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Get hang of the best practices to upgrade your content marketing strategies. Content optimization is T-H-E SEO trend that you cannot skip. Boost your ranking by implementing content optimization within your marketing strategy. The pandemic has changed the way your audience interacts with your brand and content is key to your brand’s success. But how exactly can content be optimized? By keeping up with SEO trends and improving your ranking. Our article provides you 15 ways to level up your content game.
Is Content Marketing still relevant in 2021?
The short answer is yes! The pandemic has accelerated the proliferation of digital marketing amongst businesses. Hence, your ranking is no longer a question of ‘What you sell?’ but ‘How you sell it?’. Clever marketers have understood that there is a need to stay connected to their audience through content marketing to break through the competition. If you’re on this page, you are already aware of the role of content optimization and how its relevance helps your content appear on the 1st page of SERP.
So, if you wish to learn how to catch ’em all, you will love our concise guide.
First and foremost, what’s Content Optimization?
Content optimization is increasing your content’s ROI through techniques that make your posts generate leads and conversions. Creating content that is built on search engine optimization generates organic traffic and increases your ROI. Internal links, keywords, meta tags, featured snippets, and much more are critical to your website’s success.
Optimizing content allows users to find exactly what they are looking for. It proves that you’re connected to every step of the buyer’s journey. Measuring your content’s marketing campaign, setting up a content agenda are ways to tweak your content marketing strategy.
Your Content is Directly Linked to Your Goals.
Whether it’s about enhancing your brand’s image or increasing
traffic, you should define your content goals. Content does not only create brand awareness but also builds customer loyalty. If your goal is to increase traffic, optimization is something you cannot miss in 2021. Most content marketers seek to achieve a better ranking by upgrading their strategies and being ranked in SERPs through
keywords and even optimized image tags. Find whether you want to improve traffic, increase revenue, enhance your brand’s image or get a higher ranking.
Good Content require research.
Producing quality content should be one of your top priorities; however, you can be Shakespeare and still have poorly-ranked content. This is due to the lack of alignment among various parts of the content strategy, namely headers, backlinks, keywords, titles and much more. By conducting research, you can grasp what’s missing from your content and implement the required changes.
Running topic research allows you to know your content value and that of your competitors. It is an asset that cannot be ignored in 2021.
Keyword Research will be significant in 2021
If you haven’t noticed already, keywords have become a significant part of SEO strategies, and the careful use of these, unfortunately, determines your content’s success. As we said, you can be an incredible writer and suffer from poor content ranking simply cause you’re missing out on optimization. Keywords should be used naturally,
meaning that you cannot use keywords in every single sentence. There are various keyword tools that you can use to perform keyword research and get a quick grasp of how your content should be organized and how you can improve your ranking. For instance, CONTADU offers a Freemium plan, which can instantly help you to optimize
your content. It’s easy to use and, of course, free of charge! Keyword research is one of the ranking factors you cannot skip. Keywords should be used in your title, the body and optimally, in the first and last paragraphs.
Think about optimizing existing content to improve your website’s ranking. Constantly improving and repurposing content using internal links, videos and images will boost your search engine ranking.
The use of keywords shows that you can upgrade user experience by providing relevant information. Most experts also recommend optimizing image keywords to generate content that is friendly with Google image search.
So, NO, do not think about skipping keyword research ever again!
Keyword clusters can help you achieve an overview of your content topic and identify gaps you can address in your content piece.
Think Both Short and Long Content Form.
We all know the buzz about long-form content and how they improve engagement. However, the length of your content will depend on the platform you are using and the message you seek to convey. For instance, an educational article is likely to be around 3000 words, whereas a promotional post is like to be a few lines long.
FAQ pages are usually shorter and stick to the bare minimum. A lengthy article can, in fact, distract your audience from the essential. It all depends on what you seek to achieve with that piece. The best is to strike a balance between short and long-form contents to make your product or service more appealing. In addition, search engines love a mix of both.
In 2021, You Need to E-A-T.
We know that 2020 has been pretty hard on you, but in 2021, you’ll get to EAT. ? EAT stands for Expertise, authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is all about your page’s success. Google uses the EAT structure to determine your page’s ranking and whether your website meets user intent. As we mentioned earlier, content quality is critical for success. The EAT factors simply reflect what Google values, and this means that you have to implement the EAT factors in each of your pieces. Developing an audience persona, consistency, quality, hiring topic experts are some of the ways to improve your ranking in no time.
Voice Search
Voice search technology will get even more helpful with time with innovations such as Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. Keywords will again be at the core of voice search. Phrases that are long and used daily are likely to do better. Voice search is believed to be the next big thing in content marketing, and you don’t want to be left behind. Curious about it? Check out the 45 Fascinating Voice Search Statistics (2021) from Backlinko.
Use a Grammar Checker
A grammar checker improves your writing skills with synonyms and better sentence structure and enables you to produce high-quality content that meets your audience requirements. A tool like Grammarly rates your website’s content (Readability score) according to your delivery requirements.
Grammar checkers are great for aspiring writers, bloggers and content creators. Both for native and non-native English speakers. Grammar checkers detect numerous types of errors such as:
- Grammar and Punctuation- Cause run-on sentences and comma splices are not your friends.
- Plagiarism- Yes, we want to keep an eye on our competitors, but we don’t want to be anything like them! ?
- Spell Check- Nothing is worse than producing content that is poorly written. Keep it mistake-free, and your audience will love you!
- Writing style- according to the genre and your audience. You can choose from the tone to the style. (Neutral, Confident, Academic and so on)
Ranking for Featured Snippets is Vital
Okay, that sounds easier said than done. Snippets are the listings that describe your page, the one that comes right before the link. Snippets make it easier for engines such as Google to quickly determine what is relevant for the user by going through your content description. Learn how Featured Snippets work.
Seo is no witchcraft; it is basically all about keywords, therefore you can instantly generate a better ranking by conducting a keyword research. This allows you to see the terms that enabled your competitors to rank higher. Want to know whether your content has Featured Snippets opportunities? CONTADU or other content optimizing software generates CPCs and enable you to see your current ranking. According to SEMrush, to be ranked in the Featured Snippet zone, you have to create Snippets that are ideally 40-60 words long.
Use H2 and H3 Sub Headers
Using H2 and H3 sub-headers throughout your content will help you to rank for List Snippets. Sub-headers are then extracted from the content and displayed as Featured Snippets. There are different types of content such as tables, lists that can get you ranked in featured snippets. More on that here. The rules regarding snippets alter over time; the best way to stay on top is to research competitors’ featured snippets and use keywords while crafting content.
External Links will still be crucial in 2021
Think of external links (also known as backlinks) as you being that good friend who recommends the other. Everyone loves that friend. These links increase your domain authority which is measured by your page’s backlink profile. External links enhance your brand’s trustworthiness and help search engines identify what your content is about. External links show that your website is a reliable source of information and that you are trustworthy as you acknowledge others’ work. It also demonstrates that you’re genuinely interested in educating your audience.
Get Visual!
Time to get visual! Although the concept is relatively novel, you can now use Google Lens to scan images or random stuff. So far, Googlecan identify around 1 billion objects. Visual search works incredibly well for shopping, recipes and directions, so if your content is any way in need of visual content, it’s time to get creative and optimize your content with images. Google Lens prioritizes high authority pages and sites when it comes to images. Images are directly connected to your content; images are more likely to appear from searches if your content is approximately 2000 words-long. To fully comprehend how Google lens work, read How Google Ranks Google Lens Results.
Videos and Podcasts
Videos and podcasts are two aspects of content strategies that will define your content’s success. Videos and podcasts help to increase user engagement and extend your audience’s attention span. Algorithms and bots identify pages and websites where users spend the most time. Videos and podcasts are entertaining means of generating information; it is always a good idea to share information in other forms as reading might not always attract your audience.
Webinars are likely to gain popularity, notably in the marketing field. Podcasts are also a fun way for users to gather information while indulging in another activity. Collaborating with other topic experts is an excellent way to share insights and build a sense of community. You can also include these in your backlink strategy. Considering implementing podcasts in your content strategy but unsure whether you should go for audio and video? Rachel Corbett provides you with a free podcast guide to get through.
Hire Experts!
Hire People who know their stuff. Having an in-house writing team or a few fantastic copywriters will take your content to the next level. Content is king, and you cannot play it low-key. You will need professional writers who take their job seriously and generate compelling content for your website. Experts know how to use bullet points, headlines and basically what to do to improve your user traffic.
Professionals know exactly what to produce without having to be fully indulged in your industry. They are somewhat interested in building a connection with your audience and using a language that users are more likely to comprehend, i.e. content should be generated in a form that can be understood by any user without having him constantly looking up every word of your article. A style guide can be supportive in finding your content voice.
Optimizing Meta Description
A meta description is the extract of text that appears under your content’s title. It is often the reason why the user finds your content attractive and clicks on your page. By providing an explicit explanation of your content, you motivate the user to pick your content over that of your competitors. MOZ suggests including a meta description of 50-160 characters. More on meta descriptions here.
Keep Learning about SE0 trends.
The secret to success is to keep learning about your field of expertise, and this does not limit itself to research but keeping an eye on SEO trends. Re-evaluate your metrics to keep up with content quality. Think of all the various aspects that will help your SEO efforts convert into sales. We’re talking long-form content, voice, control, video and image SEO. Implementing these into your content strategy will get your website recognized. SEO tools such as Content Optimization and consistency will take your business to places. Trust us on that! ?
What are some other 2021 SEO trends relevant to content optimization in 2021? Let us know in the comments.
