What Is SEO Content, and What Does It Do for Your Marketing?

If your business is building or upgrading its digital marketing strategy, you’re going to need a plan for search engine optimization (SEO) and content creation. Plus, these two components often complement each other, so you also need to know what SEO content is and how to use it.

If you’re still working on mastering this marketing domain, you’re in good company. Status Labs found that over 90% of web pages lack effective SEO content and receive no organic search engine traffic.

That leaves a great opportunity for you to get ahead of competing sites. Find out the essentials of what content in SEO is and why it’s so important.

What Is SEO Content?

SEO content is material on your website that you publish to attract more traffic from search engines. It includes anything on your site that your audience views or interacts with, whether text, audio, or video.

Successful SEO content gets placed higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). The most important reason for this is that search engines take notice when a site gets a lot of traffic. They deem these sites to be valuable for their users and rank them higher on SERPs, making them easier for all to find.

The other way search engines determine what SEO content is worth higher rankings is by using web crawlers. Web crawlers are bots that constantly browse the internet and collect data from websites. These bots feed information about pages into their databases. If a page appears to have the kind of content that people like, it can rank high, even before it has tons of traffic.

When you understand what users want and what search engine algorithms prefer, you can create SEO content that is more likely to rank. As a result, you’ll experience better visibility on platforms like Google and increased visitor engagement.

What Core SEO Content Does Your Site Need?

The following SEO content is what any website needs if it wants increased traffic.

An Optimized Homepage

Though some marketers have been under the impression that there is no homepage SEO, experience has shown that homepages can rank for keywords. This can be particularly important if you have a service you offer to your local area. For example, searching your city name and “accident lawyer” is likely to pull up specific city pages for firms with offices nearby, but law firm homepages also pop up.

Top tips for optimizing a homepage include:

• Having a brief, eye-catching title with an appropriate keyword
• Adding a schema markup (code that helps search engines understand your content)
• Demonstrating trustworthiness with testimonials or statistics

Homepage SEO content is important enough for experienced SEO marketing firms to offer it alongside other managed services.

Product Descriptions and Service Pages

Well-crafted SEO content is mainly what ensures your products and services show up close to the top when people specifically search for the things you sell. For instance, check out point #4 in our breakdown of product description examples to see how Extreme Terrain uses keywords prominently and correctly.

Good SEO on product pages puts information in an attractive format that’s still easy to grasp for users (and those mysterious web crawlers). With optimized product pages, you’ll more easily draw in new visitors and returning customers.

Blogs and Articles

The core of your SEO content will be regular blog posts and occasional in-depth articles from subject-matter experts. These are the backbone of your content marketing, providing the best return on investment when it comes to what SEO content is able to do. HubSpot even discovered that reading a blog is what motivated 56% of consumers to make a purchase.

The reason why blogs can be more effective than homepages and product pages is because they demonstrate how much you care about your target audience and what you know about solving their problems. When you write about relevant topics that directly and indirectly relate to your products and services, the information will incline readers to check out how your business can further help them.

Other advantages of regular blogging include:

• You always have fresh content, which both people and search engines love.
• You can use an endless number of keywords and topics to increase your reach.
• You can build your authority with internal links and increase the odds of getting external links.
• Your site is more shareable because of the wealth of information it holds.

The many benefits of blogging mean it should be your top type of SEO content.

What Features Help Your SEO Content Succeed?

The following elements can sometimes be standalone types of SEO content. However, they often work as enhancements to larger pieces, maximizing what your SEO content is able to achieve.

Images, Slideshows, and Infographics

Sometimes the best way to explain something is with a picture. As such, your blogs should always contain images that illustrate what you’re talking about. On occasion, images may even dominate the page and do the work of a blog.

Keep this in mind when the keyword or subject is something that a user is likely to do an image search for, such as clothing items. Harvard Business School even reports that optimizing images for search can increase sales and customer satisfaction.

Infographics and slideshows are especially suitable for explanations and how-tos. For example, if you’re in the hardware or home services industry, you can use a slideshow or infographic to explain how to do basic do-it-yourself repairs. Now that you’re on the audience’s radar, they are more likely to purchase the tools they need from you or solicit your services when they require a more substantial repair.

Just be sure that search engines can find and index these images appropriately. At a minimum, you need alt text for image descriptions (which are also vital for accessibility for folks with disabilities). Also, include some scannable text on the page and not just in the image file so bots can understand what your SEO content is about and index it.

Videos

It can be easier to rank for videos than text, so consider creating videos about competitive keywords. Tutorials are an excellent way to reach a target audience. An easy way to start is by converting information from your blog posts into videos.

Repurposing content this way is key to boosting your online library and also helps with optimizing video SEO content. As with infographics and images, include text so the crawlers can understand what it’s about and index it. This means using keywords in your title and including text transcripts. Also, be sure to embed the videos on your pages so viewers don’t have to leave your site and go to a platform like YouTube or Vimeo to watch them.

Glossaries

Instead of cracking open a dictionary, people often Google definitions. Consider creating a glossary to attract users. Especially for industry-specific terms, you’re more likely to outrank even dictionary sites.

What is SEO content a glossary could include? One great example is cooking terms on a meal prep service’s site. A healthcare company could define medical terms that the layperson might not readily grasp. Glossaries have the potential to be a keyword-rich page for SEO.

Social Media (Kind Of)

Social media isn’t directly a feature of SEO, but it can contribute to the success of your SEO content. The goal here is to properly promote your content to increase visibility and search rankings.

Remember: Since posts aren’t on your site, social media views don’t necessarily help your rankings in SERPs. Write posts that drum up interest and encourage followers to click on a link to your blog or product page. Then, you’ll get more views on your site and improve SEO.

What Else Makes SEO Content Stand Out?

Not just any SEO content will do. Make a success of your content strategy with the following suggestions:

• Going in-depth on interesting topics and using long-tail keywords that your target audience is searching for
• Making your pages easier to read with clear and concise writing 
• Making sure your content is easily digestible on mobile devices
• Including internal links to other helpful pages on your site to drive more views and signal authority
• Studying analytics and metrics about your site performance to determine what SEO content is performing best

With determined and consistent effort, your SEO content will get you the levels of traffic you want.

Now That You Appreciate What SEO Content Is, Let Us Get You Started!

This guide has only provided an introductory look into what SEO content is and how to develop it. Are you still unsure of where to begin or what SEO content is right for your site? Get actionable data and expert input with our free SEO content audit. Contact us today!