How much do you know about SEO? More importantly, how effectively do you implement SEO in your digital marketing?
Search engine optimization has been around for more than three decades, but like all digital marketing tools, it’s fair to say that it’s changed quite dramatically in this time. That means that the SEO best practice you learned in 2015 is probably long outdated.
Now’s your chance to refresh your knowledge with our SEO checklist. Here are four tips to implement when writing for SEO:
Do your SEO research
Never take an aimless guess at what your audience is looking for; you want to properly interrogate this. There are countless SEO tools out there, but a good starting point is Uber Suggest. Writing competently for SEO means looking at the terms your audiences use in detail, so that you can integrate them in a coherent and value-driven way.
If you find yourself a little lost, you can always reach out to one of our expert team for some extra support.
Ask yourself what the customer is looking for
Customer personas and wider audience research are an invaluable part of digital marketing, and this same logic applies to SEO. By thinking critically about your customer, their wants, and their expectations, you’re forced to consider how your piece of content might add value for your audience.
This leads to you pondering what they might be asking questions about and what their search queries are, and more specifically, the phrasing they might use to research these queries.
Write for humans first
Back in the very early days of SEO, ‘keyword stuffing’ was a legitimate tactic, but the days of this being effective are long gone! Not only is your audience going to quickly tire and exit your website (who could blame them - you’ve repeated their question but given no answer), but Google will pick up on this disingenuous use of search terms. Use your search terms/keywords often, but keep in mind that you’re writing for your key audience first and foremost, which means you need to reign it in from time to time.
Add appropriate calls to action
Don't miss an opportunity to move people around your website. CTA’s can and should be implemented where relevant to the article or landing page, particularly on ‘lower intent’ parts of your site. If you’re not using CTA’s, you’re simply losing an opportunity to move people towards your desired goal or a ‘higher intent’ page, like a booking page.
SEO is a powerful tool, and we hope these four tips help you transform your digital presence to help you reach your goals. If you want to chat further or develop an SEO strategy, reach out to us here.
