Developing an SEO strategy that achieves your goals is difficult. Almost every SEO campaign starts with keyword research. Though SEO has a few basics, you should be able to pivot your strategy as per the changing dynamics and your needs.
There is a common misconception that SEO only revolves around keywords. While this may have been the case two decades back, today, SEO is a vast and dynamic field with hundreds of moving parts.
We have created this informative guide to help you create the perfect SEO content strategy. We will also inform you on how to personalise SEO to achieve specific goals. Let's get started.
How to Create the Right SEO Content Strategy?
A good SEO strategy requires several steps. Before you start creating winning content, you must analyse the needs of your business, target audience, and competitors. Google prioritises content that resonates with readers.
With that in mind, let us take a look at common strategies that you should include in your content plan:
Create a List of Topics
The first step in your content strategy should be to narrow down a list of relevant topics. Place yourself in the customer's shoes and look for high-intent keywords and phrases.
You can also update outdated topics on your website and optimise readability for your audience. Remember that even if a topic has high competition and is difficult to rank, you should still go ahead and write about it.
Typically, you should have 10-15 topics in your repository to never run out of content ideas.
Once you have narrowed down the topics, find long-tail keywords that align with your needs. You can use the Google Keyword Planner tool to find keywords on your topics that have a high search volume.
Now that you have the keywords as well, plan your topics every month for focused SEO. We would advise a monthly schedule for content because it is easy to tweak based on the search volume for relevant keywords.
At the same time, you should also know what your competitors are writing about the topic and add something extra for your audience that engages them. For instance, if your competitor has created content like ‘Top 10 SEO companies in Lucknow’, you can go ahead and create a lot of ‘Top 20 SEO companies in Lucknow'.
Include Long-tail Keywords
The relevant topics are your focus keywords. For a comprehensive content strategy, it's equally essential to target the right long-tail keywords with user intent. These keywords are more specific and narrow down on the search intent.
A benefit of targeting long-tail keywords is they generally have less competition than short-tail keywords. These long keywords laser focus on niche topics. Where ranking on short keywords can be difficult, long-tail keywords with the lowest search results can help you achieve better rankings.
For example, for a topic like ‘mobile phones’, you can target a long-tail keyword like ‘mobile phones under Rs. 10,000 in 2024’.
When planning content, use at least 10-15 long-tail keywords with a high level of relevance. You can use a keyword research tool for greater precision.
Create Dedicated Pages for Each Topic
Create dedicated pages for every relevant topic and keyword. Creating multiple pages for your keywords will help you plan content and make it easier for your audience to find information on your website. When it is finally time to write content, you can play around these topics by creating subtopics.
This strategy is especially useful for businesses as they can create new product or service pages. Creating the right pages for relevant keywords with informative content will increase your chances of ranking higher.
Start & Maintain a Blogging Schedule
Many people think blogs no longer play no role in SEO, but we would like to differ. Blogs are the best way of explaining a topic in detail. So if you want to rank your website higher, start a blog page. Every blog you create will also add new pages to your website - which means more opportunities to use focus keywords. But remember, do not overstuff keywords in your blog. Doing so will attract penalties from Google.
It's equally important to internally link your blogs with appropriate pages in your website to provide more options to your audience and retain them longer.
Once you have created a blog page, you must follow up on a schedule to add or update content regularly. Both search engines and people like good content, so pre-plan relevant content for your business without any fillers. Poor quality content may affect your website's credibility and lower rankings.
Uploading content twice or thrice a week is the general standard for blogging. This will help readers understand that you are creating content for them and increase engagement.
Build High-quality Links
A sound SEO strategy includes link building. Apart from creating high-quality content, it's equally important to have inbound and outbound links to your website.
Ensure your backlinks are relevant and trustworthy. Adding links will increase the credibility of your business and help readers gain comprehensive information on the topic. Once again, do not overstuff keywords or include irrelevant keywords on your content that do not add any value to your audience.
For your link-building campaigns, you can reach out to bloggers and content creators to exchange links. You can also invite thought leaders to post guest blogs on your website to gain credible links.
Remember, link building is one of the fundamental pillars of SEO. It not only drives referral traffic to your website but also informs Google that you are a trustworthy source of information.
Compress Media
Every web page consists of media like images and videos for greater engagement and visually pleasing content. Adding visual elements is also necessary to capture and retain the reader's attention.
But there is a downside to this. Images and videos go heavy on your website and can slow down the load time drastically. Thus, once you have created content, compress or reduce the size of the media without affecting its quality. You can use online tools for media compression, like FlexClip, to simplify media compression and decompression.
Keep Yourself Updated with SEO Changes
With SEO, there are no shortcuts to success. Like every other digital marketing technique, you should remain updated about what is trending and what has changed in the SEO landscape. Follow Google's guidelines and learn about how its algorithm changes can be leveraged to achieve higher search rankings.
Do not panic and overhaul your content strategy if there is a significant change. If a strategy has worked well for you so far, chances are it will remain the same. Gradually implement a new way to optimise your content strategy or change the content style to stay abreast with the changing dynamics of SEO.
Measure Performance
The reason businesses hire SEO experts is that SEO demands full-time attention. Even after implementing the best practices, something can go wrong. This is where analytics and tracking come in handy.
Analysing monthly or yearly ROI is the best way to determine whether your SEO content strategy is paying dividends. But you should also include other metrics like keyword rankings, organic traffic, audience engagement, bounce rates, and more to accurately measure your SEO performance.
Your SEO report should include the comprehensive performance of your campaign over a specific period. Regular reporting will help you understand what ticks and what does not in your content strategy. Using these real-time insights, you can make data-backed decisions to pivot your strategy.
Content is the Heart of SEO
These were some of the top content strategies for SEO in 2024. If you are a beginner, all this information may seem a little overwhelming. But once you start step-by-step, the process simplifies itself.
By following these tips, you can gradually improve your SERP rankings and gain credibility from your audience. Do not be discouraged if you see minimal progress in the first month after implementing a sound SEO plan. It is important to integrate your content strategy and SEO strategy at large with our marketing initiatives for the best results.
If you need help with keyword research, content marketing, link building, or any other aspects of SEO, get in touch with the best SEO company in Lucknow. The experienced team at VicDigit Technologies is here to help your business maximise online visibility and organic traffic growth.
Keep reading other blogs to learn more about SEO and how it can benefit your business.