One of the most common claims you see in the SEO industry is the promise the company you’re going to work with will help you “rank highly” for your targeted keywords. Great rankings help your site a ton, but what if those rankings don’t convert at your desired rate? Worse yet, what happens if they don’t convert enough to offset the marketing costs for those targeted keywords? Rankings are only half the story, and yes, your pages will convert better simply because of the increased exposure of better web rankings.
But, if your SEO company only focuses on rankings, then you’re missing out on conversions. Whenever it comes to any form of marketing on the web, including content marketing, it’s important to work with a company that sees the full picture.
So, How do You Optimize for Clicks and Rankings?
Optimizing for both isn’t as difficult as it sounds – it just takes a little more thoughtfulness is all. Here’s the process we use to optimize for both clicks and rankings:
- Creating a Killer Title we’ll admit – the title for this post isn’t earth-shattering. But, it is one of those time-tested “how to” titles proven to convert at a decent rate time and time again. If you write content, we’m serious when we say it’s not a bad idea to spent as much time crafting your title as you do writing your entire article. Why put so much thought into the title? Titles count for more than they ever did before. People are skimming through the search engine results pages quickly and bouncing their eyes off the titles and the occasional META description. Your title makes or breaks the success of your content. Stellar content with a typical title performs much more weakly than average content with an eye-popping title. From a rankings perspective, you just stick the keyword in the title somewhere, but ideally towards the beginning. SEO itself is easy, but creating interesting material for an integrated content marketing strategy is not.
- Nailing that META Description Okay, so you’ve done a nice job writing an incredible title people can’t help but read. Next, you’ll want to make sure the META description encourages them to take action. You can do this by using active voice language, while describing in a little more detail what visitors can expect to receive from your content. ”Free” is a spectacular word to use in your META description – just make sure you follow through and give your readership what you are promising for free. The META description has absolutely nothing to do with rankings, so no need to discuss that in any further depth.
- Talking in Language Your Readership Uses Now that you’ve finally gotten people to actually come through to your page (whew – that is a lot of work already isn’t it?), you have to keep their interest. You do this by using the language they use to discuss the topic. It also helps to:
Use active voice language Avoid long paragraphs Use shorter sentences
Blogging, and even content marketing as a whole, is very, very casual, and you can get away with a couple spelling and grammatical errors here and there. But, by using language your readership uses, you build trust with them and keep their eyeballs going down the page. When they get to the end, they’ll be more likely to make another click at your site.
- Use Your Personality to Your Advantage You have a unique personality – make it shine through on your blog, but don’t go too far. Talk about your own thoughts, attitudes, and opinions, and even reveal some of your weaknesses. Don’t talk in too much depth – like discussing those bad things you did when you were younger. Here are some ideas for using your personality to make those typical topics a little more interesting:
Take your own angle on a popular topic Disagree with an opinion someone else has, but do so respectfully Go on an occasional rant Discuss a view that is directly in conflict with conventional wisdom
These are just some ideas you can use to spice up your content marketing and increase those clicks beyond their current standing.
