Want to climb the search engine ranks? Creating content isn't enough, higher search rankings are won with a plan - an SEO plan.
Chapters +
Chapter 1
SEO content is content that's planned and created with the intent to improve ranking on search engines like Google and drive search volume to pages that genuinely answer the search query. It should be optimized for relevant keywords and include lower volume, long tail keywords.
SEO content
seo content • [es-i-ō kän-tent]
Content strategically crafted to rank highly on search engines; content created for SEO is generally focused on a specific keyword.
noun
"To attract more organic traffic to our site, we invested heavily in creating high-quality SEO content"
Synonyms
Chapter 2
Let's take a step back and define SEO; Search engine optimization is the practice of crafting and organizing site content so it's easily indexable by search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. The goal is to optimize content and drive as many clicks as possible to climb the search engine results pages (SERPs) and make it to the top of the first page. There are three main elements; technical, on-page and off-page SEO.
Optimizing the technical aspects of a website to help improve rankings by optimizing content so that it is more easily crawled and indexed by search engines
Optimizing the content on individual pages for users and search engines to rank higher and increase organic traffic by targeting specific keywords and queries
Anything that is not on your website that helps build expertise, authority and trustworthiness, such as backlinks, citations and social mentions
SEO content planning can be complicated and difficult to manage. 
For best results, start with a simple workflow and add to it as you grow your website and gain experience. 
Chapter 3
Take a look at how search intent, business goals and strategy intertwine to produce content for SEO
University medical program
Intent
The underlying reason why someone types a specific query into the search bar.
Goal
What the website owner is aiming to achieve with their content.
Attract more traffic to their website and generate leads/students for their medical program.
Get more users off the heels of a feature launch.
Bring in more visitors and viewers of their streaming shows.
Increase the sales of backpacks and brand awareness
Attract new students and increase course enrollments
Increase online orders and delivery service usage and attract new customers
Content SEO Strategy
The particular type of content a website owner uses to reach their goal while fulfilling search intent.
Resource guide: Produce several pages that discuss popular topics that align with search queries of future medical students
Product pages: Build pages of high quality content that each discuss a common problem that their tool solves.
Blog: Create blog posts that cover news, gossip and info that satisfy the search intent of fans of the show.
Buying guides: Put together in-depth, keyword-optimized buying guides comparing different backpacks for various activities i.e.,hiking, camping, travel
Landing pages: Craft compelling pages for each course with clear benefits, testimonials and calls to action. Optimize them with relevant keywords.
Optimize local SEO: Focus on local keywords like "best sushi delivery [city name]", "sushi options near me", "unique sushi rolls"
Chapter 4
An SEO plan is the roadmap by which you work towards making gains in search engine rankings. It involves more than adding a few of the right keywords to your site though; it's sharpening information architecture, building backlinks and internal links, optimizing on-page SEO and more.
Content marketing is built on keyword research. Without knowing what works in search, it's tough to create relevant content.
How to use keyword research? Use keyword research from tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to guide topic selection, SEO content creation and optimizing for terms relevant to your audience.
Page optimization and improved search rankings come from the detailed work that precedes. Content briefs summarize all of that.
How to use a content brief? Think of these as a checklist to ensure you’re not overlooking anything important for users and search engines.
Consistency in releasing content matters, especially if you're running a blog, news site or anything that'll get regular updates.
How to use an editorial calendar? Develop a structured content calendar to help your team organize, schedule and align content with broader strategic goals
Chapter 5
An SEO content strategy ensures alignment with target keywords, audience intent and business goals, enhancing visibility and search results.
Whether it's blog posts, landing pages, service pages or beyond, prioritizing content creation for SEO means you'll have a consistent content quality throughout your site because it'll all have a throughline of underlying relevancy for your visitors.
An ideal website content plan is one that creates opportunities for you to speak squarely to your target audience. Putting in the effort to set up an SEO marketing plan helps you learn more about the people you aim to attract.
High-caliber, relevant content, created consistently and speaking right to your target audience, means improvements in your search engine results. The byproduct of ranking higher on search engines? More clicks, more visitors and more conversions.
SEO success derives from creating valuable content that fully satisfies search intent. The more thoroughly you can answer a user's question, the more authority and trust you build, which leads to better rankings on search engines.
Create better website content with teams
Chapter 6
Tools are your best friend when it comes to content marketing, SEO strategy and curating tailored content for your audience. From research to SEO copywriting to promoting your content, using the right software makes every part of the process more efficient and collaboration-friendly.
Research is where all of your SEO efforts begin, without it you're operating in the dark, hoping your content connects. To generate content that moves you higher in the search results, you need to know exactly what your audience is looking for and be able to identify opportunities to capitalize on it.
Keyword research helps generate keyword ideas and ultimately the topics that you should create content for. Research is what helps you uncover insights and decide which pieces should be built around which type of search intent; navigational, commercial, transactional or informational intent.
SEO optimized content doesn't structure and write itself, so in the world of content and SEO, the importance of tools that help you in outlining and writing SEO content can't be overstated. They assist in organizing thoughts, plotting content structure, ensuring consistent tone and streamlining the writing process.
These tools offer a platform where creativity meets efficiency, helping you to put together compelling narratives that align with your audience and satisfy search engine requirements.
Collaboration and project management is the heart of effective SEO strategy and content marketing. In this section, we will explore some of the best tools for streamlining collaboration.
These tools foster clear communication, seamless sharing of ideas and ensure everyone stays on the same page, ultimately enhancing the quality and efficiency of your content production process.
Once you've finished creating your SEO website content, publishing is the point at which you deliver it to your audience. The tools you use for this stage can make a big difference in the fluidity of the process and even the impact of your content.
A good content management system (CMS) can streamline the publishing process, enhance SEO strategies and foster greater collaboration among team members.
Plus, when using our Content Planner to create content, you'll get built in plugins to the most popular CMSs out there.
If content is created and no one hears about it or ever finds it...what's the point of making it?
Promoting your content and spreading your message is just as important as creating it, trouble is the internet is awash with it which makes standing out a real challenge.
This section is dedicated to exploring various social media management tools that can help you effectively promote your content. Remember, even the most insightful and well-crafted content won't make an impact if it doesn't reach its intended audience.
Chapter 7
Developing an SEO strategy that optimizes your content for both search and your readers is a delicate balance, here's how to do it:
What exactly are you aiming to achieve with your content? Higher conversion rates? More organic traffic? Increase in subscribers? Figuring out what your goals are and making sure you can measure them are keys to developing an SEO and content marketing plan.
Before that though, you need to know where you currently stand and get benchmark measurements on the metrics you aim to improve. If your goals are to increase your conversion rate or climb the search rankings, knowing the stats today is the only way to measure success tomorrow. Google Search Console is a great place to start.
With baseline numbers in place, you'll start to get a sense of where to focus your energies and begin to see what worked and what didn't. All of which will help you set goals.
Remember, these goals should stretch your limits but still be within reach. Think of them as the lighthouse guiding your SEO journey, keeping you focused and on track to create quality content that resonates and ranks.
When creating goals, they should be SMART:
Learning what's already ranking well on Google and what's hitting that coveted first page of SERPs (search engine results pages) is the best place to start building your content plan from. It's a straightforward way to see where and how you can position your content to compete.
It's not as simple as doing a quick Google search, noting what's on page one and moving on though. Content SEO best practices require going further.
Understanding what people search for to bring up your content, as well as your competitors', is crucial, but you'll also want to look closely at the type of content that ranks well—does it tend to be more informational or commercial? Is there a common format that's resonating? What's the intent behind the search?
Also, pay attention to the People Also Ask section, related searches and featured snippets; these can unveil invaluable clues about user intent.
By analyzing SERPs with a mix of insights about the searcher's journey and a sharp, analytical mind, you can tailor your content not only to rank well in organic search results but to directly align with your audience—after all, SEO isn't just about pleasing algorithms, it's about connecting with people on their quest for answers.
You can dive deeper with tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush and others.
Sure, you create content for your audience, but you're not the only one targeting them. Don't make the mistake of creating content or building your SEO strategy in a vacuum.
Peeking over the digital fence to see what your neighbors are up to can give you some savvy insights into the direction you should take your own content.
Competitor content has clues all over it — what keywords they cherish and rank highly on, the kind of questions they answer and the format that pulls their audience in.
The idea isn't to copy but rather to see what's working and generating traffic and incorporate similar ideas into your content.
Speaking of your content, you'll want to turn that perceptive gaze inward too. Sift through your content inventory for go-to topics. Scrutinize your most trafficked pieces and ask, are they still hitting the sweet spot for your audience?
For example, it's better to update a blog post that's already ranking well than trying to rank a brand new one on the same topic (where cannibalization will hurt both blog posts).
Competitor awareness combined with internal analysis can help you carve out an SEO strategy that's not only sharp but also uniquely yours, resonating deeply with both search engines and the folks you aim to captivate.
After you've checked out the SERPs, looked at competitor content and sifted through your existing content, it's time to pinpoint the keywords that drive traffic.
Start with your seed keyword, which is the foundational term that represents the core topic or main idea around which a content strategy or search engine optimization effort is built.
"Basketball", for example, would be the major seed keyword for the NBA's SEO strategy.
Conducting keyword research requires digging deeper though as seeds are highly competitive keywords that might be difficult to rank for (depending on your niche, competition and size).
You'll want to expand your research and keyword strategy to include long-tail keywords, which tend to have less search volume but higher search intent as they're more specific and, therefore, more targeted.
Proper keyword research is a way to tap into your user's thoughts, intentions and the phrases they use to search for solutions online.
Tools like Google Trends (or their Keyword Planner), Ahrefs or Semrush are a great way to generate even more keyword ideas.
Once you have your goals and research sorted out, you're ready to build a list of topics that'll include the associated search terms people use to find them.
To that end, the process of shaping your SEO efforts is kind of like planning out a menu for a dinner party. You have to know who's coming to the table and what they love to eat in order to serve them the goods.
Each topic should be built around a target keyword and stick only to that topic, answering particular questions your website visitor's ask about it in Google search. Tap into their curiosities, their needs and the little gaps in their knowledge that only you're able to fill.
That means your list should include content that populates every part of your funnel, from Awareness to Consideration to Decision stages, and carries visitors on a journey.
This will also help immensely with your content gathering and developing different types of SEO content to satisfy your entire audience. A blog post for the readers, a video for the watchers and so on.
Understanding search intent is crucial in tailoring content to what your audience is actually looking for—it's about getting into their heads.
When people hit up Google, they're on a mission; whether that's to learn something new, find a specific website or visit an online store to make a purchase. Your job is to discern these intents and mold your content to be the answer they're seeking.
That's the essence of search marketing and growing organic traffic.
Begin by breaking down search intent into its four main categories: informational, navigational, commercial and transactional.
"Best electric guitars" and "Fender Stratocaster guitar price" each have very different intent; the first is informational while the second is transactional – and you'll want to tackle both if you sell guitars. Identify the intent behind keywords related to your business and create high quality content that aligns with it.
For informational intent, create detailed guides, insightful blog posts and FAQ sections that educate. If transactional searches are your goal, your content should be optimized to guide the user to a purchase with reviews, product comparisons and persuasive calls-to-action. Remember to consider local SEO too if it's relevant for your business.
Meeting your audience where they are with the right type of content can turn searchers into visitors and visitors into loyal customers.
Nailing your content is one thing, optimizing on-page SEO means focusing on the details that make web pages easier for readers and search engines to digest. A key element of SEO strategy that helps improve your rankings in search results.
Meta tags and headers, your H1s and subheaders up to H6s, make pages more scannable for visitors and allow search engines to index your page more easily.
They should also incorporate the main keywords you're aiming to rank for. Shoot for exact keyword matches as much as possible and include secondary and long-tail keywords throughout.
Your meta description should match search intent and include your target keyword.
Important: Don't go into keyword stuffing territory. While there's no specific rule on keyword density, it's best to not go overboard and pack your text with them. Use a keyword density tool CheckSERP to see where you stand.
You'll also want to include other content elements like videos and images, with keywords in the image alt text and descriptions, to keep content dynamic and engaging.
Lastly, links, both internal and external, should take people to relevant outside resources or other pages of interest on your site. Google and other search engines love that.
Link building efforts are an underemphasized and occasionally overlooked part of SEO planning, but proper linking is a key way to optimize websites for SEO.
When done thoughtfully, internal linking creates a structured narrative that guides visitors to more in-depth information, while also keeping them engaged and reducing bounce rate.
Topic clusters and silo architecture are two main internal link building strategies.
A topic cluster is multiple pages of content that internally link back to a detailed pillar page optimized for a particular keyword.
Silo architecture meanwhile takes a more ordered, top-down approach, adding internal links from main category pages to subcategory pages, also known as parent to child pages. General to more specific.
Backlinks are a different story; they're links from other sites back to yours that serve as a nod of approval for your content. When they're from reputable sites, search engines understand those links as trust signals that your content is authoritative, on point and valuable. Accumulating these digital endorsements can skyrocket your visibility and credibility.
Bottom line, internal linking and high-quality backlinks can elevate your site's ranking potential, drawing more organic traffic and increasing your authority.
Chapter 8
Content that gets clicks and generates organic search traffic isn't created by chance. The process of optimizing your content planning workflow to build SEO-friendly content can be aided immensely with an SEO planner like our Content Planner. Here's how.
Include your SEO keyword phrases in your header and subheader tags (h1 through h6). This helps search engine crawlers index your site and allows visitors to find relevant content quickly.
Your SEO keywords should be in the page title, URL and meta description as well as found throughout the body copy and image alt tags.
Plan URL path and page names with keywords in advance so you can launch with optimized URLs. Changing them later creates more work and requires implementation of 301 redirects.
Make your content scannable, add imagery and break up text with lists, tables, infographics, etc. The aim is to engage users, reduce bounce rates and encourage more site exploration.
Links make a big difference in content SEO so ensure you define relevant internal and external links in your content plan and information architecture early.
When content is well planned and written, it can lead to more sales and more business...if the CTAs are on point and well located. Use an SEO content planner to build effective page layouts.
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I used to juggle several apps to get information across to content owners and technical staff. Now I don’t have to as it’s all in one place...just brilliant!
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