Content Optimisation: A Step-by-Step Guide (Updated After Google Helpful Content Update )

When you think about content optimisation, the first thing that comes to mind might be search engine optimisation, but so much more comes into play.

We’re here to give you the low-down on all things content optimisation so you can sashay ahead of competitors like a supermodel!

What is Content Optimisation?

Content optimisation is the process of creating content to improve search engine rankings and be more accessible and visible to your target audience. This can be achieved through a variety of means, including content marketing, search engine optimization and social media strategy.

Benefits of Content Optimisation

If you’re serious about marketing your business online, then you invest in content optimisation. If done right, you’ll be faced with a plethora of benefits that will make you scratch your head and say “why didn’t I do this before?”

When your content is optimised, not only will it help you rank higher in other search engines, but it will also result in better search engine results pages (SERPs). In other words, your content will be more visible and user-friendly, leading to more traffic and engagement.

And if you think that sounds like a sweet deal, that’s just the beginning.

Content optimisation can also help you improve your click-through rate (CTR), organic reach, and even conversions – meaning more sales to scale your business.

Not to mention, of course, the fact that properly optimised content has higher visibility which makes it more likely to be found and read by your target audience.

So, if you’re not already doing it, now is the time to start optimising your website. You’ll thank us later – we promise!

Content Optimisation Guide

If you’re looking to optimise your content, there are a few steps you can take to ensure that you produce high-quality content that has high search engine visibility.

Firstly, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the content creation process. This will help you to map out each stage of content creation – from conducting keyword and competitor research, to publishing your content in the big wide world!

By following some simple steps, you can ensure that your content is optimised for both search engines and readers.

With no further ado, here’s the content optimisation process in detail:

1. Thorough Research

The fundamental building block of content optimisation is good research. This involves ensuring that your content has appropriate keywords and phrases that are relevant to your product or service for your intended audience.

TARGET KEYWORD RESEARCH

Start with the overarching topic of your content and then find the search terms that your audience is likely to input into search engines when looking through search results. These search terms will become your target keywords that form the basis of your content optimisation strategies.

related keywords

There will be some shoo-ins to use as target keywords in your content marketing strategy, but using a primary keyword (or a few!) isn’t enough to skyrocket your website up the ranks.

You also need to research related keywords as this assists search engines in getting to know the subject of your content, which can in turn boost its visibility if deemed relevant. Ensure they are still relevant keywords so you aren’t straying away from the primary intent of your page.

2. Choosing Title Tags That Entice

Title tags are the words that appear at the top of your webpage, and they should be reflective of the main topic of the page.

Title tag helps search engine crawlers understand the content of your page and alert users that you have what they want, making them hugely influential in boosting click-throughs and more organic traffic.

To complement a title tag, meta descriptions are brief descriptions of what each page on your website is about. Again, it’s important to choose descriptive words that accurately reflect the content on the page.

When a user makes an organic search query and comes across your page, they will skim through the meta description to decide if your page serves their interests and deserves clicking on.

Think of the meta description as a blurb to a book; if you don’t capture the reader’s interest in the first few words, they’ll ignore your website and choose something else.

By carefully crafting your title tags and meta descriptions, you can help improve your website’s SEO and attract more visitors.

3. Structure Your Content

It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it!

Without a good structure, readers will find it difficult to identify the valuable information you provide, which could result in your targeted traffic ultimately choosing your competitors – and we don’t want that!

Don’t make your website make visitors feel like they’re reading a doctorate thesis – make it as easy to digest as white bread!

And remember; headings are your friend.

Break up your content with headings so that users can easily locate what they want without having to read an entire website. Headings can work as a skeleton that can make content writing a whole lot easier – so don’t push them to the side!

4. Writing Content That Converts

Once you have your structure sorted, you can get to the writing part – hooray!

By now you’re fully loaded with the ammunition you need to fire up some fabulous content on the battlefield of the internet.

It’s important to remember to keep your objective in mind whenever writing new content. You ultimately want users to click on your site, sift through your website and convert into paying customers. So, what are you waiting for? Show ’em what you got!

Avoid: keyword stuffing

Incorporate the keywords you find from the research phase, but avoid overstuffing. No – we aren’t giving you cooking advice for your next roast turkey – we’re talking about keyword stuffing!

Keyword stuffing is when you fill a web page with so many keywords or repeat keywords to manipulate the search engine results pages (SERPs) so that the page appears higher in the rankings for certain search terms.

Search engines are smarter than you think, so they’ll be able to tell when you’re being cheeky and overusing keywords just to rank. This is especially true following the highly talked about Google helpful content update.

This major update details how Google will potentially penalise machine-written content or machine-targeted content, which prioritises algorithmic performance on search engines over providing content that answers to a customer’s needs.

avoid: keyword cannibalisation

Not only should you avoid using too many keywords on one page – you should also avoid using the same keywords on multiple pages on your site, or it may result in keyword cannibalisation.

Keyword cannibalisation causes your content to compete with itself in the eyes of search algorithms, which can hurt your rankings and decrease visitors. So, make sure each page of your website is unique and has different targeted keywords.

5. Optimise Your Visuals

   Good text often goes has in hand with good images – so make sure you put the time into optimising images.

   It’s not just about making things look pretty, though! This means choosing the right file format, compressing the image, and providing alternate text for accessibility. By taking these steps, images can be used effectively without sacrificing speed or visibility.

   Optimising images isn’t just about making things look pretty though! It will also enhance the user experience.

   This is important because if a visitor is having a positive experience with your website, chances are they’ll spend more time exploring it and hopefully follow the yellow brick road to making a purchase!

6. Improve Internal Linking Structure

   If you’ve ever wondered why some sites get all the love on search results pages while others languish near the bottom, it could be due to its internal linking strategy.

   When users scroll through search results, images with lots of high-quality internal links are more likely to catch their eye because links act like a vote of confidence for websites, telling search engines that they’re relevant and interesting.

7. External Linking

   External links are a great way to improve the quality of your content.

   By linking to authoritative sources, you add credibility to your page by creating associations between your site and other high-quality content. This can improve your page’s ranking because it tells Google that your content is trustworthy and reliable too.

   So, if you want to take that extra step to take your content to the next level, don’t sleep on external links!

8. Observe the CompetitionBefore you officially publish your page on the internet, make sure you conduct competitor research by checking out their existing content.A simple Google search of a relevant search term can help you see what your competitors are doing well, which could increase your chances of ensuring content is search friendly and matches a user’s search intent.Look at competitors’ websites as if you were a consumer and compare it to your own content, making changes to it where you see fit.

What Content Optimisation Tools are Available?

It’s 2022 people! Thanks to the extraordinary wonders of modern technology, you don’t have to tackle the beast of content optimisation all by yourself.

There are some great technical SEO tools available to help with various aspects of your content optimization strategy.

You could lean on keyword research services like Semrush to get the ball rolling, and you can even use an online writing assistant to help you out with writing content for your page.

But remember; at the end of the day, you create content for humans not machines – so don’t overdo it!

The risks of following the wrong content strategy guide

If you’re running a website or blog, it’s important to make sure your content is optimised to be search engine friendly so that you can attract more traffic to your site or blog post.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about content marketing tactics for optimisation. Keyword stuffing and other black hat SEO techniques may help you get short-term results, but they can ultimately do more harm than good.

Not only will your site be penalised by Google and other search engine results pages, but you’ll also lose the trust of your readers. The bottom line is that if you really want to optimize content, you need to focus on creating quality content that provides value to your audience.

Experienced Content Writing Agency

If you’re in need of an experienced content writing agency to get the task right from the get-go, why not contact a digital marketing company First Page Australia?

We can be your premium content writing agency of choice because we know that you only deserve the best for all your copywriting and content optimisation needs.

Get in touch with us today and be on your way to zooming through the search engines straight to the first page!