How to optimize your content for search engines

Yes. Ensuring that you have a strong search engine optimization or SEO strategy can get you there. Marketers use SEO tactics to optimize your content, making it easier for search engines to find you. When your marketing team uses the right methods, it can boost your content to the front page of Google.

So, how do you optimize your content for search engines?

What is a search engine and how does it work?

A search engine is another word for Google or Bing. Any website that allows you to search the internet for answers to your questions is considered a search engine. Have you ever wondered how these search engines know where to find the answers? That is where optimization comes in.

These search engines have what they call crawlers, also called bots or spiders. The web crawler finds content and indexes it for search engines. When a crawler finds a new page, it looks at the content to understand what information is on the page. Optimizing your content helps the search engine crawler recognize what your site is about, making it easier to index.

Ways to optimize your content

There are some methods that marketers have developed that make it easier for search engines like Google to crawl and index your page. After all, your website needs to be indexed before it can become part of the search engines results page. Here are some of the techniques your marketing agency uses to optimize your content.

1. Audience

Start with defining your audience. You need to know who you want to write your content for before you'll be able to know what to write and how to do it. Use demographics to define who you are trying to reach with your content. Consider your audience's buying behaviour, their habits, or patterns, and why they'll be interested in what you are offering. Essentially, you want to create content that speaks to your audience in a personal way, so they'll click through and become a customer.

2. Keywords

When a person sits down to do a search for your type of business on Google, there are some words that they will use to conduct that search. These are the same words that anyone who sits down to do the same search will use. You want to identify what those keywords or phrases are so you can use them in your content. Ideally, you'll include one or two long-tail keywords. These are more phrases or questions than keywords. In addition, good marketers know where to place keywords, including:

• • • • Included in the meta description
        • • In the URL, if possible
          • Naturally, throughout the body of the content
          • In headers
          • In the title tag

Using the correct phrases or words enables the search engine crawler to index your website based on these words. And when someone searches these keywords, your site will appear on the results page.

3. Focus on the title

The title of your content is the first thing that your audience will see, and you want it to be catchy. A good title will entice readers to keep reading or click through. It will use words that ask a question or pique the reader's curiosity. However, it's crucial not to overpromise with your content. The reader will need to feel you satisfied the query by answering the question you posed or providing the information you promised.

4. Include image alt text

If your content includes images or photos, you'll want to have image alt text. This is put in the code of your page and helps a search engine crawler identify what the image is about. In addition, if your image is unable to load on a user's screen, the alt image text will appear. This enhances their experience because they understand what it is even if they can't see the image. That's why you should be descriptive in your image alt text but keep it to 125 characters.

5. Be strategic with your meta description

The meta description is an essential element that can bring more traffic to your website. This is the brief blub that appears on the search engine results page underneath the title of your content. It provides the reader with more information about your site. You want to write the meta description carefully as it is what searchers will use to gauge whether they want to click through to your website.

6. Test your page speed

The reality is that our attention spans have gotten shorter. Time magazine reported that goldfish now have longer attention spans than human beings. This means that if your page takes too long to load, you'll be losing your audience. So it's important to test your page loading speed on different devices and be sure that it doesn't take too long.

7. Create the right call to action

Somewhere in your content you'll need to let the reader know what action you want them to take. This is called the call to action or CTA. It leads your audience to the next steps towards making a purchase or connecting with your brand. A good CTA will flow naturally from the content. Some examples of the action you may want your reader to take are:

• • • • Read more of your content
      • Subscribe to your newsletter
      • Buy your product
      • Try a free sample

Why work with Soap Media?

At Soap Media, we consider ourselves SEO specialists. We know that Google changes its algorithm regularly, and we understand how that can impact your content. Our team regularly updates their expertise and develops methods to optimize your content. We are committed to helping you increase traffic to your website and revenue for your business.

Why not find out how Soap Media's marketing team can help you optimize your content and rank higher on Google? Contact us for a free discovery call today.