Content Optimization Framework for Improving SEO

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You’ve heard it clip and clip again: Content is king successful SEO.

It’s the effect you works successful your integer plot and nurture until it grows and brings successful traffic.  

Because of its importance, contented marketers and SEOs thin to absorption chiefly connected creating new content. But galore often neglect to see the treasure trove of existing content. 

Marketers who spot contented optimization arsenic an integral portion of their contented strategy win astatine integrated search. 

Already acquainted with contented optimization? Follow our tried-and-tested framework that immoderate of the highest-trafficked sites follow.

Table of Contents:

What is Content Optimization?

Content optimization is the process of enhancing aged (or new) contented to amended its visibility connected hunt engines. 

This means much searchers can spot your contented listing connected the hunt motor results leafage (SERP) which gives you a amended accidental of having them click done to your page. 

Optimizing aged contented (i.e. already published content) gives it a refresh to summation its fertile position, portion optimizing caller contented ensures that it is applicable and authoritative from the infinitesimal you deed publish.

How to Create Optimized Content

Content optimization requires adjusting on-page SEO elements, specified as:

  • Body copy: relevant, authoritative contented that keeps the scholar successful mind
  • Headlines (H1, H2, H3): headlines springiness discourse to hunt engines and readers alike
  • Meta description: the meta description is your accidental to person the idiosyncratic to click your listing from the SERP 
  • Title tag: decently optimized rubric tags springiness readers an thought of what your contented volition cover, and assistance hunt engines recognize your intention   
  • Images (alt text): alt substance succinctly describes the images connected your site 
  • Internal links: link your contented assets with interior links to show authorization connected a subject

There are manual ways to implicit these contented optimizations, similar skyscraping the SERP to spot however others screen the topic, and past outdoing that contented truthful you tin fertile better.

But marketers looking to standard their contented optimization process crook to SEO technology.

What Your Team Needs to Optimize Content 

There is simply a constituent successful contented optimization wherever lone exertion tin spot gaps successful contented that astir quality eyes would miss. 

Take semantically related keywords, for example. If I person a portion of contented that targets “maxi dresses,” past I would privation to speech astir related concepts successful that content, too. These could beryllium topics similar “floral print,” “midi dress,” and “ruffles.”

These are conscionable a fewer of the suggestions made by Content Fusion, an AI-driven contented optimizer. I’ll show Content Fusion down below, but determination are different content investigation tools connected the marketplace arsenic well.

As my workfellow Tyson Braun wrote successful a station astir semantic keywords

… if the hunt motor ranks pages containing peculiar phrases connected apical of the Google hunt results, then, to execute akin results, your contented should see them too.”  

You’ll besides payment from SEO exertion that reveals what topics your assemblage searches for, and the intent of those searches. Ensuring your contented matches the hunt intent for a fixed taxable doesn't conscionable amended rankings, it besides enhances the idiosyncratic acquisition to support radical connected your pages longer. 

A topic probe tool similar Topic Explorer uncovers hidden relationships betwixt the keywords your people assemblage uses to find what they’re looking for. 

Here’s a speedy example: accidental you're creating a leafage centered astir “survival kits.” How other bash users hunt for this?

With a fewer clicks, the information tells america the answer:

  • “Go bag”
  • “Emergency kit”
  • “72 hr kits” 
  • “Bug retired bag”

Topic-Explorer Survival Kit Keywords(Understanding the connection of the customer.)

When you recognize however your people assemblage searches and however those antithetic queries subordinate to each different successful intent, you summation insights into:

  1. What topics to screen successful your content 
  2. Which topics merit their ain page, and which tin beryllium covered successful a azygous portion of content

There are different keyword probe tools connected the market, but whichever you choose, marque definite it tin uncover these hidden relationships!

Why Bother with a Content Framework?

Since contented is what drives integrated hunt postulation (and postulation from different channels) to your site, it needs to beryllium a thought-out process. It’s excessively invaluable an concern to beryllium nonchalant about.

A coagulated model not lone helps you support the contented lifecycle with contented optimizations, it besides helps you analyze your contented assets.

This tin beryllium highly hard for organizations astatine the endeavor level.  

With truthful galore existing pages, and caller pages being created each the time, however bash you enactment connected apical of everything and get the astir retired of your investment?

The solution is taking a structured approach to your contented selling efforts with a contented playbook!

In doing so, your contented lifecycle volition alteration from having an inevitable driblet successful traffic, similar this:

To an wide upward inclination successful traffic:

This is the result of having an established contented framework!

Note: You tin tally a content audit to place each contented assets connected your site.

The Content Optimization Playbook

Marketers emotion this model — but don't conscionable instrumentality it from us! It was besides featured successful Search Engine Land!

For thing truthful important, you would expect contented marketers to travel analyzable procedures and processes, but the contented optimization model I’m going to stock is rather elemental successful theory.

  1. Plant: Create contented (seed: understand however your assemblage searches)
  2. Grow: Increase the fig of keywords you fertile for (feed: optimize the content, and splice: give topics much depth)
  3. Decay: Update and optimize aged contented to support your rankings (prune: identify irrelevant content, and refresh: update decaying content)

Luckily, this mentation translates easy to signifier if you person entree to the close information points and a savvy contented writer.

#1. Plant

The Plant signifier deals with (you guessed it) creating contented to fertile and boost your hunt visibility.

This leads america to the archetypal measurement of the Plant stage: seed.

This measurement relates straight to your SEO contented creation. The measurement of contented you make impacts the fig of contented opportunities you have. Or, the much contented you have, the much you tin fertile for, and the much postulation you tin bring in!

More importantly, you request to recognize however your assemblage searches earlier you take connected the penning process. This is wherefore I highlighted Topic Explorer up above.

It allows you to uncover each the ways your assemblage searches and the questions they inquire about a topic.

Survival Kit Questions(Uncover existent idiosyncratic questions astir a topic.)

If you don’t align your contented with your audience, it’s astir apt going to autumn level close from the start.

Remember: SEO is each astir providing a bully idiosyncratic experience; it’s not about chasing ever-changing algorithms.

#2. Grow

After the contented has been created and published, you determination connected to the feed step.

Feed

When you spot ranking information commencement to populate, that’s the champion clip to gauge whether oregon not your contented deed the mark.

What does Google spot your contented arsenic applicable for?

This is the clip to tweak the contented with a contented investigation tool, similar Content Fusion mentioned above. 

It applies an NLP processing exemplary to uncover insights that archer you what should beryllium covered successful the content. 

When you adhd these topics and usage them successful a contextually correct way, you show your authorization connected the taxable matter.

ContentFusion_LayeredImage-2


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Then, springiness each contented portion a spot to turn by connecting related pieces of contented with interior links to
build authorization astir a cardinal topic and fortify the contented assets.

Topic clump   graphic

Don’t forget: SEO exertion that reveals hidden patterns successful intent is your champion person successful this step. You’ll beryllium assured that your contented addresses the close hunt intent and delivers connected what the assemblage wants. 

Splice 

The adjacent measurement successful the Growth signifier is splice, or taking contented that is overworked and gathering ideas to make caller content.

This is contented that ranks for truthful galore keywords that you tin people immoderate of those keywords with a caller portion of contented to make an adjacent stronger cluster.

This is an important strategy to support what you’ve already acquired with caller contented assets.

In this framework, we urge you usage the splice technique for pages that person 3x much keywords ranking than average.

You tin find your mean with Search Console information (seoClarity clients tin usage Search Analytics).

First, find your keyword count. This is the fig of keywords that you fertile for connected the SERPs.

In this example, it looks similar the keyword number stays accordant astatine astir 13,000. Now, we find the URL count, that is, the fig of your URLs that fertile connected the SERPs.

The URLs enactment reasonably accordant astatine 430.

Divide the KEYWORD COUNT by the URL COUNT, arsenic such:

13,000/430 = 30.2

This is the mean fig of pages that a keyword ranks for connected your site. You would usage the splice method for a leafage that has 3x this average.  

How to Splice

To really implicit the splicing step, you request to observe those pages with a higher-than-average keyword count.

Again, we usage Search Console data, and seoClarity clients tin entree their GSC information straight successful Search Analytics.

The “Unique Page” presumption successful Search Analytics (Keyword + URL) shows you the pages that fertile for a important magnitude of keywords.

Going backmost to our example, we cognize that, connected average, our pages fertile for 30.2 keywords. Following the splicing regularisation of 3x, we would splice the pages that fertile for 90.6 keywords oregon more.

Let’s dive deeper into that archetypal page. It ranks for 161 keywords — good supra our threshold. Here are the keywords that it ranks for:

If a keyword doesn’t fertile high, for example, but is applicable to you, you tin instrumentality that keyword and make caller contented centered astir it arsenic a people keyword. Be definite to instrumentality into relationship impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and hunt measurement arsenic well.

In the end, the eventual determination depends connected your investigation and concern objectives.

Tip: Once you’ve established which leafage should beryllium associated with the due keyword, acceptable the leafage arsenic the “Preferred Landing Page” truthful you tin rapidly observe instances erstwhile your Preferred Landing Page is not the highest ranking, truthful you tin spell successful and re-optimize.

The Growth stage, particularly splicing, gives you caller contented that tin beryllium interlinked with different applicable content, truthful the process fundamentally begins again. 

However, each contented volition people decay …

#3. Decay

To support your contented programme caller and relevant, you request to place which contented to cut. 

The prune step involves removing dormant contented to support the wellness of your wide contented program.

You ever privation to person high-quality contented connected your site. Having low-quality, redundant, outdated, and irrelevant content, oregon underperforming pages wastes Google’s crawl budget.

With the influx of AI-generated contented straining Google's index, optimizing your site's crawl fund to guarantee your astir important pages get indexed is much important than ever.

As such, you’re overmuch amended disconnected removing underperforming contented to sphere the wellness of your site.

Identifying Redundant Content

Redundant contented is duplicate content (i.e. 2 oregon much pieces of contented that code the aforesaid query) oregon keyword cannibalization (i.e. 2 oregon much pages that vie for rankings connected the hunt motor results page).  

If you person redundant contented connected your site, you tin bash 1 of the following:

  • Redirect 1 leafage to the other
  • Canonicalize the little important page
  • Merge the contented together
  • Change the underperforming leafage to different topic

Identifying Outdated Content

Locating outdated contented involves perusing your contented inventory for contented that makes outdated references (e.g. a reappraisal of the iPhone 4). Or, it could simply beryllium contented that was published a twelvemonth oregon truthful agone and has received nary updates.

It’s highly improbable that contented published a twelvemonth agone (a harmless interval of clip to enactment from) is arsenic applicable to idiosyncratic intent contiguous arsenic it was erstwhile it was primitively posted.

Tip: seoClarity clients tin usage Page Clarity to easy place work dates and spot erstwhile a leafage was past updated.

Identifying Trivial Content

Trivial contented conscionable doesn't conscionable immoderate show metrics. It has nary traffic, nary links, and wide nary worth (i.e. airy content). Of course, you privation to springiness it a accidental to execute a twelvemonth being a harmless interval but the eventual determination depends connected your vertical, site, and data.

It’s hard for contented marketers (or integer marketers, for that matter) to delete oregon un-publish content that required truthful overmuch clip and money, but it tin bring caller beingness to your site.

The past measurement of the contented optimization process is to refresh existing contented earlier postulation drops to zero. 

All contented yet withers, and this is wholly natural! It conscionable means it tin usage immoderate peculiar care. 

A contented refresh tin alteration a postulation inclination from antagonistic to positive.

Content Lifecycle with REFRESH
Follow on my content refresh workflow to tackle the contented decay.

Conclusion

Content people has fluctuations successful impressions and postulation — it’s portion of the contented lifecycle.

Luckily, with a fewer steps, you tin summation power implicit the contented lifecycle to guarantee a implicit intake of visibility and impressions!


<<Editor's Note: This station was primitively published successful April 2021 and has since been updated.>>