SEO Content: A Searchable Business Plan

You know what I love about content and copywriting? And of course this might be a biased point of view – is creating search engine optimized content. Sounds crazy, right?

But SEO content is like fitting mismatching pieces together to create a beautiful, relevant tableau for your business.

Yep, you read that right. SEO is important for your business. I can’t emphasize that enough. 

When you marry content and SEO together, you are writing to win the attention of the search engines and your dream clients. It becomes this balancing act to create content that is both interesting to your reader and infused with all the elements you need to satisfy the search engine. It’s harder than it sounds!

If not done correctly (keyword stuffing) you end up with content doesn’t flow properly. This might be passable for search engines, because they aren’t really digesting your content for its flow. But it will be incredibly detrimental when it comes to captivating your reader. 

So how do you incorporate content and SEO into your business writing?

You have fun! 

SEO Basics

Let’s start with the basics – SEO – if you aren’t up to date on the latest lingo stands for search engine optimization. It’s one of the easiest ways to keep your website and business coming up in search results (also known as SERP – search engine results page)..

When you show up in search results for a user’s query, that’s called organic search traffic. And it means that someone has typed what they are looking for in the search bar. Lucky you, your content popped up because you answers their questions. 

The higher up you appear in the search results, the more likely it will be that a user is going to click on your link. Which, of course, is what you want! 

So how do you up your SEO game to ensure your content is striking the right chords? 

SEO Strategy 

If you want your content to rank and get in good with your SERP standing, there are a few things you need to do. But the first one, the most important one… is PLAN. 

SEO is not something you can just whip out of thin air. It involves understanding your audience, what they are interested in, what’s important to them, and what keywords you need to rank for in order to get their attention and meet their needs. 

It’s a tall order, and it really does require some effort. 

Having an SEO strategy will help you implement and measure your efforts, which in the long run will save you time. 

SEO Content Best Practices

I’m absolutely emphasizing that SEO is important for your business content. Whether it’s your website, your blogs, your social media posts, EVERYTHING should be optimized to give you the best chance at getting the best results. 

So I’ll leave you with some basics: 

1. Know your audience: Before you start on any content for your business, you NEED to know who you are talking to, who you are targeting as clients, you will be able to answer their questions and give them what they are looking for. Creating a buyer persona will go a long way to help you with this. 
2. Keywords: Think of keywords as your guide to answering your audience’s questions. Knowing the keywords that will make the most impact for your business and make you accessible to your audience will make things easier for you to create meaningful content. The goal is to have your keywords in titles, headers and throughout the text body in a way that flows naturally. 
3. Punchy headline: You how they say ‘never judge a book by its cover”? Ya, forget that. Your content will be judged on its title. So make sure it’s catchy, punchy, and informative enough to make your reader click on it. Also make sure your keywords are front and centre to give it the SERP boost. 
4. Title Tag: There’s more to SEO than you can see on a page as a reader. Having title tags is essential for SEO that’s where you feature your keywords – in a way that fits! – into your title. Make sure your keywords are at the beginning of your title. Google tends to cut you off within the first 60 characters. 
5. Paint the whole picture: When it comes to creating great content, there’s nothing worse than not painting the whole picture of your topic. Your reader is there to learn, but encouraging them to come back for more information on the same topic will be frustrating. That said, you should be mindful of your content length. While long-form content (blogs) are easier to rank for, if you aren’t delivering the goods, then you’re what’s the point?. 
6. Optimized tags and descriptions: One of the final touches you need to consider for your SEO content, it’s making sure that all your tags and descriptions are equally optimized for your SEO. This includes meta descriptions, image alt tags, and any other behind the scenes information that the search engine needs to see in order to qualify your content as worth their while.   

What about results? 

When you creating SEO content for your business, you are entering into a long-game with the search engines. I wish I could tell you that you will see results yesterday, but that’s not how it works.

Does that mean it isn’t important? 

Heck no! 

Just like everything you do to market and grow your business, you need to look for long-term solutions and long term growth. SEO does just that. 

The more *great* SEO content you create, the more search engines will notice. You’ll be answering answers and making yourself an trusted voice and authority in the niche. Amazing, right?

So don’t miss out on creating content for your business.