SEO and Content Strategy: How to successfully target your content and your keywords?

More than 15 years ago simply using keywords on a website was the only way for search engines to understand the pertinence of your site. Today, search engines such as Google and Bing are a lot more intelligent and before anything else look to provide the best possible user experience to internet users. They now particularly pay close attention to the way you write your content and use your keywords to see if your page responds in a satisfactory way to visitors’ requests.

Use the same language as your internet users

Using keywords on your website should help you match the language of your site to the language that your customers use when they search for you on Google.
Google is the intermediary between your site and the visitor. The objective of good SEO (search engine optimization) is to help Google understand your site so that it see’s it as an interesting site for internet users and ranks it in a good position in the search results. You can also increase your website traffic and better target your visitors to make converting prospects into customers easier.

REMEMBER

• Google is paying more and more attention to attempts of tampering or fraud. A site resorting to fraudulent ways to quickly increase their audience are at risk of serious penalties, even going as far as blocking the entire website.

Use specific SEO content and keywords per page

Whenever you write for the web it’s important to optimize your articles by a series of keywords that directly or indirectly link to your niche. For a blog, each article must answer the precise questions that some of your target might ask. By writing detailed articles and providing precise answers which are adapted to your market, you can reach part of your niche more effectively instead of writing really general articles without any real added value.

In terms of your main website, the keywords must be specific to each level of your site following its tree structure (e.g. group, brand, range, product…).

Therefore, when an internet user asks Google a question, Google will direct them towards specific pages that it thinks respond the best to the visitors request.

REMEMBER

• No matter what platform you use for your content creation, it’s important to target the right keywords for each individual page of your site rather than use a list of keywords for the whole site. And by optimizing the internal linking of your website, you’ll be optimizing the efficacy of your SEO.

Use keyword themes for each page

Don’t think about keywords individually but rather keywords regrouped by themes for every page of your site.
A page devoted to a unique topic can be of course described by several keywords which answer the semantic field of the subject: this allows Google to better understand what the page is about and making sure it’ll be pertinent and useful for the user.

For example: you decide to create a website for office furniture. Don’t just write your pages with reference to keywords such as ‘office furniture’, remember that your site will have sections ‘managerial offices’, ‘welcome and relax’, ‘administrative offices’, ‘meeting rooms’, ‘seats and sofas’, etc. These keywords need to be included not only for each section, but also for each page of content in each section.

The website could also include a blog looking at the current trends of the office furniture market with in-depth articles including groups of keywords relating to each subject and each type of audience that you target. For this, using long-tail keywords could be the thing to go for because although they’re less popular than more generic keywords, they’re less competitive and represent a particularly high conversion rate.

REMEMBER

• Long-tail keywords represent nearly 80% of traffic.

(Source: SKA optimization)

Think Local SEO

According to a recent study from Google:

• 34% of visitors who carry out a local search on their computer or tablet visit a shop during the day.
• This percentage can reach up to 50% for internet users who carry out local searches on a smartphone.

Local SEO is great for not missing out on important clients.

Conclusion

When optimizing the SEO of your website, pay particular attention to:

• The language that you use when writing your content: it must be understandable for both the internet user and the search engines.
• The quality of your content: it must be unique, specific and respond to precise questions from your targeted audience by bringing real added value.
• The quality of keywords used for every page of your site: they must cover the semantic meaning of your content in a few words.
• The internal linking of your site: by adding the right links in the right places you guarantee the best feed of your pages: not only do you increase your audience but you’ll also improve the credibility of your site.