Optimize The Content Of Your Website

Business producers are increasingly producing content of all types as content marketing becomes a viable online marketing strategy. But what good is compelling content if it cannot be found? A content marketing campaign will not be very successful if it cannot be found by your audience, which is why content optimization is so crucial.

As a result of content optimization, search engines are able to determine what the content you produce — and, by extension, what your business — is all about using essential data. This information is then used by search engines to display relevant keyword phrases or terms in the search results. With the inclusion of content in the search results of text, images, videos, and news, content optimization processes should be adapted to the type of content you produce.

These tips will help you optimize content for text, images, video, and news in each of these formats:

Text optimization

All written content should be optimized on the website, but landing pages with information about other content should be optimized especially well.

A good website title tag defines the page's topic in a few words, and it's one of the most important factors in website optimization.

There are many ways to use title tags to describe the content. The word "title" is often used on social media networks to describe a page when someone shares it. For example, search engines use it as the link text for each search result in they display. When the page is viewed, the title tag will also be displayed at the top of the browser, and if the browser is tabbed, it will be the tab name of the page. Consequently, title tags provide your audience with meaningful information about your page's content, not just search engines.

You should include meta descriptions in your search engine results pages (SERP) as they provide information about each result and can be used as a key piece of information.

You should include relevant keywords in the meta-description of your content (see REI example below). Successful meta descriptions concisely state the purpose of the content page. As this is your chance to convince searchers to click through, you shouldn't use generic descriptions like "Welcome to our homepage," since they don't tell searchers anything about your content or give them a reason to click. Any text that goes beyond 150-160 characters is likely to be cut off by search engines. Moreover, search engines limit the amount of real estate available for descriptions.

It has been reported that overstuffed meta keywords can negatively impact search engine rankings even if they don't directly improve page rankings.

In an attempt to get their site included in additional search results, webmasters have pasted as many keywords as possible into meta keyword tags. However, that isn’t the case, so it is best to err on the side of caution and include only a few truly relevant keywords in this tag.

In addition to optimizing your content tags, you should optimize your URL structure so that it is straightforward, meaningful, and contains the appropriate keywords that relate to your content. URLs: Keyword-rich URLs provide search engines with more information about your content. The URLs of your content should incorporate long-tail keywords whenever possible, so users seeking more specific results can easily find your content.

Images that are optimized

It is important to optimize your website's visual content for discovery, because consumers often search for images. Images appear not only in search engine "Image" searches, but they can also appear in the main "Web" search results if the search engine determines that your image is relevant to a particular keyword. Even if your other content pages don't appear on a SERP, your images may appear.

It's not possible for search engines to understand image-based content in full, as opposed to text optimization - although it is a future goal for all search engines. Although images appear relevant to a search query based largely on the context of the page (i.e., the text, and text-related tags), the meta tags used for each image also play an essential role in determining the context of the image. To optimize images for search, all of these image tags must be optimized, including the source (i.e., file name and location), alt, and title tags.

When an image is not able to be displayed, alt tags are used to describe it. This is important because:

A slow internet connection or a page that fails to load correctly may prevent an image from being displayed.
The alt tag is also read aloud by text-reading software (e.g., for users with disabilities) if text-reading software is used.

Your alt tags should describe your website images in a simple, yet keyword-rich manner for these reasons, among others.

A user can scroll over an image or hover over it and see the words in the image tag, just like they do with alt tags. In addition, they provide context to the image, so choose a tag text that describes it accurately and contains relevant keywords to help your audience understand it.

A filename provides context for how the image relates to the page's other content in addition to the alt tag and image title.

A keyword should appear in your image filename just like it does in your alt and title tags. Use descriptive names for your image files, such as "icecreamcone.jpg," rather than using a filename like "DC000245.jpg."

If a page does not load correctly, the alt tag text will appear instead of an image, as mentioned earlier. It is important to adjust the image file size of your images so that your website can handle them properly to decrease the chances of these page-load problems. Your website may be ranked lower in search engines if it loads slowly or not at all because of large image files or image-heavy content pages. To reduce your file size, I recommend maintaining the quality of your images while reducing file sizes.

Video optimization

Video content is easier than ever to create today, including for marketers. The numerous viral videos have taught us that videos do not necessarily need to be professionally recorded or scripted — they simply need to be compelling, enjoyable, or useful.

Your first step should be to create a branded, optimized channel for your business on a video site of your choice. Branded channels increase brand recognition and provide leverage for other content.

It's important to include relevant keywords in your video title, but you should also appeal to the interests of your audience. Dull titles will make viewers think that your video is just marketing hoopla if they're overly keyword-conscious. Using a catchy title will entice people to watch your video.

Describe the video clearly and let viewers know what to expect from watching it. Even though you should include keywords in your description, you should write it in a way that appeals to your audience, not just search engines. Make sure you include a link to the page on your website that provides the most relevant information about the video topic in your description, so viewers know where they can find it.

In the same way that images should be optimized when placed on a site, make sure that your video description and title tags are optimized as well, as search engines use these tags to interpret the video content and context.

Using embed codes, you can embed your videos on your website, rather than having to take visitors to the video site — most sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo, offer embed codes that you can paste into your website's HTML once your videos have been optimized. Incorporate targeted keywords into your video's filename just as you do with images.

News optimization

Today, every business owner with a website is a publisher, and every company online has the capability of publishing and reporting industry-related information. Optimizing your news content can help your organization gain recognition as an insightful source of relevant industry news and thought leadership, whether it's through a blog, a “news” section of your website, or social media and other brand communication channels.

It can be difficult, however, to produce news content that ranks on search engines and is discovered in online news, since it is a highly competitive space. Therefore, your news content must be optimized carefully and correctly so that it gets discovered and brings you readers who will be interested in your business for years to come.

News content optimization involves several key considerations:

It is necessary to submit your blog or press release sections directly to Google News for your news feed to appear in Google News. Google News' news team will review your content and, if approved, include it in news search results. Please note that Google News has specific requirements for news sites.

Your website should have a static URL for each article you publish so that it ranks with other authentic news sites.

You should optimize your news articles for keywords, as with all other types of content. Make sure that your body is not over-optimized, but that your keywords are still relevant. The guidelines outlined above should also be followed if you include photos or video elements in your news piece.

You want your news content to rank highly in news results just like a web page ranking in regular search engine results. News headlines should be interesting and catch your readers' attention. For your news content to be ranked highly, it must contain complete metadata, including the keywords that you want to target.

In general, content optimization should be treated as an integral part of content creation and marketing. With thorough consideration of each optimization point, your content writers will be able to optimize text, images, videos, and news content much more smoothly. In the end, you will not be able to maximize your content's success without it being optimized to the fullest.

Got questions? Visit us @ www.sirkle.com and we’re happy to help.