What is the trick to optimising content?

Writing optimised content isn't necessarily difficult, but it does take effort. There are several steps that you need to follow in order to get your content as optimised as possible.

1. Know Your Audience and Their Mindset

Writing optimised content isn't incredibly difficult, but it does take effort and you need to know what you are doing. There are several steps that you need to follow in order to get your content as optimised as possible. 

As we've already mentioned, your content needs to be audience-centric. To do this, you have to know your audience and their trigger points and be very aware of your brand voice.

As a result of recent events, it is also important to be aware of your audience’s mindset and that their decision-making barriers may have changed.

The actual information that you write needs to be valuable to your audience and match their intended search. Content that is not valuable and doesn't match the intended search will likely be penalised by the search engines. You can't try to trick people into clicking on your website for one thing and then showing them something else. 

Also, very importantly, you shouldn't be posting content that isn't relevant to your brand. This will not only hurt your rankings, but it will also turn away your customers as they will no longer trust your brand's voice or direction.

2. Determine Your Topic and Perform Keyword Research

Your main goal when creating content is to make sure it is geared to a specific audience. You're also going to have to do keyword research so that you can make sure that your content will actually be able to find the audience it was intended for.

There are several tips that you should keep in mind when you're choosing topics and keywords:

• Avoid keywords that are highly competitive and have extremely high search numbers
• Match your topic to the keyword
• Focus on long-tail keywords
• Use a keyword research tool that's proven to work
• Ensure that you don’t overuse your keywords in your copy or you will be penalised

For people who don’t know, a long-tail keyword is a keyword that is made up of three or four words and is specific to whatever your service or product is.

3. Develop Your Format and Outline for Optimal Readability

While you're figuring out your outline, you need to ensure that you're formatting of the core content is broken down into small pieces. People who read content online have extremely short attention spans. Nobody wants to read a huge block of text.

Your paragraphs should only be between one and three sentences long.

Also, you should break up your content into smaller sections that are no longer than around 300 words. You want to do this so the content is more accessible and you don't overwhelm the reader.

4. Stick to the Target Keyword and Topic

As you start to write your content, remember that it's crucial you stick to the target keyword and topic that you've decided on. Avoid going on tangents or adding too much background or anecdotal information.

Most people who are searching online are looking for specific things. If you get off-topic, they'll likely lose interest and move on to another site.

5. Place Backlinks Throughout the Content

For Google, credibility is a big factor when deciding how to rank websites. Because of this, you need to make sure that you're linking to authoritative, trustworthy, and relevant websites. Doing so will help ensure that your content is viewed as credible by search engines.

With that said, you need to use words that are relevant when you’re attaching backlinks to them. If you don’t, Google may penalise your site. It’s also worth noting that you should attach a link to around three adjacent words. And as you write more content, you’ll also want to get other sites to link to your page.

Just remember, it can still be difficult to know exactly what to write about and how to design a strategy that will improve your business. 

You might know your business inside out and be the expert in your field, but are you also an expert content writer? If not, then invest and utilise the skills of a professional. Don’t forget to include engaging imagery as this is another key interest factor when attracting an audience.

Contact us today and see how we can help you!