Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has one specific objective; to increase the website’s traffic by improving the visibility of the website in the search engine results. It targets different types of searches such as video, news or image search. However, to effectively increase and retain the web traffic, content is key. One can optimize a website by adding, editing content or modifying the coding to increase its relevance to particular keywords.
In 2020, search engines like Google put great emphasis on the quality content for search engine optimization. Google often presents the best options to serve the queries of its web users. This is because Google will rely on the returning users to earn more money thus it ensures the content offered is of the best quality.
There are different types of SEO content that can be created to attract web traffic as shown below:
- Blog posts – This is the widely used format. This can be a combination of videos, texts, and images. They attract more traffic since they are more engaging with readers.
- Product pages – These are sites promoting specific services and products. They are essential for most businesses.
- Landing page – This is the content that is used in PPC campaigns. It is also the first page that a user sees when he visits a website.
In 2020, a mix of old techniques and new approaches will be useful in pushing content for better ranking. Here are some safe SEO practices to help you leverage and enrich your online existence and chances of profitability.
1) Keyword research – What words or phrases are visitors actively searching? Keyword research is an old technique that is still helpful, although a number of changes to algorithms have changed the approach. Make an effort to identify which keywords to target as well as keywords for hyperlinks.
It is crucial to aim at secondary keywords when identifying the content for a website since these are the words you will use when writing a post. By doing research, one understands what kind of content to create and how to optimize it in the search engines. Long-tail keywords can also be included in the content body and subheading. Most people have a pretty clear idea of what they are searching for hence they will use a specific phrase to search in the search engine.
2) Optimizing article length – Nowadays, most blog posts are longer than they used to be. Search engines like Google are giving priority to websites with longer content because they want to provide their users with the best answers to their queries. The longer the content, the more value it gives to a reader hence more social media sharing. One can also incorporate a lot of other elements such as videos, images, and infographics to enrich the content you give to readers.
3) Using hyperlinks – Great content always tends to get both internal and external backlinks. When publishing content, it is always a good idea to add links to your own previous content. This ensures that readers can always be redirected to your website if one of your articles is posted by another website. By adding hyperlinks, the validity of your content increases and visitors can always find your articles in the search results. Including an embed code for content like videos and info graphics helps increase your content sharing and link it back to the source.
4) Publishing valuable content – If you want web users to read your content, you must write high-quality content. People tend to go for articles that are useful and entertaining. Search engines also give preference to content with higher quality hence become more relevant. When writing content, ensure it matches the interests of most of your readers. In the case of a company, ensure the content is informative and appeals the needs of your target customers. It is also advisable to have another person look at your blog post before posting it to ensure you did not miss any mistakes.
5) Use of visuals – Adding images to your posts can make a big difference. Images make the content pop thus attracting more web traffic. They make the content more shareable and interesting. Optimizing the size of the image is important by ensuring the image is not too big to avoid loading slowly. Using cheap and low-quality images will irritate your readers knowing they have already seen the same images somewhere else.
6) Being receptive to your audience – This trend has taken shape over the last couple of years and it is bound to continue determining content performance.
Writing quality content is not enough to attract heavy web traffic. It is also very important to ask for feedback from your readers as well as respond to their queries.
One can collect input from the readers through surveys and questionnaires which will help understand what type of topics the readers are interested in, products and trends they like. One can also optimize email lists by engaging and growing subscribers through email marketing.
7) Propel your content with social media – Social media is a great marketing tool that can help your content reach more readers and boost sharing therefore it is crucial to have share buttons in each blog posts and product pages. Ensure that you provide as many social media buttons as possible to ensure maximum optimization of these platforms in promoting your content. It is also a good idea to use hashtags when promoting your content via social media and making sure to use them in your blog posts. Some of these platforms include Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
Conclusion
It is time to step up your content game by using some of the strategies enlisted in this article. SEO content is a crucial piece to your online success journey and following the right steps will be helpful in writing rich content to promote web traffic. This will make your posts and products more interesting, engaging and shareable. It is highly competitive field already and one has to put their best foot forward.
