SEO should be top of mind for every content marketer. Take a look at 7 tips that industry experts – like Lee Odden, Andy Crestodina, and Kelly White – have to say about what you need to know about SEO.
6. Google has adapted itself to show better
results for its users — they’re looking for
the best answer and Google wants to
give it to them as fast as possible.
7. Google's focus is on delivering the best
answer to searchers, so brands need to
become that best answer for what buyers
are looking for with content.
1. Create relevant, quality content
LEE ODDEN
8. KELLY WHITE
Search engines are incredibly sophisticated
algorithmically, and their sole purpose is to
serve content that they deem to be the
most useful to a user in relation to their
query. Poorly written content that is neither
useful nor created with a human in mind is
unlikely to gain you much traction, so stick
to quality.
1. Create relevant, quality content
11. If you’re still throwing a giant paragraph of
keywords into your footer (or even worse, in
“invisible text”), it’s time to update your strategies.
12. It's not enough to just pick one phrase and
use it in the title, header and body text.
You should spread your meaning out
across a broader topic, and indicate
relevance by using the related words and
phrases.
2. Go beyond keywords
ANDY CRESTODINA
13. JESSICA JOYCE
Starting out with a keyword set is great, but
today’s algorithms and users are using a
much wider set of tools than just keywords.
Good news — this change makes it easier
to write. When you’re expanding to topics,
you don't need to worry about keyword
stuffing. The real goal is to write content
that users want to read, consume and
share.
2. Go beyond keywords
14. Keyword density is one of those things that
can also be very easy to overdo. Take the
keywords and phrases that you want to be
found for and make sure they appear in
your content naturally. ‘Naturally’ really is
the key here, keyword stuffing may have
been useful circa 2009, but it is really not
best practice at all and Google will see
straight through you. It’s best to take a
topic like SEO tips for content marketers
that is relevant to the phrases you’re
looking to rank for.
2. Go beyond keywords
KELLY WHITE
15. JASON WHITE
Give search crawlers tight and narrow
crawl paths to show depth in a subject
vertical while providing a logical user
experience.
2. Go beyond keywords
17. is one great way to get more
traffic to your site. Work on linking both internally
and externally to build authority
(and make some SEO friends!).
FOCUSING ON LINKS
18. A healthy website links to itself and links
outwards. I constantly use Screaming
Frog to check my internal/external links.
It’s very useful and provides a ton of
technical data that you can leverage,
beyond links.
3. Linking goes a long way
JESSICA JOYCE
19. KELLY WHITE
Internal linking and resource mentions
are both useful at deeming your content
as ‘useful’ to a search engine. With every
post you create, you should be aiming to
include at least one link to elsewhere
within your own website or another of
your own blog posts.
3. Linking goes a long way
20. Grow your authority through links, but
don't become a spammer. The key here
is to focus on the relationships that may
lead to links, without worrying too much
about the links themselves.
ANDY CRESTODINA
3. Linking goes a long way
22. You may have your text optimized to a T,
but your SEO strategy shouldn’t stop there.
Be sure to optimize all types of content – video
and images included.
23. To gain the most SEO value from your
audiovisual content on your site,
remember to create supporting text on the
same page.
MARTIN WEINBERG
4. Think beyond the written content
24. I’ve seen this for years. You find an amazingpicture and
place it on your site. That’s a great start, but it’s not
valuable to your content yet. The bare minimum today is
to re-name the image before you upload it (to something
useful and targeted to your content). The next step is
make sure the Alt attributeis also filled in (with
appropriate, targeted content). Then, placement of this
image is of the utmost importance. Placing this now
optimized image in the section of your content that’s
surrounded by the targeted keyword will make the image
most effective.
Now that that’s all done, the last step is to optimizethe
image’s file size to the smallest it can be, so it loads as
quickly as it can — a quick and free tool is optimizilla.com
4. Think beyond the written content
JESSICA JOYCE
26. The use of mobile isn’t anything new to marketers,
but it can be overlooked in SEO strategies when
we’re so zeroed in on our websites.
27. There are more searches performed on
mobile devices than desktop computers
and as part of Google's mission to deliver a
great search experience, smart SEOs are
all-in when it comes to Accelerated Mobile
Pages (AMP). Content marketers need to
ensure their content is mobile friendly and
fast loading with AMP to deliver content
near-instantaneously and provide a great
user experience.
5. AMP Up
LEE ODDEN
29. Once you implement all these tips,
don’t forget to check your analytics…
and keep checking.
30. There’s no point in having an ongoing
content strategy without measurement. If
you’re continually producing content
without reporting on whether it is having
any of the desired effects, then you really
could be completely wasting hours, and
even days, of your time. The exact ways to
measure your content and the correct tools
for doing so will depend upon what you’re
trying to achieve by creating it.
6. Keep an eye on your analytics
KELLY WHITE
31. It's likely that you already have a few pages that are
performing well in search. These are the trafficchampions
that show up at the top of your Behavior > Site Content >
All Pages report. Why do they get traffic day after day,
month after month? It's probably because they rank high!
But what about the pages that almost rank high? What
about the phrases for which you rank high on page two?
Do you know what those phrases are? In your Analytics,
there's a list of the phrases that you almost rank high for.
A list of your page two phrases. If you can find those
phrases and the corresponding pages, you've found your
lowest hanging SEO fruit!
ANDY CRESTODINA
6. Keep an eye on your analytics
33. SEO isn’t a one-and-done deal.
Your strategies must adapt based on where your
company is going and what Google (and other
search engines) are doing.
The job of an SEO is never over!
34. I believe an SEO strategy should be fluid.
Regular checkpoints and real evaluation is
needed to make sure you're on the correct
path towards hitting your intended goal.
Never be afraid to pivot.
BILL SEBALD
7. Keep on adapting
35. Want more tips for
how to create engaging content?
Subscribe to the Uberflip Hub!
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