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How much content are you producing for your website? And, are you providing the right information to direct traffic to your website? Have you correctly titled your pages and named your products or services?

There’s a lot to think about, right?!

Metadata

To improve the chances of showing up in organic search listings, you should work on your metadata. This includes reviewing your page titles and meta descriptions, which are the clickable headings and descriptions that appear in search engine results (SERPs). These help search engines to understand what your page is about. Your page titles, also known as title tags, appear in SERPs, web browsers, and when they’re shared on social media. They should act as a heading that concisely describes what your page is about in 50-60 characters, and include the focus keyword your page is targeting. Your meta description should entice your users to click through to the page. Although meta descriptions don’t affect your search engine rankings, they do influence your clickthrough rate. The meta description should provide a summary of what the page is about and help the user to decide if the content is relevant to them.

Different types of content

Outdated, poorly written, or off-target content is a turnoff and doesn’t make a site look or sound great. It’s essential to review and update content regularly so that you stay relevant and ahead of your competition. There are different types of content you can add to your site to make it more appealing and engaging to your users. Tips, how-to-guides, videos, case studies, testimonials, thought leadership articles, and news content will help educate, guide users, and solve any problems they might have. It’s also important to think about optimising your content with keywords.

There are two types of keyword-led content:

SEO-focussed blogs

Using targeted keywords in your blog posts will help them to perform better. While they should feel natural and organic, they should also be strategic. Keywords help to give your blog posts a focus and ensure that you are creating content that your users want to read. They can also help to influence your content strategy and give your content structure.

Long-form content

Similarly, long-form content, particularly on landing pages, can help to increase your pages’ visibility in SERPs, providing that they’re optimised with the appropriate and relevant keywords you want to appear in SERPs for.

The type of content you choose will depend on the keywords you are targeting, the type of content you are writing, and the pages you are creating. Keyword research is an essential part of a content strategy and helps to ensure that your content gives you the results your business deserves. Creating keyword-targeted content and promoting the services or products you offer, will naturally increase your search engine rankings. There are multiple tools out there that can help you to define what keywords to target and find out what questions your users are asking and searching for. These keywords will then help your content to be seen by Google and present it to the users who are searching for it. This is perfect for the sceptical audiences who don’t trust anything that’s labelled ‘Ad’.

Content Quote Hubspot – Spindogs

How do you start SEO research for your content?

There are tools out there that can help you to decide what keywords you should use in your content to increase your chances of being seen. The best part is that a lot of them are free to use. Google has a range of keyword research tools to use, such as Google Search Console and Google Ads Keyword Planner.

Free content inspiration tools

  • Google Search Console
  • Google Ads Keyword Planner
  • Ubersuggest
  • Answer the Public

Using keyword research tools not only helps you to optimise your content for SEO, but it can also influence what type of content you produce. Here are five simple steps on where to begin when researching keywords for your content strategy:

1. Think about your content

Start by thinking about what you want to promote and write about. Make a list of any key themes, topics, and information about your business. This could be items you sell or services you offer.

2. Identify your keywords

Think about what you, as a customer, would search for in a search engine to find your content and make a list of them.

3. Research related search terms

When you type your phrase into Google and scroll to the bottom of the results, you’ll see some suggestions for searches related to your search. These can help with ideas for other keywords you may want to consider.

4. Look at your competition

How are your competitors ranking for these keywords? To find out what keywords your competitors are ranking for, try manually searching for keywords in an incognito window and have a look at where your competitors rank. SEMrush also allows you to run several free reports that show you the top keywords for the domain you enter.

5. Review your keyword list

Use keyword research tools to cut down your keyword list. Keyword research tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner will help you to identify what keywords to target and eliminate any negative words you should avoid.

Measuring your content’s performance

As with all marketing activities, it is essential to measure your content’s performance. One of the biggest challenges facing content marketers is how to measure the effectiveness of their content marketing, and this all starts with collecting the right data. Content marketers now have to be more accountable and demonstrate that their efforts are having a positive impact on the business strategy as a whole.

Having key stats at your fingertips means you can report on returns on investment (ROI) to directors and put a case forward for further investment in content marketing.

So, there you have it! An overview of how content and keyword research go hand in hand.

This blog post was taken from our latest white paper Make Your Website Work Harder For You which you can read and download for free here.

If you’d like to speak to one of our expert content specialists, don’t hesitate to get in touch below. We’d love to hear from you!

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