11 Essential Content Optimization Tips & Techniques

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Content marketing obtains recognition as an effective online marketing strategy. Businesses are producing all types of content very quickly. 

But what if your content is not found by your target audience. Content will be nothing helpful if this would happen. That’s why content optimization is a pivotal step in the online marketing process. 

Google has said that “content” is one of the top three ranking factors for organic search results. It doesn’t mean that any content will be helpful. SEO optimized high-quality content should be the one you should focus on. 

Here you should understand the difference between content and optimization. Both terms apply and appeal to two different audiences. Content is targeted for readers. High-quality content will attract readers, engage them and encourage them into your product or service.

Whereas optimization is meant for machines and robots. Optimized content is helpful for SEO ranking. Though content that is not optimized might go unnoticed by search engines and get unread by the people.    

1. What is SEO Optimize Content?

Content optimization is the method of updating on-page SEO to make content more engaging to search engines. Some refer to this as high-quality content or SEO content.  

Content creation is all about turning your content into something great. This helps you to get more readers and increase your conversion rate. 

There are many steps one can take to enhance organic search rankability. Google process 63000 search queries every second and update thousands of behind-the-scenes algorithm annually. As of this content, optimization is the one to align with the latest changes. 

Any business owner knows the importance of ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). It has the potential to drive more traffic to your website. If you are creating content just heck of it then you will have a hard time compelling for both visitors and search engines. 

When you are investing in content optimization, you are investing in long term traffic strategy. You increase the chances of a higher rank than your competitors by producing relevant top-notch content. 

In Google’s eye, lengthier content keeps more value and helps to rank higher. The more descriptive, informative and optimize content you have, the more traffic, leads, conversion, clicks and visibility you get. 

2. 11 Tips and Techniques To Optimize Content

Below are some tips and techniques for perfectly optimize content for any web page. 

1. Target Keyword

It is essential to draft your content with your keyword research. Use Google keyword planner or Moz keyword explorer to determine your keyword. 

Plan your content based on your keyword rather than going just blindly. This should form the basis of your content. Don’t forget that your chosen keyword also influence other on-page factors.

Optimizing your webpage for more than just one keyword provides you the opportunity to appear in SERPs for more than one query. As per the survey, the average number of target keywords and semantic keywords to target on the webpage is 15. 

Keep in mind that you can target different semantic keywords but don’t do keyword stuffing. This may lead to a Google penalty. So if you aren’t targeting your keyword in content from first, you will struggle to rank in SERPs.  

2. Optimize Title Tag

The title tag is always an important part of ranking in the Google ranking algorithm. To optimize your title tag for better click-through rates. 

Use your primary keyword in the title tag. Also, It is advisable to put it first – at the beginning of the title. Try to make the title which is started with your keyword.

Analyze your competitor’s title tag which is ranking on the first page of SERPs. Make the best of your title in 60 characters as Google maximum display approx 60 characters in results. 

3. Optimize Meta Description

The meta description is displayed on the SERPs. It is a descriptive text of each search result, make a key piece of information for your audience. 

Perfect meta description states the purpose of a webpage including page keyword. It is a place to encourage the audience to click on your link and give a chance to increase your CTR. 

Avoid the generic type of description as this will not provide any information about your page. Make a description that perfectly describes the motive of page, including primary keyword and in 150-160 characters as Google has a length limit for this. 

4. SEO Friendly URL

A keyword-rich URL provides more descriptive information to search engines. So to optimize content tags, the URL should be straightforward, relevant and contains the appropriate keywords. 

Avoid complex and confusing URLs structure. Make SEO Friendly URL Structure and as shorter as possible. A study said that shorter URLs rank better compare to longer once. 

5. Quality Content

The quality of content matters for any industry. If you are not writing nicely you will disappoint your audience and lose their trust.  

Be clear with your content writing and stay focused on your topic. Check your grammar and spelling before publishing the content.  Also do proper formatting of your content with bullet points, bold, etc. 

6. Target Keyword in the First Paragraph

It is advisable to add your primary keyword into the first paragraph of your content. More specific to that try to cover keyword in your first 100 words. 

But don’t put keyword forcefully. Aim to put the keyword that it seems it is natural. Don’t put your keyword irrelevant times in your content as keyword stuffing is always a bad practice.

7. Optimize H1 & H2 Tags

Heading tags plays a vital role in any content. Adding an appropriate keyword in the H1 tag is what all you need for your SEO content. Use the target keyword with the necessary modification in your H1 Tag. 

With optimizing heading(H1) tags you should also look for optimizing subheading(h2,h3,…h6) tags. If your further subheadings carry the same weight then use h2 for those. And if your content has various sections then use h3 and so on in a logical manner. 

Use target keywords in those subheadings but don’t fall into keyword stuffing. Make variations of that make sense for your content. 

8. Readability

Readability is a critical metric of content. The content difficulty score evaluate based on the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease scale. It defines as the higher the score the easy the content to read.

Say, for example, if your content readability score is between 90-100, then it will be easily understood by an average 11 yr old student. And if the score is between 0-30, only graduates will be able to understand. 

To increase the readability score use shorter sentences in your content. And break long paragraphs. Avoid passive voice of sentence. You can also highlight the interesting parts of your content to look at your content prominently.  

9. Length of Content

The average length of the articles is around 800 words as per the study. But it is recommended that the length of content is around 1130 words long enough. Although this would be different from industry to industry. 

However, there are always exceptions. News announcements, press releases, etc are the content that can not be in long-form. Also, make sure that your content depth goes properly to cover a topic. Don’t fall into low quality of content in search of quantity.   

10. Optimize Content With Visuals

It’s a well-known fact that we learn more when content is visualized. We like to work more through content which contents some visuals rather than only text.

From an SEO content perspective, content which includes images & videos has a positive impact upon dwell time. You can see that the images and videos increase dwell time and engage more.

Make sure you use fully optimized images including charts and infographics. Add alt text of your image including the keyword. Use proper file size which loads and view properly. 

Upload your videos or you can embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Add video’s title & description with a relevant keyword. Use videos as a call to action and increase sales. 

11. Internal Links

Internal links are a primary way to navigate users and search engines. If you are mentioning anything in your content which you have page or blog of it then link it. 

Use descriptive anchor text for internal links. Link building techniques will help your content writing in ranking for your targeted keywords. 

3. Conclusion

Hence content optimization is not about any single part. It is about to make search engines to understand your business and helps the user to find you on relevant search queries. And give valuable content to your audience to get more traffic.