Does your website look interesting, like the lights on the Las Vegas strip, or is it a dusty museum filled with content no one bothers to read?
The website is your top lead magnet and salesperson. It’s the face of your brand and business. Every few months, it needs a little TLC and a makeover to keep things fresh.
Are you ready to keep your website content fresh and optimized? If so, this guide will provide you with the top 7 ways to do it. We’ll cover everything from keyword research and SEO optimization to crafting compelling headlines and visuals.
What is Website Content Optimization?
Website content optimization is the process of creating and managing content to drive traffic and generate leads. It’s an essential part of content marketing that focuses on creating and distributing relevant and valuable information. The goal is to attract and retain a specific audience. Effective content optimization increases brand awareness, generates better-quality leads, and drives more sales.
B2B content marketing has proven to increase sales by 51% while decreasing customer acquisition costs by 25%.
It’s important to note that not all content is created equal. Successful content marketing requires strategy, planning, and plenty of testing.
The Top 7 Essential Strategies for Website Content
Alt Image: A person using a computer searching for essential strategies for website content
Content marketing is essential to any online marketing strategy. But it is a broad strategy encompassing websites, social media, and blogs. We’re focusing on the main pages of your website that define your product or service, values, and benefits to your prospects.
The trick is to create high-quality, engaging pages that will attract and keep your audiences’ attention. Let’s take a magnifying glass to each of these seven strategies.
#1 Keyword Research
Keyword research is discovering specific words and phrases your audience uses to find your website. It is also worth the effort to discover the keywords that drive traffic to your competitors’ sites. When you know what terms people use to search for similar products or services, you can optimize your content by including them.
Keyword optimization helps you create highly engaging content while improving your SEO ranking. Numerous keyword research tools are available online, but they can vary in cost and effectiveness. Some of these include:
- SEMRush – This online tool tracks your website’s performance and analyzes your competitors’ strategies. You gain insights into the keywords and phrases that drive search engine traffic. Its features include keyword research tools, site audit tools, backlink analysis, and more. Additionally, it allows you to monitor your website’s traffic and improve your search rankings.
- Wordstream has a free keyword tool. Enter a keyword and optional filters, like Industry (32 options) or country, then Wordstream provides a list of keywords. They also display the monthly search volume, high and low top-of-page bids, and competition level.
- Ahrefs free keyword tool allows you to add a keyword and filter by country. The free version provides 99 keyword ideas.
- Ubersuggest – Neil Patel offers a free tool where you can search a domain or keyword up to three times per day. It comes back with data including search volume, SEO difficulty, Paid difficulty, and Cost Per Click (CPC). The free version limits you to 29 relevant keyword ideas plus links to 10 relevant blogs for content ideas.
Other tools are available, but these are a good starting point.
Before searching for keywords, you’ll need to define your target audience, potential clients, and customers. By understanding your audience, you can compile a keyword list by answering questions like:
- What are their pain points?
- What are their desires and dreams?
- What are their daily struggles?
Incorporating keywords that answer these questions into your content will help you improve your rankings.
#2. SEO Optimization
Optimizing your content for search engines is essential to any website optimization strategy.
Here are some proven tips to help you optimize your content for search engines:
- Create compelling headlines – Headlines play a significant role in content optimization. Without effective headlines, no one is going to click on your content.
- Include a keyword in your title – Include a relevant keyword in the title, but don’t come across as spammy.
- Include a keyword in your URL – Your URL should include a keyword for SEO.
- Use only original content – Copying and pasting content is a big no-no. Google will penalize you for plagiarism, pushing your content to the bottom of the SERPs.
- Include multiple keywords naturally – Use multiple keywords rather than stuffing a single keyword. A keyword density of less than 2% is best.
For a more in-depth look at SEO, check out Niel Patel’s SEO Guide.
There are many ways to optimize your content for search engines, but the most important thing is to write content that your readers will find useful. Search bots don’t buy products. People do.
#3. Crafting Compelling Headlines
Say what you will about tabloids. Their headlines grab people by the eyeballs, and that’s the job of a good headline.
The headline is the first thing your visitors see, so make it intriguing to draw them in.
When crafting captivating headlines, keep them relevant to your content.
- Think about what your audience is searching for and their pain points.
- What are the most important topics covered in your content?
- What are the most relevant and commonly searched keywords?
After brainstorming and writing down at least ten to twenty headlines, choose the best one. Review it to make sure it’s relevant to your content.
#4. Optimizing Visuals
Adding quality visual content is an excellent method to engage your audience and make your content more memorable. The majority of people, about 65%, are visual learners who retain information better when it’s a picture or graph.
Visual content triggers reactions and increases engagement. The types of visual content you should include on your website are professional-quality images, videos, infographics, screenshots, and presentations.
Including appropriate keywords in the description and alt tags for the image will help you optimize your content.
#5. Creating User-Friendly Content
Creating user-friendly content is essential for any website optimization strategy. Engaging, relevant content that is helpful to your audience builds trust and increases brand loyalty. When creating new content, think about your audience’s pain points…
- What are their struggles?
- What are their desires?
- What do they want to know?
- What solutions do you offer?
Try to make content personal and conversational, even for B2B websites. Write as if you’re talking to a friend. Keep pages to one main topic and use shorter paragraphs and sentences. Don’t overwhelm your readers with too much information.
#6. Writing Unique and Relevant Content
Unique content helps your business stand out as a thought leader and enhances SEO. If your audience feels you are providing helpful information, they’ll be more likely to engage with your content. Don’t write just to fill up space.
Use these optimization best practices when creating website content.
- Minimize text – Avoid big blocks of text. People look for easy-to-read subheads and bullets.
- Use shorter sentences – Keep sentences as short as possible.
- Keep paragraphs brief – Stick to the point and don’t add unnecessary information.
- Don’t forget SEO – As you write, remember to include relevant keywords for SEO.
Always keep your readers and target audience in mind when developing content. If it’s not relevant to their customer journey, leave it out.
#7. Leveraging Social Proof
Social proof is a powerful way to optimize website content and get more people to take action. It’s using other people’s words and experiences to validate your message and show that your product or service is worth purchasing.
And it’s easy to do. Start by including customer testimonials on your website. These should be short, genuine, and relevant to your product or service. You can also showcase how many people have already purchased your product or service. Types of social proof include:
- A “how many people have already bought” counter.
- Testimonials from actual users
- Celebrity and expert endorsements
- Ratings and reviews on reputable review sites
- UGC (User Generated Content)
- Certifications that relate to your industry or target audience
- Referrals from previous clients
Each one of these will help boost credibility. The more you have, the more trustworthy your brand or product is.
How necessary is social proof? Here are two statistics from Brightlocal that sum it up nicely:
- 99% of consumers searched the internet for information and local business websites last year, and…
- 78% of consumers combed the internet for local businesses multiple times per week, a 69% increase over 2020.
Potential customers can see that others have had positive experiences with your product or service. By leveraging social proof, you can optimize your website content and get more conversions.
Higher Ranking, Better leads, and More Sales
A well-optimized website works to attract interested customers and prospects day and night. When developing or redesigning your company’s website, focus on optimizing keywords for search engines and quality informational content that’s easy for people to read.
The benefits of website content optimization are worth the investment. Contact us today to learn more about website optimization or need content that can benefit your business or organization.