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December 12, 2022 Content Chat Recap: How To Optimize Your Content for Semantic Search

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A Content Chat header image that says today's topic is How to Optimize Your Content for Semantic Search with guest Mariah Obiedzinski, who is @MariahWrites on Twitter.

The days of keyword stuffing to get a top rank on search engines are out. If you’re trying to reach your audience through content, you’ll need to factor in the new way that they search for content and the language that they use.

In this #ContentChat recap, Mariah Obiedzinski (@MariahWrites), AVP of content services at Stamats, and the community discuss how to optimize content for semantic search. Read the full recap below to learn:

  • What is semantic search and what has led to its rise
  • How to understand your personas’ semantic search profile
  • Ways to address semantic search needs in your new and old content

Q1: What is semantic search, and how does it differ from other forms of search?

Mariah says that semantic search involves the natural way that people type or speak into Google when they’re seeking information.

The “people also searched for” section on Google is a great example of how people conduct their semantic searches.

Semantic search gives us insights into how to tailor our content pathways, the language we use, and the topics we discuss.

Q2: What has led to the rise of semantic search?

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October 3, 2022 Content Chat Recap: How To Improve Your Content SEO in 2022 (And Beyond)

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A Content Chat header image that says today's topic is what content marketers should know about NFTs (non-fungible tokens) with guest Brian Fanzo, who is @iSocialFanz on Twitter.

Creating content that reaches the most people possible—including your existing and potential new community members—requires you to focus on SEO from the earliest content planning stages. No, SEO will not guarantee that your content is successful, but SEO is a vital way to help your content rank high on a search results page and best reach humans that are searching for content like it.

Now comes the big question: how can you optimize content for SEO, especially given the seemingly ever-changing rules and best practices?

In this #ContentChat recap, Liam Carnahan (@LiamCarnahan), an SEO and content marketing specialist, and owner of Inkwell content, and the community explain how to improve your content SEO, including for when you’re creating new posts or optimizing old content. Read the full recap below to learn:

  • What you need to know about Google’s Helpful Content Update
  • Commonly overlooked SEO elements that can drive significant results
  • Tools to help you address SEO needs and resources to learn more

Q1: How can content marketers know if their content can be improved for SEO? What signs or metrics should they look for?

Before publishing content, Liam recommends you use the below tools to give your content an SEO score. We share more tool recommendations in Q6, too.

Download Liam’s free SEO checklist to help check your content SEO.

After your content is published, look for organic traffic, backlinks, and social shares and comments to gauge if your content has good SEO. Continue to assess how you can update your evergreen content to keep its value high.

Is your content driving its intended results? If not, you may have an SEO problem.

Look for these core SEO elements in all of your content.

Q2: Now that it’s been a few weeks since it rolled out, what do we know about Google’s latest update, the Helpful Content Update?

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5 Essential Content Structure Elements To Boost Your Content SEO

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When it comes to content marketing, there is no question that search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital tactic for teams.

Our friends at Semrush found that SEO was the most efficient content marketing tactic in 2020 (according to 75% of marketers surveyed), followed by updating or repurposing existing content (61%).

However, the trouble is that Semrush also found that 44% of content marketing professionals are challenged with improving their content’s SEO performance.

To unlock the full potential of your content performance, let’s explore the ideal blog content structure for SEO. If you’re just getting started with SEO, check out our SEO basics for content marketing first to learn about the importance of keywords, headlines, backlinks, and meta descriptions.

SEO Elevates Great Content

A quick disclaimer on SEO and content marketing: SEO should never be the focus of your content creation. Instead, SEO practices provide an invaluable way to understand your ideal community members, how they search for and consume content, and how to package your resources to fulfill these audience expectations and get in front of your readers.

Your content should always involve some original idea tied to a topic of importance for your audience. This means your team must define its content keyword priorities before you can effectively create content for your community. The Yoast team has an excellent guide that can walk you through how to define your team’s SEO keyword priorities.

Elements Of An Ideal SEO Content Structure

There are a lot of factors that impact how well your content performs from an SEO standpoint. For most day-to-day content marketing needs, though, there are just a few key areas you will want to familiarize yourself with.

These core content structure elements affect how well your content will rank in search engine results. These are also crucial elements to help improve the content experience for your audience.

By creating content that addresses these SEO content structure elements, more people can access your content, explore the additional links and resources you provide within the content, and ultimately share that content on social media.

Accessible Links

Links to high-domain, valuable content within your content will help boost your content SEO. The idea is that including links to third-party resources signals that you’ve done your research, and your readers should visit these resources for more details.

However, your community needs more descriptive links than “read here” or “learn more” to understand what value they will gain from the other content you link to within your post.

Provide a clear explanation of where your link will take the reader, ideally including a priority keyword for that audience. These information-rich links can include “learn more about the challenges marketers face with SEO,” “read about our newest sustainability initiative to reduce water waste,” or “check out these top tips for creating high-value blog content.”

Watch this short video from Melissa Eggleston, a user experience instructor at Birdcall UX, and past #ContentChat guest on how to create accessible content, to learn more best practices for links on websites.

Content Length

How long should content be to benefit SEO? HubSpot data suggests the ideal blog post length is 2,100-2,400 words, but that will depend on the type of post and its purpose (how to, what is, etc.). Yoast recommends your content be at least 300 words, but you should strive for at least 1,000 words for a better chance at ranking.

Your content length is important because longer posts can fully explore a topic and address the variety of questions that your readers may have. Search engines will also find longer pieces of content to be more valuable, especially if they are well-structured and include a few well-placed and relevant keywords.

Content Tags

Content tags are not as directly influential in the SEO ranking of a piece of content as some of the other elements (like headings and subheads) are. That said, your blog post tags do play a role in helping search engines understand your overarching site structure and the type of topics you regularly explore.

Much like your keywords, your team should determine its content tag strategy. Keep in mind that it is better to have just a few main recurring tags for your content instead of including every possibly relevant keyword tag.

Headings and Subheads

Have you ever clicked on a blog post to find that it is just one long, uniform block of text? This type of content forces readers to start from the beginning and read through the end—if they even last that long—without any indication of what topics the post covers along the way.

Headings and subheads (or header tags) are an essential way for search engines to “read” your content and help readers skim for the most relevant sections to their needs. Tag your main headline or title for the content as ‘H1’, and ensure it is the only part of your content labeled as such.

Organize the rest of your content using ‘H2’ and ‘H3’ subheads, to create a hierarchy of information. Think like a journalist and include your most important details and keywords toward the start of your article, and delve into more granular details as the piece continues.

Images And Alt Text

There are a few SEO considerations for images in your content. Mainly, you want to focus on how images affect your page load time and set up these images for accessibility.

Unoptimized images, including GIFs, can slow down your web page load times. With this in mind, it is best to upload the smallest acceptable file size that does not detract from the reader experience. For all web pages, upload images that are screen resolution (72 PPI), and use a JPEG file format when possible.

Alternative text is required for all images, especially if you want to model best practices of web accessibility. For example, the alt text should describe your image so that people can understand what the image depicts if it does not load properly or if they use a tool to read web content (which is common for people who experience visual impairment).

Google explains more about how to optimize your images for SEO in this guide.

Refine Your SEO Strategy To Adapt To Changing Audience Needs

The only way to stay in front of your audience is to consistently provide high-quality content structured for SEO optimization to ensure it will appear high in your audiences’ search results.

Regularly revisit your team’s keyword priorities to ensure they reflect how your community searches for and consumes content. Look at content KPIs like click-throughs, time spent on a page, and social shares to understand whether your content resonates with your audience.

The best way to start optimizing your team’s SEO strategy is to audit and refresh your existing blog content and retire any blog posts that are no longer valuable for your audience.

Are you looking for answers to more of your SEO questions? Let us know in the comments, and we’re happy to help!

SEO Basics for Content Marketing

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Creating high-quality, useful content is a complete waste of time and money if no one reads it.

Given that nearly half of internet users start their browsing session on a search engine, all content creators need to follow basic search engine optimization (SEO) principles to get their content in front of its intended audience.

But successful SEO is more than stuffing in keywords or appeasing Google’s ever-changing algorithm. For SEO to benefit your content marketing goals, you must consciously blend audience insights and structural elements to improve your content’s audience value and set it above the competition on search rankings.

Let’s explore the basic elements of SEO and the top SEO tools to explain how you can boost your content marketing results.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization is a practice where you create content in a way that increases its likelihood of appearing higher in search engine results, thus reaching more of its ideal readers.

At a basic level, SEO is about knowing your target audience, the terms and phrases they use, and how search engines deliver content based on your audience’s search queries. Ask yourself: how would my target buyer seek solutions to their problems? What do they search for? What topics are they interested in?

There are SEO considerations for every aspect of your content, including your headline, body copy, alt descriptions, and behind-the-scenes elements like meta descriptions. We’ll cover just a few top considerations for SEO in this article, but you can learn more about SEO in this piece from Semrush.

Create Content Optimized for Audience Value, Not Just SEO

One important thing to remember: Write content for people, not to benefit SEO.

Any content you create should pique your audience’s interest, answer their questions, provide resources, and otherwise be valuable in some way. This should always be your content focus.

Do not write content with the primary lens of SEO. Not only will you likely come across as robotic or simply uninteresting, but you may also actually hurt your SEO rankings (see our section on “backlinks” below).

5 Essential SEO Elements for Content Marketing

There are a few core SEO elements that all content creators should be aware of. Create your new content with these ideals in mind, and audit your existing blog content to optimize your posts.

SEO Keywords

Keywords are the words, phrases, and language that your audience uses to discuss and conduct searches around their topics of interest. Keywords are a foundational element of SEO that all brands should document and consistently review.

As a broad example, a marketing technology provider could have keywords like “marketing automation,” “audience insights,” or “customer personas.” There are long-tail keywords, too, which drill further into a clear audience need. In the above example, long-tail keywords would include “best marketing automation technology” or “top marketing tool for identifying audience personas.”

There are plenty of tools to accelerate your keyword search (see our section on top SEO tools below). Or, you can use manual means like social listening and conversations with your customers to understand the right keywords to reach them.

Where you use keywords is as important as how many times you use the keywords. For a blog post, you should include a keyword in the URL, headline, meta description, and a subhead, all in addition to your body copy, to make an impact.

SEO Headlines

Primarily related to blog posts, your headline should compel your ideal reader to click on your post.

Headlines are often used interchangeably with titles. However, there are specific SEO considerations for your page title that you should be aware of once you’ve established your SEO strategy.

Headlines should be short (no longer than 70 characters), include at least one keyword, and clearly communicate the value of the content. Common headline structures include number-based lists, questions, and “how-to” style guides. Some headlines include terms like “workbook,” “checklist,” or “template” to call out the value-add of the piece directly.

The CoSchedule Headline Analyzer is perfect for experimenting with different headlines. The team scores your draft headline out of 100 and offers advice on how to strengthen it. You can learn more about what makes for a great headline from their team.

SEO Content Structure

Your content structure is relatively self-explanatory—it is how your content flows and elements that enhance its skimmability. Great content includes clear headings, subheads, bullet points, and other visual elements that guide the reader through the piece.

Google recommends that you write a blog post as though you’re writing an outline. Create a hierarchical structure for your content, including headlines, subheads, and bullet points/lists.

Well-structured content is more likely to be read and shared by your ideal reader. Experiment with different content structures to find a format that resonates best with your audience.

SEO Meta Descriptions

A meta description is a short blurb about your content that will appear alongside it on search engines and social media channels. The description should be no more than 260 characters and address what’s in it for me for the audience.

When writing a meta description, ask yourself: If I saw this description returned as a Google search result, would I click on it? If so, would I be satisfied with the content based on the meta description positioning?

SEO Backlinks & Link Building

Backlinks and link-building strategies involve the piece(s) of content that you link to and the various sites that link back to your content.

All content you create should link back to other resources on your site or articles from external sites. The purpose is to build a content ecosystem that guides your reader through various interrelated resources and pieces of content.

From an audience standpoint, links provide a straightforward content journey that allows your reader to continue exploring a topic. Backlinks in your content, especially to high-authority domains, will also signal to search engines that your content is well-researched and can get it to rank higher in search results.

The ultimate goal for link building for SEO is to get high-authority websites to link back to your content. This is not a simple task. There are many strategies to strengthen your link building, but I believe that the best way to get links back to your content is to write content for audience value. By providing value-rich content that is SEO optimized, other content creators can more easily find your assets and link to them in their own content.

Top Free and Paid SEO Tools for Content Marketing

With practice, most content marketing pros can easily address the above SEO elements without needing any tools or resources. But just because content creators can do something manually doesn’t mean they should do it without help.

There are multiple incredibly powerful SEO tools that can automatically identify issues with your content and proactively suggest ways to improve your approach. Additionally, there are tools to streamline your initial SEO planning, such as keywords or what makes a successful headline.

Check out these SEO tools the #ContentChat community recommends for content marketing:

  • Alexa.com: Amazon’s Alexa.com offers SEO and competitive analysis software. The tool is great for competitive research to identify content gaps for your keywords and your competitor’s keywords. The team also offers a free browser extension for you to see any website’s Alexa traffic rank and the number of backlinks.
  • AnswerThePublic: This tool is a goldmine for content ideas and understanding what people are searching for on a range of topics and brands. This is perfect for refining your keywords and finding new content ideas.
  • CoSchedule Headline Analyzer: Many marketers (including me!) love CoSchedule’s headline analyzer. The free tool helps you workshop your headlines by assigning a score to your drafts and helping dissect the headline elements for editing.
  • Moz: Moz is an all-in-one SEO toolset with keyword research, backlink research, rank tracking, and other capabilities. The team offers a few free SEO tools along with their paid offerings.
  • Semrush: Semrush is a SaaS platform that covers every SEO need, from keyword research and competitor analysis to rank tracking and link building. You can use Semrush for free with limited functionality or choose from their paid packages for more capabilities.

These are just a few of our favorite SEO tools. You can also check out these recommendations for a core set of other content marketing tools to make your life easier.

Boost Your Content Marketing Results Through SEO

Getting started with SEO is much easier than you may think. By optimizing your content headline, keywords, structure, meta description, and backlinks, your team can effectively reach new readers and build authority in your space.

It is best to incorporate your SEO elements into the earliest stages of your content creation. To streamline this process, we’ve created a planning document that bakes all the essential SEO elements into your planning processes.

Download our free content planning template today to start driving more value with your content.

July 16 Content Chat Recap: The Role of SEO in Content in 2018

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#ContentChat The Role of SEO in Content in 2018During our mid-year check-in, #ContentChat participants asked for additional conversations on SEO. This week we held the first of those conversations, with special guest, Emilie Moreland (@writtenbyemilie). Here’s what we covered.

Q1: Why is it important for me, as a content marketer/creator to pay attention to SEO?

Most content is consumed thanks to a search engine query. SEO is what ensures your content will be served up.

SEO is the key to content distribution.

SEO allows you to measure content performance and success.

SEO is how you own your content traffic.

SEO helps you attract your ideal audience to your content.

Q2: Are SEO & content competitors? Doesn’t a focus on SEO conflict with my ability to create great content?

What’s good for content marketing is also good for SEO.

SEO helps your ideal audience self-select for the right content at the right time.

SEO and content marketing can be BFFs, but it takes some work.

Q3: Fine. There’s no getting around the importance of #SEO for #contentmarketing. If I’m an experienced writer but new to SEO. What do I need to know?

Start by involving your internal content creators.

Aim for the long-tail search.

The better you know your content audience, the better performing your SEO.

Get friendly with the relevant metadata.

Where you use your keywords is just as important as how often you use them.

SEO connects your content.

Invest in keyword research.

Treat Google like a reader—not your robot overlord.

Be prepared to test and learn what works for you from an SEO standpoint.

Q4: How many keywords is too many keywords to try to optimize a page of content for?

Keyword stuffing is bad—don’t do it!

Target your keywords.

Optimize your content by topic not keyword.

Q5: How do I keep my SEO optimized content to still sound like it was written for people and not robots?

Hire an experienced, creative professional writer who understands SEO.

Treat those keywords as a guideline, not an iron-clad rule.

Make sure to write for your personas—not the robots—first and foremost.

Q6: Should I just hire someone to manage SEO? Or do I need to have all my content creators understand and optimize for it?

It’s important to have in-house SEO expertise.

It can be helpful to have an external SEO strategy specialist.

Q7: Today’s #SEO must-do is tomorrow’s Google penalty. How do I keep up with the latest and greatest SEO tactics?

Keep a focus on content relevance. Relevant content will never be penalized.

Don’t chase SEO gimmicks—stay the course.

Keep an eye on SEO industry publishers like these:

September 12 Content Chat Recap: Using Content to Improve SEO

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Andy Crestodina Content Chat

Using Content to Improve SEO

This week we were joined by Andy Crestodina (@crestodina), Co-Founder and Strategic Director of Orbit Media Studios. An SEO pro hot off a highly rated Content Marketing World keynote, Andy shared his expertise on how to improve your SEO through content. Read on for an hour-long master class in creating SEO-optimized content the right way.

Q1: What is SEO and why should #content marketers and bloggers care about it?

 


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