Looking to rank higher on search engines to boost your traffic? The days when you can write a 300-word article and expect it to rank on Google are long gone. To rank better, you need to know how to optimize website content for SEO (search engine optimization).

In this article, you’re about to discover 7 optimization tips. You can do them on your own. Or if you’re looking to engage an SEO agency in Canada or USA, you can use this as a guideline to vet them.

How To Optimize Website Content For SEO

1. Research What Your User Needs

Before investing time and money in optimizing your website, it’s essential to know your audience’s needs. There are many ways to research your customers. A good place to start is by asking your audience to understand their problems.

Keep in mind that this is not a one-time task. Your users’ needs can change over time due to economic situations, advances in the industry and other reasons. Once you know what your customers need, produce content with solutions for them.

2. Conduct an In-depth Keyword Research

Unless you are in a very specialized industry, there will always be other businesses competing for the same search terms. It’s vital to do in-depth keyword research to know what keywords to go after.

One tool that you can use is Ubersuggest. Start with a keyword for the general topic that your audience will likely search for. And it will give you a list of short-tail and long-tail keywords.

Take this article as an example. A short-tail keyword would be ‘SEO’. It gets lots of searches but is highly competitive.

The long-tail keyword is “how to optimize website content for SEO”. It is less competitive, so it’s easier to get ranked. Moreover, the users’ intent for the long-tail keyword is much clearer.

3. Attract Visitors With Value-Rich Content

Each month, 70 million new posts appear on WordPress blogs alone. You need content that is unique in order to stand out.

We’re not just talking about duplicate content, which Google penalizes. You need content that brings new insights for your readers. Find out what your competitors are talking about. And then add additional tips that readers can only find by reading your article.

How do you know what content your audience will find valuable? Again, it comes back to understanding what your audience needs.

4. Optimize For On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is how you optimize your website content so search engines know what your page is about. Put your keywords in your headlines and sub-headlines. And sprinkle your keyword and related terms throughout your article.

Putting the same keyword multiple times in the article can help boost your rankings. It gives Google confidence on the topic of the article. But you do not want to overdo it so you don’t get penalized.

5. Optimize Website for Mobile Users

More and more people are browsing from their mobile phones. Google launched the mobile-first index. This means that you need to have a mobile-friendly website in order to rank well.

An easy way is to have a responsive website design. This means the same website will look good on both desktop and smartphones without adding complicated codes.

6. Speed Up Your Website

Imagine visiting a website that takes forever to load. Most likely, you’re going to close the site and look for something else.

Google wants to provide its users with the best content. So it places a lot of emphasis on user experience when grading websites. Make sure your website loads fast across all devices so you don’t lose potential traffic.

7. Track and Analyze Your Site Data

As you start optimizing your website content, people will start visiting your site. It’s crucial to analyze the data to know where you can make improvements. You want to look for patterns.

• How are visitors finding your website?
• How do people behave when they’re on your website?
• Which pages are getting more traffic?
• Which pages are getting the best conversions?

Look for the pages that are doing well. Reverse-engineer the process and repeat the successful actions across your site.

Invest in an SEO Expert

There are a lot of factors to optimizing websites for SEO. Moreover, Google frequently makes updates. It’s hard to stay on top of it while also running a business. That is what makes SEO hard to get right.

We strongly recommend engaging a professional SEO agency who is experienced and knowledgeable. Book a time with our SEO specialist to discuss the best way to get more traffic and leads for your business.

However, if you have a tight budget, it is possible to learn SEO on your own. Keep in mind that it will require patience and hard work.