Your 5 point checklist for optimising content

So you’ve written what you think is a great piece of content for your website – now what? You’ve basically done half the battle. Writing is one half – optimising your content is the other.

If you’re unsure of where to start when it comes to optimising your content, we’ve put together a little 5 point checklist to help you get the most out of your content.

1. Keywords

The first place you need to start is the piece of content itself. When you’re writing for SEO and marketing reasons, not only does your content have to be well written from a grammatical point of view but it needs to provide value to your audience, plus, littered with relevant keywords. Your content should be driven by your keyword research, structured using HTML subheadings, and follow the EAT principle: demonstrating expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

2. Title tags

The title tag is the main element that search engines use to determine what your page is about and so it should contain the exact keyword that your page is targeting. It’s something Google takes into consideration when ranking pages so it’s important to make sure they’re done correctly.

For example, if your piece of content is focused around the keyword “best Manchester bars” then your title tag should include those words.

3. Page URL

Every single web page on the internet has its own unique URL. URLs are important for both user experience and SEO and play a role in how well your web page ranks. A well optimised URL should match your title tag and contain your chosen keywords – reflecting the subject of your content. Additionally, if the URL is for a specific product on an ecommerce site it should contain the product.

In general, the best URLs are short and simple which benefits both the user and Google.

In keeping with the title tag example above, a suitable URL for a page about the best bars in Manchester would be something like: “www.exampledomain/the-best-bars-in-manchester”

4. Image alt text

Images bring an article to life and also contribute to your website’s SEO. But if you’re going to add images to your content you need to optimise them for SEO with the use of image alt text.

Alt text is a description of the image that is displayed behind the visual element. You’ll usually never see the alt text, especially on a well-functioning website because it’s used as an alternative way for the viewers to see what was intended. You’d only ever see it if a photo fails to load properly where it would tell the user what the image was supposed to be depicting.

When writing image alt text you need to include your target keywords so that the search engines can index your visual elements.

For example, a suitable image alt text for the image below would be “person pouring alcohol in clear tumbler glass.”

5. Internal and external links

Internal links are links within a web page that point to other pages of content within your website. Internal links help users and search engines better find pages within your site and can help to increase rankings to other pages within your site. They also help Google understand the context of a page and how it relates to other pages on your site. For example, your piece of content about the best bars in Manchester may link to another page on your site about the cheapest cocktail bars or an in-depth piece about a specific bar.

External links are different in that they point to content outside of your website. They can help you build reader trust by linking to informative and reputable sources whilst allowing Google to simultaneously validate your content as credible. With that in mind it’s important to include both internal and external links within your content where possible. For example, you may choose to link externally to TripAdvisor reviews of bars or the specific website of the bar you’re mentioning.

For help getting the most out of your content and improving your SEO efforts, get in touch with our digital marketing team. We work with brands of all sizes and from all sectors.