As a small business owner in the world of digital marketing, keeping your online content updated and optimized is essential to maintaining a steady flow of website traffic. However, this is sometimes easier said than done. Many companies waste time constantly producing new content when they should be revamping their existing content. You could be sitting on a gold mine and not even know it.
Breathing new life into your existing authentic content can go a long way in boosting your rankings on SERPs (search engine results pages) and attracting high-quality website traffic. Keep reading for tips on optimizing content and fine-tuning your content writing strategy.
Start by taking inventory of your content
The key to successful content optimization is prioritizing existing content that will likely provide the most impact as it increases in rank. Before you begin optimization, it’s a good idea to evaluate the state of your content and take inventory of everything you have.
Spend some time going through each of your website’s pages and give yourself a sound understanding of:
- How well the pages are performing
- Why they are performing satisfactorily
- What aspects of your old content need to be updated
- Which content requires additional subject matter
Never underestimate the value of rewriting content. As time passes and trends change, your content will eventually become inaccurate. As you go through your pages, think about current trends and developments that may make your content outdated. Rewriting it will increase its value over time and provide a good reason to promote that content again.
Incorporate the right SEO keywords
Including keyword research in your content writing strategy will help to ensure that your content optimization efforts yield visible results. Keyword placement is also critical. If you aren’t inserting the right keywords onto the right pages, the pages will not rank well for these keywords.
If you’re wondering how to find the right keywords for SEO, consider using online tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest. These tools can help improve SEO by suggesting specific keywords and providing search volume analytics.
Once you’ve compiled a list of keywords, add them into your content. It’s important to use your keywords throughout the entire content on a page. Prioritize elements like the meta description, page title, URL, headers and body copy. However, be careful not to force keywords. If incorporating additional keywords leads to readability issues, always choose the user’s experience over the search engine.
Try new forms of media
If you’ve been looking for a sign to try out new ways of sharing content, this is it. Your existing written content can be converted into virtually any other format. Sometimes, podcasts, ebooks, infographics and videos can educate and entertain your audience better than written content can. This renewed interest in your content can lead to increased website traffic.
According to Statista, 77% of internet users ages 15-35 use YouTube to consume video content. Videos are not only great for website users, but they also send good messages to search engines. By including various media on your site, your rankings will begin to improve.
Sharpen your link-building strategy
If you want to drive traffic to your website, you need to rank high in SERPs. In order to rank higher in search engines, you must be an authority in your industry. One way to do that is by acquiring quality backlinks. Link-building is the process of getting backlinks from relevant local websites. These links can be from brand mentions and references from other business websites.
If websites with high authority link to your site, that gives you more credibility and serves as an additional validation point that Google considers when ranking local searches.
There is no shortage of businesses trying to increase their online traffic, which means there are numerous opportunities for backlink exchanges. Reach out to relevant sites and offer your content as an additional resource to include in one of their posts. As an added incentive, you can offer a mutually beneficial backlink exchange by offering to add one of their links to a post on your site or blog.
Increase your presence on social media
Social media is huge for attracting new leads and boosting website traffic. In addition to posting content such as blogs, infographics and videos across your platforms, social media can be used to directly interact with followers by replying to them, tagging them and reposting their content.
In an analysis of more than 35 million social media posts, CoSchedule determined that the day and time you post on social media is equally important as the content you share. Here’s what they found:
- The best days to post on social media are Friday, Wednesday and Monday
- The worst days to post on social media are Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday
- The best times to post on social media are 3:15 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8:41 a.m. in your target audience’s time zone
While platforms like Facebook and Instagram are powerful tools for sending traffic to your website, it’s important to have a diverse social media strategy. Platforms like YouTube, Pinterest and TikTok can also generate a lot of traffic to your website.
Your website’s content is useless if it doesn’t give you a good return on investment. By actively updating and optimizing your existing content, you can turn it around and have your content work for you. Updating your content also helps build trust among your audience, improves brand reputation, and boosts revenue through increased sales.
Need some expert advice on how to improve your SEO or content writing strategy? We offer services including SEM, SEO and professional web design that can boost your website traffic and get your digital marketing strategy on track.
Contact the Hyport Digital team today!
