Long gone are the days of keyword stuffing and hiding keywords in your content to try and outrank your opponents. As Google has gotten better at understanding the way users interact with content, content itself has had to improve. Creating content in and of itself is a time consuming process, layer that with an attempt to “optimize” and you may find yourself out where the ubers don’t run. Here are a few tips and tricks from the Firestarter team on how you can create SEO friendly content.
On-page vs. Blog Content
The core pages of your site should be treated differently than the supporting content you publish on an ongoing basis. While the specifics for optimization are primarily the same, there is different intent behind the pages you want to sell with, and the content you want to support those pages with. Your core pages should have a little more content and engage your reader more with an attempt to call them to action. Whether that is a phone number, form fillout, or walk-in visit, a unique and engaging call to action is vital to generating leads. The blogs you write, optimize, and post should be framed more as supporting, SEO friendly, content. These pieces should take one of the specific items on your core pages and break them down into easily digestible blogs for people who want to dig a little deeper into various subjects.
Word Usage & SEO Placement
Search engines utilize HTML markup to determine the importance of words on a page. Your primary header should include your target keyword, and sets the stage for what you intend to rank for. We have put together a handy checklist for blog optimization, and much of it holds true when looking to implement SEO friendly content on your core pages. It is important to build out your pages in a natural manner which follows the general hierarchy of HTML structure. Your content should only have one H1 header and the rest should be H2s or lower, cascading down in importance much like an outline. Here are a few other places to make sure you have incorporated your target keyword on the page you are working on:
- Meta Title
- Meta Description
- Image Alt Text
- First Body Paragraph
User Experience & Intent
While folks used to be able to trick search engines into ranking keywords with sketchy tactics, this does not work any more. Google and other search engines have gotten much better at detecting fake or spun content for the sake of SEO. As Google’s (and other) algorithms evolve, they are placing more emphasis on user experience. This means you should try to stray further away from writing “for optimization” and move toward writing for your users.
Here at Firestarter we are major proponents of making an attempt to optimize yourself. As you can see, there is not a ton of secret sauce around content optimization. You can take this on yourself, but rankings will be hard to attain without a solid link building strategy. Should you have any questions about the content found here, our site, or SEO in general, contact us today.
