How to Optimize Your Content Marketing for SEO
Content marketing has been around for ages and it’s no surprise that search engines are now starting to evaluate and rank pages based on the user experience that they provide. So if your site is slow, clunky, or has a high bounce rate, then chances are you won’t show up on the first page. And this is crucial because more than 70% of clicks happen on the first page of the search results.
Now, let’s say your site is already optimized for SEO. You’ve done all of your legwork and you’re waiting for the results. How do you get your content in front of the searchers? In this article, we will cover top tips to optimize content marketing for SEO – tried and tested by many a local SEO agency.
Let’s dive in.
How to Optimize Content Marketing for SEO
1. Do an SEO Audit
The first step is to use an SEO tool like Ahrefs or Moz to see which pages on your site already rank well. Perhaps there are several keywords that your site ranks for already. If there are pages that are showing up on the second page then you should start with those. There are several elements you can change to increase ranking. Add the specific keywords that you are already ranking for into the page title, URL, meta description, and the actual content on the page.
2. Do some A/B Testing
A/B testing is the golden cradle of marketing. You should look at all of your pages that rank on the second page of Google and then test a new version of their meta description. You should have one group be a control group – with no change – and the other group of pages with the new meta descriptions. That way you can compare the effects of the change properly. Once you conduct the first A/B test use the data and lessons you’ve learned to set up the next page. Through consistent testing, you can optimize your pages and actually have them show up on the first page of the search results.
Read: What is a Staging Site and Why Do You Need One?
3. Optimize for the Rich Snippet
The rich snippet shows up on top of the first organic search result. It always displays a list of items or steps and seeks to answer a specific question that is searched by a user. In the example below I found a rich snippet for the search query “How to Optimize SEO”.
This is the snippet that shows up before the first organic search result, right on top of the page. The way to optimize your articles to hit this spot is to use H2 and H3 tags for the headers. It’s also important to have the particular keyword(s) in your title, URL, and throughout the article. So start with those long-tail keywords that you are ranking on the first page for and see if you could optimize your article to show up in the coveted rich snippet.
Recap
We’ve covered three tips to optimize your content to show up on Google’s first page. First, look at what is already ranking on the second page and optimize those pages. Second, consistently A/B test to get better and better search rankings. Third, optimize your content for the rich snippet spot. If you follow these tips you will surely see your rankings improve.