It is very important at the outset to understand what SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) content is.

Breaking up the two into individual sections –

SEO is the process of increasing online presence and visibility of a website through high rankings on results pages of major search engines. This enables online searchers to quickly find what they are looking for. If your website is high in rank, there will be increased flow of traffic to it leading to more conversions and sales.

Content is all the information, videos and graphics that is present on the web.

Hence content for SEO is that which meets the objective of drawing in search engine traffic.

Optimising Web Content for SEO

Here are the basic components of optimising content for SEO.

• Keyword Research & Optimisation – You content should lead people to the direction in which they are searching for your products or services with specific words or phrases. Do a full scale research on these words before starting on the content. Next include these keywords in text in a manner that enhances the effectiveness of the search.

• Organising the content – Have a logical sequence in the content. It increases reader interest and will make them stay on your site longer. This is always in your best interest.

• Content Quality – SEO should not be your only goal, providing value to your readers through content is what matters in the long run. Content should be able to hold on to readers’ attention and those with low value are penalised by Google. They also tend to lower conversions and high bounce rates.

• Promote Content – Content is not meant to be buried within the confines of your site only, it should be promoted to increase visibility. By sharing on social networks you create awareness about it. Another method is to build links both from external sites and internally to your content.

Developing SEO Content Strategy

Content should be developed in a systematic manner with clear focus on certain objectives.

• Know your goals – Decide first what you want to achieve through specific content. Is it fully sales and conversion based or you simply want to increase traffic through value based content. This will be the primary question that an agency creating SEO content will ask you. Say for example you have a SEO contract for your website with One Stop Media, a well known SEO company in Australia. They will want to know the basics of the content you want. If it is purely sales based, the content will have informative product pages with links to “how-to-use” pages. Blogs and articles should not however be overtly self promotional and should focus on the subject in hand.

• Know your audience – Use surveys and analytics to determine the typical visitor to your site and have content created accordingly. Age and demographics should be given priority and content should be targeted at this segment. For instance, if you want to reach out to the younger generation, content should be peppered with lots of images, videos and graphics. For executives and businessmen a more serious “white-paper” type approach is advisable.

• Evaluate ongoing strategy – Regularly analyse your content to examine whether the strategy adopted is pulling in desired results. Success indicators are page views, comments, sharing on social sites and comments. Has the traffic to your site increased and whether there is an improvement in conversion rates are some other points to be considered. If you find that you have achieved what you set out to, the same strategy can be repeated for subsequent content too.

Types of SEO content

You have a wide range of options for creating a regular flow of SEO content. These include product pages primarily used in online shopping sites, blog posts and articles. Guides explaining how a product works can be spread out over several pages or limited to one where a visitor can give a few details and download the full document. Lists draw a lot of viewership due to easy readability. Example is “10 ways to…” type of content. Then there are videos, slideshows, Infographics and directories that can be used to create SEO content.

These are some of the essentials for creating effective content for SEO.