Content Optimization
In order for a website’s existing page content to become search engine friendly it needs to be optimized while remaining appealing to the reader. This includes adding content related keywords and updating existing keywords so that the site ranks high when search engines crawl it. Some pages may only require a small amount of editing or none at all, whereas others may need a more extensive rewrite.
The key to creating content that is optimized for SEO is to ensure that the content on the client’s site is directly related with the keywords they are targeting. This includes optimizing the site’s text, images and videos.
When users click on a search results, they are clicking on them with the intention of finding information that directly relates to that keyword. If the content isn’t matching up with the keywords we are ranking for, users are far more likely to leave a site without ever converting. This is not an ideal scenario when it comes to optimizing our clients’ website.
Instructions
See video tutorial
- Select 1-2 web pages or blog posts to optimize.
- Use Semrush Content Audit tool to find potential pages.
- If you’re sure that the page/article needs no changes, set its status to “Analyzed” This will help you see the amount of work undertaken.
- If you want to make changes to the page/article and know how those changes will affect it, set its status to “In progress” We will track changes in the page/article’s content every day. Once we detect changes, we will start tracking the article’s metrics on a daily basis. This will allow you to easily monitor you article’s performance dynamics.
- Use Semrush Content Audit tool to find potential pages.
- Find keywords relevant to selected page(s)
- Optimize selected page(s)
- Use the Content Optimization template to integrate the selected page’s existing content.
- Use Semrush On-page SEO Checker for suggestions and ideas
- Create Schema markups and rich snippets
- Optimize headings, image tags and meta tags with target keywords.
- Improve content structure and add subheadings
- Enrich the page’s content with semantic keywords
- Enrich content with images and/or videos
- Review technical issues
- Check for duplicate content
- Check if page is not blocked from crawling
- Check if the page content is long enough
- Check that there is no keyword stuffing in <title>, <h1>, <body> and <meta> tags.
- Restructure/add internal links that point to this page Incorporate an internal linking structure, especially between relevant blogs and target pages to ensure that all pages create an internal ‘web’ to help increase SEO.
- Provide additional recommendations to client
- User Experience examples:
- Page loads quickly
- Page has a low bounce rate.
- Time spent on this page is high
- Click through rate is high
- Content Length examples:
- Content is long enough when compared to domains that rank in top 10 for the target keyword
- User Experience examples:
- Proofread and integrate content on website
- Use SEO Writing Assistant to validate the updates.
- Earn backlinks from more sources
- Add target URL(s) to Semrush
- Add target URLs to “In Progress” in Semrush Content Audit tool
- Add target URLs to Semrush Post Tracking
- Add the optimized page URL to the “Content Optimization” group
- Add the target keywords and review suggested keywords
What To Optimize?
Heading Tags
Heading tags are the second most important on-page SEO factor that we can use to get better ranking. They tell search engines that this is the main title of the page. It is an incredibly powerful tool and Google takes it seriously, providing it is substantiated by the page’s content. In other words, the words in the h1 title tag should also appear in the main text. Using the h1 tag is an excellent way to optimize a page for specific keywords.
Here is how we use the h1 tag: <h1>Main keyword</h1>
We should also use the h2 and h3 tags for sub-headings, making the page’s content hierarchical.
Contextual Keywords
The targeted keywords should appear in the main body of the text reasonably frequently without overdoing it: a page that is stuffed with keywords destroys the credibility of a website and is easily identified by Google as spam. Putting keywords at the beginning of the page, in most of the paragraphs, and somewhere near the end will be quite sufficient. The copy should also incorporate the keywords located in title tags. Do not forget the importance of using synonyms too.
Bolded Text
When we bold, italicize or underline a word, Google assumes that this is one of the keywords. We should therefore bold, italicize or underline some of the keywords on the client’s page.
Be very careful, because this can also work against us: if we use bold, italics or underlining on words that are not keywords, we will confuse Google and will weaken the effect of these tags on real keywords.
Anchor Text
One of the strongest signals the engines use in rankings is anchor text. If dozens of links point to a page with the right keywords, that page has a very good probability of ranking well for the targeted phrase in that anchor text.
As a result, never construct a sentence around a link phrase, such as: “click here for more information.” Write the sentence as we normally would, and place the link anchor on the keyword or phrase that best describes the additional content.
- Poor
Click here for more information on link underlines.
- Better
For universal usability, use link underlines to ensure that all users can identify links.
Also read: https://moz.com/learn/seo/anchor-text
