for SEO Step 2: Determine the Right Channel Mix

Should content be pushed out via blog? Social media? What about guest posting? These questions need to be analyzed and answered, since the medium and media directly influences how and why content is created. Trying to push good content through the wrong channel invariably ends up backfiring.

Optimize Content for SEO Step 3: Craft Compelling Content

At first glance, this may not seem worthy of a step. After all, isn’t content that takes into consideration search and intent research (step 1) and uses the right channel mix (step 2) going to be good? The answer is a definitive NO. Content is communication, and that means it can be excellent, ordinary…or just plain bad. Think of content like a speech, and your prospective customers as members of the audience. They aren’t going to stick around if they don’t find the speech relevant, interesting and worth their time. The same holds true with content – except it’s much easier to bounce away from bad content than it is to leave a bad speech (all of those “excuse me’s” and “pardon me’s” you have to say as you climb over people’s legs…)

Optimize Content for SEO Step 4: Optimize Appropriately

We can’t emphasize the importance of this enough: merely “dropping” keywords into an article or blog post is like trying to cook by variously sprinkling or dumping ingredients into a bowl, and hoping that it tastes good (and nobody ends up racing to the restroom…or the Emergency Room). Keywords have to be strategically and tactically integrated within content. Use too many and Google withholds its love and affection. Use too few and you don’t even get invited to the SEO party. Use them improperly and prospects say to themselves “why am I reading this?”

Optimize Content for SEO Step 5: Check the Specs

Last but certainly not least: there are technical specs that need to be part of a successful optimization plan, including ensuring that content: loads quickly, displays properly on different devices and browsers, is included in the XML sitemap, contains suitable internal and external links, has an effective URL, and uses an optimized meta tag (not used for SEO purposes, but can help generate traffic).

Learn More

To learn more about optimizing your content for SEO, and for an in-depth analysis of what content you need to be crafting and distributing to reach quality leads that turn into profitable customers, contact the Leap Clixx team today. Your consultation with us is free.

For more information on how to use SEO to boost your inbound marketing results, download our FREE eBook: