How do you use SEO and keywords in your content strategy?
If you want to create content that attracts, engages, and converts your target audience, you need to use SEO and keywords in your content strategy. SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is the process of improving your website's visibility and relevance for relevant queries on search engines like Google. Keywords are the words and phrases that your audience uses to search for information, solutions, or products related to your niche. In this article, you will learn how to use SEO and keywords in your content strategy to achieve your product marketing goals.
The first step to use SEO and keywords in your content strategy is to understand your audience and their intent. You need to know who they are, what they need, what they want, and how they search for it. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Trends to analyze your website traffic, search performance, and popular topics. You can also use surveys, interviews, and feedback forms to get insights from your existing and potential customers. By understanding your audience and their intent, you can create content that matches their needs, interests, and expectations.
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Todd Cotts (MBA Marketing, MS Psychology)
“Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals.” ― David Ogilvy
I have always used my target audience’s lexicon to identify keywords and phrases to use in content. This not only improves SEO, it ensures I’m using their words and phrases to define our solutions. Here’s my process: 1. Identify companies I’m targeting then 2. Mine their website, earnings reports, and content for words and phrases that relate to the solutions we provide. 3. Collect keywords and phrases in a table or spreadsheet. 4. Test search engines to see what pops up in the first few pages of search results that relates to the solutions we offer. 5. Incorporate refined list in content, including web pages.
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Christian Buckley
Fractional CMO + Channel Consulting | Microsoft RD + MVP | #CollabTalk Podcast + TweetJam | xMicrosoft | Board + Marketing @TekkiGurus | Advisor @revealit + @WellnessWits | 6-time author
You should balance your SEO strategy with your domain expertise, providing content that your readers may not yet be asking for. In my experience, people can tell the difference between artificially-generated marketing copy and true thought-leadership. They want authenticity. I'm not against SEO-driven content creation, but be sure that you're also imparting actual value to the content you're creating.
The next step to use SEO and keywords in your content strategy is to conduct keyword research and analysis. You need to identify the keywords that your audience uses to find information, solutions, or products related to your niche. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to generate keyword ideas, analyze their volume, difficulty, and competition, and find related keywords and questions. You can also use tools like AnswerThePublic, BuzzSumo, or Quora to discover the most common and relevant queries and topics that your audience asks. By conducting keyword research and analysis, you can create content that targets the right keywords and answers the right questions.
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Christian Buckley
Fractional CMO + Channel Consulting | Microsoft RD + MVP | #CollabTalk Podcast + TweetJam | xMicrosoft | Board + Marketing @TekkiGurus | Advisor @revealit + @WellnessWits | 6-time author
One of my favorite new tools is to leverage ChatGPT to help ensure that I am including important keywords and answering the most frequently asked questions in the content I create.
The third step to use SEO and keywords in your content strategy is to optimize your content for SEO and keywords. You need to create content that is relevant, valuable, and engaging for your audience and search engines. You can use tools like Yoast SEO, Hemingway Editor, or Grammarly to optimize your content for readability, clarity, and grammar. You can also use tools like CoSchedule Headline Analyzer, Moz Title Tag Preview Tool, or SERP Simulator to optimize your content for headlines, titles, meta descriptions, and snippets. By optimizing your content for SEO and keywords, you can create content that ranks well, attracts clicks, and drives conversions.
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Natalya Stecko
Strategising expert content to boost your brand @ SALT.agency 🚀 Passionate about the use of AI in technology, SEO and content 🤖
Avoiding keyword stuffing is crucial for maintaining a strong online presence and adhering to best SEO practices. Keyword stuffing is the excessive and unnatural use of keywords in a piece of content with the sole purpose of manipulating search engine rankings. Search engines now prioritize high-quality and user-friendly content (think E-E-A-T), penalizing websites that resort to keyword stuffing. Instead, focus on creating valuable and relevant content that naturally incorporates keywords, offering a better user experience and increasing the likelihood of ranking well in search results.
The fourth step to use SEO and keywords in your content strategy is to monitor and measure your content performance. You need to track and analyze how your content performs on search engines and how it impacts your product marketing goals. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Data Studio to monitor and measure your content performance in terms of traffic, impressions, clicks, rankings, bounce rate, dwell time, conversions, and revenue. You can also use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, or GTmetrix to monitor and measure your content performance in terms of speed, usability, and accessibility. By monitoring and measuring your content performance, you can evaluate and improve your content strategy.
The fifth step to use SEO and keywords in your content strategy is to update and improve your content regularly. You need to keep your content fresh, relevant, and accurate for your audience and search engines. You can use tools like Google Search Console, Google Alerts, or BuzzSumo to identify your content gaps, opportunities, and trends. You can also use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to identify your content strengths, weaknesses, and competitors. By updating and improving your content regularly, you can maintain and enhance your content quality, authority, and relevance.
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Christian Buckley
Fractional CMO + Channel Consulting | Microsoft RD + MVP | #CollabTalk Podcast + TweetJam | xMicrosoft | Board + Marketing @TekkiGurus | Advisor @revealit + @WellnessWits | 6-time author
Make sure that you monitor the lifecycle of your aging content, and purge your website of outdated content that could actually be hurting your SEO scores. There are 3rd party tools that can help identify and archive old content.
The sixth step to use SEO and keywords in your content strategy is to experiment and learn from your content. You need to test and learn from your content to find out what works best for your audience and search engines. You can use tools like Google Optimize, Optimizely, or VWO to run experiments on your content elements, such as headlines, images, videos, calls to action, or layouts. You can also use tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, or Crazy Egg to learn from your content data, such as user behavior, feedback, or heatmaps. By experimenting and learning from your content, you can optimize and innovate your content strategy.
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Natalya Stecko
Strategising expert content to boost your brand @ SALT.agency 🚀 Passionate about the use of AI in technology, SEO and content 🤖
To effectively use SEO and keywords in your content strategy, begin with comprehensive keyword research to find relevant and high-traffic keywords. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your content, including the title, meta description, and copy. Prioritize creating valuable and engaging content that aligns with your audience's search intent. By understanding your target audience and optimizing your content with strategic keyword usage, you can improve your content's visibility and search engine ranking.
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