Content marketing is an effective tool in your marketing arsenal. When it’s compared to paid advertising, it generates amazing conversion rates.
SEO Marketing can only be effective if people see what you have created. There are millions of poor blog posts on the internet. This makes it difficult to get noticed. How can you get people to click on your work and convert blog posts into dollars
SEO-optimized content is the answer.
This article will cover the essential components of creating SEO-friendly material. Download our Free Blog Post SEO Checklist – which we will break down further in this guide.
What is SEO?
There are many articles about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Let’s just briefly go over the reasons why it is important and what you need to know.
SEO refers to the process of improving and enhancing content so search engines can rank it on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Your content will rank higher when users search for relevant keywords. This will increase the likelihood that people will click on your content. The following information is available when you search Google for “coconut oil”.
- Sponsored shopping ads for the product
- Information graph on Coconut oil, including nutrition facts
- Healthline.com Organic Results around the Health Benefits
- People ask a “related questions” box to find the top questions being asked.
Sponsored shopping ads are the top results, letting users know where to buy coconut oil online. Sponsored ads may or not show up depending on your search term. Links to videos may also be provided to help you find the right product. You will see the top 1-2 organic results, along with a “people also asked” or similar questions box.
- Google Maps and Local Listings let users find out where coconut oil can be purchased nearby.
- Google’s Merchant Center pulls popular products for free.
- You will find a mix of organic results and informational resources about coconut oils on sites such as Amazon and Harvard.
- You can refine your search results by brand and image.
- Similar searches include “how do you eat coconut oil” and “how to use coconut oils”.
To optimize your site, it is crucial to understand the information that Google shows for different terms. Amazon is the only website that ranks product pages on the first page of organic listings. To rank for a term such as “coconut oil”, a website should have content that focuses on the benefits and uses of coconut oil.
Google processes over 1.2 trillion searches each year. This equates to 3.5 Billion searches per day. Therefore, it is worth taking advantage of the chance to get free traffic to your site.
With organic reach on social media continuing to decline a strong SEO strategy can help you grow and sustain website traffic while continually bringing in new visitors organically. This traffic can be reliable and consistent, as opposed to traffic from social media posts, which will lead to short-term spikes in traffic but then decline once social media feeds are full of newer links.
Why eCommerce Businesses Need SEO and Content
Content refers to all communication and copies that you place on your website or online channels. It includes product descriptions, landing page copy, blog posts, photos, and videos. Your content is the foundation of your website’s SEO. Search engines can crawl any text you post to your site.
You should also structure your eCommerce website for SEO. Also, ensure that your product descriptions are SEO-optimized. As you increase the content on your website, this will ensure that it is being continuously crawled and indexed by Google.
The better the content, the more specific and helpful it is. This blog post was written by the owner of River Pools and Spas. He provided detailed and helpful information to answer the most common questions that he gets from customers. This article soared to the top of Google SERPs when it came to keywords related to fiberglass pools. It also led to an influx of visitors to his website. Sheridan has made $1.7 million from that article since it was published.
How to Create SEO-Friendly Content
We’ll be going through a checklist later in the article to ensure that every piece of content you create is optimized for search engines. Even if you check every box, Google won’t favor content that isn’t high quality. When you’re composing content, ensure that it is clear and concise.
- It’s helpful
– Do you add value to the content you create?
– Is the content a useful resource or answer for someone trying to solve a problem with it?
– Is it easy to follow and understand the advice?
– Are you considered a reliable and trustworthy source for the topic you are writing about?
2. Thorough
– Does it cover all angles relevant to the topic?
– Is it able to provide actionable tips and in-depth assistance beyond the surface-level generalizations?
– Does it answer all of the questions?
3. Readable, shareable
– Does the content have a logical and readable structure?
Are you able to quickly scan the text to find the highlights?
Is it clickable? Does it grab the attention of the reader?
– Would you share the subject matter with others?
- Correct
Are spelling and grammar correct?
– Are the articles up-to-date?
– Are credible sources used, and are they correctly sourced/cited/linked?
2. Superior to the competition
Is your content comparable to (or better) those currently ranking on page 1 of the SERPs?
SEO-Optimized Content Checklist
1. Keyword Research: Leverage
Before you start typing your first word of content make sure that you have done the keyword research. Then, strategically rank your content for these terms. Keyword research will help you understand the terminology that customers use to search for products or information related to your brand.
Tip: After you have selected keywords, perform a Google search using those keywords to find out which pages rank for the terms. These keywords should be relevant to your business. You have to rank higher than the content that appears. Therefore, you must create more relevant content, better-written content, better-designed content, and generally just better content.
Strategically using keyword research can help you rank your pages for keywords that are most relevant to your brand. This will increase your organic traffic and sales potential!
Check out our resource to learn how to use tools such as Google Ads Keyword Planner. Keyword.io and Ubersuggest both offer good options. The tool will suggest keywords related to your topic and show you how many people search for them each month. We recommend that you choose 2-3 keywords to target. You can reduce competition by targeting niche long-tail keywords (3+ words) that have a low search volume (around 1,000 monthly search volume), but ensure the search volume is sufficient to justify the effort (100+ searches per month or more).
2. Optimize Page Titles
The page title is what people see when they scan SERPs. It should be catchy and clickable. Keep it under 55 characters to ensure that the headline is not cut. The title must contain the keywords you wish to rank for.
3. Include keywords in your URL
Google also examines the URLs for your pages. Make sure that they contain the keyword you are trying to capture. URLs should not exceed 150 characters and be similar to the headline of a blog post.
4. Create an optimized content structure
We have already discussed how important it is to make your content useful, complete, readable, and shareable. Google will not prioritize your content if it lacks these essential elements, even if the content is full of keywords that you wish to rank for.
After you have created amazing content, ensure that the keywords you are targeting appear naturally (not forced in places they don’t belong). This can vary depending on the length of the content. Don’t get too focused on keyword density. Make sure you include the keywords on pages at least once, along with variants.
5. Optimize Headings and Subheading Tags
Subheadings (H2 or H3 tags), break down your text to make it more readable, readable, and easily scannable. Subheadings are used to avoid your content appearing as a “wall” of text and to organize your content from beginning to end.
6. Both internal and external links
Google will also check to see if your links are to other pages within your site as well as pages on external websites. External linking shows Google that your site structure is well-constructed. Linking internally also helps to build it. You should have at least 2-4 links to other pages on your site. Always hyperlink over relevant text.
7. Meta Description
A meta description is what Google uses to determine your blog post’s subject matter and content. It summarizes your content and can typically be up to 155 characters.
You should ensure that every meta description contains the keywords you are looking for and is engaging.
8. Alt Text can optimize your images
Google cannot crawl an image uploaded to your website. Google can crawl information about images that you provide — so don’t leave these fields empty! In your image title, alt text, and description, include the keyword.
Site speed is also an important factor in SEO. Make sure to compress images before uploading them.
9. Keep your content current and remove outdated content
It is easy to think that you must create new content to improve SEO. Repurposing old content and updating it is a great way to create effective content, while also getting rid of irrelevant or outdated information.
A new post can take time to rank well on search engine result pages. Therefore, revising and updating outdated content is a great way of taking advantage of the position your content holds and improving your SEO content. You should consider which parts have been the most helpful to you and then make a plan on how you can improve them.
10. Create supporting content
It is no longer enough to have content. It is important to add supporting content and supplementary resources to strengthen the core content.
This is how it works in the baby industry
These simple guidelines will help you build a rich, SEO-friendly content library that will drive consistent organic traffic for many years.
This is an example of Orchid Babywear. The site was launched in December 2019. After spending money on the company, and products, and getting good photos of the products, I had very little money left over to spend on paid ads. After looking at the competition, I realized that SEO and content were both good options to generate revenue for the company.
I created a Google Doc with a list of topics, performed SERP analysis to determine how detailed the content was needed, and then began writing. Topics should be relevant to how expecting moms search, find, and purchase products during pregnancy or after delivery.
I began by looking at the uses of my product and the benefits to parents and babies. Because it’s a nightgown for babies, I knew that I had to write blog posts about them sleeping. Based on my experiences with family and friends, I was able to gather information about the pains parents feel when they sleep. After I had done those searches, Google’s “People Also Ask” feature gave me additional questions that helped me to create a list of topics for my blog post.
It was very easy and quick to create the content I wanted for my blog posts using the outline. I used the questions for the heading tags and then answered them.
Orchid’s organic traffic has increased month-over-month by following this process.
Kobe Digital, an eCommerce Agency helps businesses improve their eCommerce SEO and content marketing strategy. Get a free assessment to see how yours compares.
