Boost your site’s SEO ranking with rock solid content

If you think Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about having the right keywords on your web pages, think more broadly.

“Think things, not strings,” advises Jeremy Sterling, SEO manager for DEG, a full-service digital agency based in Overland Park, KS. Jeremy and colleague Meghan Nuckolls, DEG copywriter, talked about the present and future of SEO at a lunch meeting of IndyComm.

Smarter searching

Jeremy Sterling, SEO Manager

 Google searches are getting smarter, Jeremy says, so SEO is changing constantly. A string of the right keywords used to be a guaranteed way to boost your site’s search results position, but not so much these days. More sophisticated searching tools look for solid content, not just a string of words.

 “You need to speak your users’ language. What are people searching for?” Meghan advises. All content on your website should be informed by solid data and research, she adds. “Use data to craft your story and dig into the personas who use your website. Understand what they care about. Look at your website as a journey and each page is a door. What’s your user’s mindset on each page?”

Since content will live on a website for a long time, perhaps years, it’s important to review it regularly. “You need to be sure you’re speaking users’ language,” Jeremy advises, “and make sure your content is current and modern.” Create strong internal linking on your site in order to keep visitors consuming more of your content.

Meghan Nuckolls, DEG Copywriter

Study analytics

Gauge your site’s relevance by checking individual page views. When you find pages that are dropping in popularity, add stronger content to increase the value of the page.

Show, don’t just tell

If your website doesn’t offer short videos to pull in users, you’re missing out on an increasingly popular trend, Meghan and Jeremy say. A narrative video about a feature or service can hold a user’s attention for about 30 seconds, but a solid how-to video can engage viewers for up to four minutes. As a bonus for your site, videos are increasingly searchable, as long as you use good meta descriptions on your pages.

Sometimes less is more

Finally, the length of time a user spends on your site is not an accurate gauge of your site’s strength. When users can’t find what they want, they may spend considerable time, but then they bail and never return.

So, sometimes shorter is better. Find your best way to determine if users are getting the content they need. Again, research is the key – usability testing, surveys and analyzing your website statistics and trends.