In the move toward digital and the rise of ecommerce, a strong website takes more than branding and products to sell. The content across your site’s pages needs to be optimized to fit that page’s theme and selling point. To get your products and services on your customer’s screens, you need to plan your SEO content strategy sufficiently.
As a digital marketing company, NetElixir helps our clients find and engage their high value customers. Our organic search services offer retailers end-to-end search engine optimization through our full-service SEO solution. This guide is designed for SEO strategists and marketers, but think of our designated client as your project and your overall brand and website.
How to Approach Creating Content
To set the attitude for what our content creation approach should be in general for each client, I’ll repeat something I heard early on as a magazine editor that I think holds true for providing top-quality content in general. After doing a full review of where a client stands and where they want to go (while understanding what your work resources and available efforts are), give the client something they want, something they need, and something extra.
Work with what the client wants, as they know their own business goals. As content creators and SEO writers, we know how to boost the right areas, which is something the client needs. But to set your content apart, think of something added for each assignment to go above expectations, something extra. Keep this attitude for every content project.
What Problem or Question is Your Content Attempting to Answer?
Content creation for SEO starts with a question. Are we:
- Trying to boost under-performing pages?
- Improving ranking for a target term?
- Heightening brand awareness?
- Enhancing authority on a given topic (likely done by gaining a space in a universal listing)?
- Driving revenue for a product?
- Closing the Competitive Gap?
Please note that these are only some examples of common questions SEO content writers might face. It is by no means exhaustive or the only functions of SEO content.
There is no one answer to each of these questions and some answers to different questions may be the same. Several of the methods for creating a content solution to several or all of these questions may overlap. The tools we use (and areas of those tools we check) may also overlap. However, each tool and solution drives the same theme – increased visibility of your brand, your products and services, and your site.
Before we get into a method for creating content to address any one of the above questions, one thing we always have to verify – is it worth the effort?
Determine the Value of SEO Content Optimization
How important is the page that you are trying to give a performance boost to? Consider its purpose on the site, place in the buyer’s funnel, and overall value to the client. Before delving into this effort, we should do our best to evaluate the page’s place in the site structure and we should have a direct conversation with the client.
How high of a monthly search volume does our target term(s) have? If the volume is high, is it directly relevant to the client’s industry, and therefore, a lead qualified search term? If we determine both of these, then next we need to determine what page on the site is best suited to rank for this term. What is the average order value or profit margin of the product we’re boosting rankings for?
The importance of the product’s AOV will be given a further discussion in the SEO content method and tactics blog to follow next week.
Similar to ranking, does this a topic appeal to a large enough audience to warrant becoming an authority on it? Is it a topic directly relevant to the client’s industry and is it a marketable topic with the potential to drive sales or other conversions? Rather than just checking monthly search volume (and we do need to check if search volume for the terms related to this topic are high enough), we also want to see if a client has enough value to offer on that topic. Can they provide more than a blog post? Do they have sufficient related products and other resources? If we’re trying to gain this featured snippet, are we gaining a featured snippet that actually drives CTR? All these questions should also include a discussion with the client, as well as a holistic look at their product and service line.
Planning your SEO Content
In sum, clarify the value of the proposed effort with the client and verify sufficient volume of the user market regardless of which question you’re trying to address. In beginning your SEO content creation process, consider the following:
- Determine your question or problem you have to solve.
- Research related terms and topics to supplement the content.
- Incorporate client goals through ongoing conversations.
- Verify value and potential wins by asking is it worth the effort?
Once you have sufficiently outlined the above, you can begin the actual SEO content writing process.
