An important element of every successful SEO strategy is optimizing your content.

Apparently, this is also one of the main challenges faced by content marketers and bloggers.

Many people have a misconception about creating content that ranks well

They only focus on search algorithms when the fact of the matter is that your readers come first.

If you want to excel in your online business, you must go beyond just crafting content.

Your content needs to furnish two main objectives:

Appeal to the end-user (your visitors, fans, clients, prospects, etc.), and

Solve core problems.

How do you write content that caters to these requirements, yet persuades people and ranks well?

This is what we’ll be mainly focusing on in this comprehensive post on optimizing your content.

Let’s get started:

What’s SEO copywriting?

SEO copywriting is the science and art of writing content in way that appeals to both search engine robots and humans alike.

Ever since Google started launching their updates, optimizing content has been of prime importance.

If you’re hell-bent on creating content that appeals to readers and ranks well, you need to focus on the elements of Google’s Ranking Algorithm.

 The main element of SEO copywriting is to include your keywords naturally so that it entices your readers to scroll down the page.   For instance, you can see the keywords ‘SEO’ and “Content” at the beginning of the article. That’s a value proposition to persuade the readers to keep reading till the end. This is just one tactic.

You’ll learn more now:

7 Advanced Ways to Optimize Your Content For SEO

The following tips will work for every business irrespective of the customer base or industry. You can use them across SaaS firms, agencies, e-commerce stores, and many more. We’ve started implementing this even on Rank Lift Agency.

Now let’s go to it!

1. Start with a Buyer Persona

Knowing your buyer persona can not only help with writing killer content but also in building your products and effectively marketing them.

How?

If only 1 out of 10 people need your services and 9 of them aren’t even being close to prospects, you’re wasting 90% of your time and resources.

Here are some SEO tools to figure out your buyer persona:

• Google Analytics

Over 29 million websites use Google Analytics. Set up Google Analytics for your website and start grabbing insights about your target audience. Focus on the sections ‘Interests’ and ‘Demographics.’ What you’re basically trying to find here is figuring out customers who actually buy or want to buy products from you with respect to some common denominators.

Check out this excellent post by SEMRush on creating buyer personas with Google Analytics.

• Facebook Audience Manager

Facebook contains a lot of information on the demographics of people, what they want to buy, their likes, and many more. You can gain access to the Audience Insights Tool from your Facebook business page and get a lot of information on your target customers.

Using the information, you can have a clear picture on the market and even conduct a survey. Analyze the profiles of the people who like your page. This lets you know more about them, which can be used to create content.

Here’s a detailed guide on developing buyer personas using Facebook Insights.

• Twitter Audience Insights

You can use Twitter Audience Insights to find the occupation, interests, demographics, political affiliation, consumer behavior and a host of other determinants to create your list.

Peruse your Twitter ad campaign and followers to know more about them. This is highly crucial since ads permit you to those who aren’t even your prospects.

Twitter even conducts a demographic analysis once you upload emails from your list.

Knowing your buyer persona is a massive force multiplier that can drive equally massive growth.

Here are some more tools to help you know your audience.

Put all your findings in writing….

Hubspot has a free tool to create buyer personas.

Their age group, gender, personality traits, interests and goals….You will do way better if you get detailed with this:

Of course, a single buyer persona will never be enough. Hence, you need to create more personas to have a clearer picture of who your audience is.

2. Use Headline Tricks

You may write classy content but if your headline isn’t catchy enough, the click-through rate will automatically dwindle.  In other words, you’ll be wasting your invaluable SEO copy.

On an average 80% of readers do not go past your headline, and only 20% read the rest of the content, states Copyblogger.

Buzzfeed, a “clickbait site” generates millions of visitors every single month just because of their headlines. They practically witnessed meteoric growth overnight.

Can you replicate Buzzfeed’s headline formulas?

Definitely yes…

In a noisy online world where everyone is fighting to gain attention, how do you attract people to your content?

Here’s how you can do it:

• Use Numbers

Have you ever visited a grocery store and scanned the magazines? Look at the headlines and you’ll be appalled to see most of them using numerals. As such, there aren’t any rules with numbers but the mind has a tendency to retain obscure numbers like 17 or 47.

A word of warning here: Don’t just rampantly use numbers. If there are some major takeaways in your content, adding numbers to the headlines makes sense. But if it doesn’t, avoid using it at all costs. Numbers pressurize you to write SPECIFIC headlines.

For instance, take a look at this headline:

It looks dull and dry.

See the contrast now:

It’s specific and much more compelling.

The big boys like Mashable, Inc and many more understand the psychology behind numbers. Numbered headlines get 327% more clicks compared to question headlines.

Also, readers tend to share those articles that have headlines with numbers.

• Use Emotional Adjectives

Some powerful examples are as follows:

• Strange
• Essential
• Absolute
• Fun
• Incredible
• Free
• Painstaking
• Effortless

Buzzsumo has some more examples on incorporating robust phrases into your headlines.

• Show What The Reader Can Expect From The Content

Be authentic while creating a list post. You can consider the following:

• Ways
• Tricks
• Secrets
• Facts
• Ideas
• Lessons
• Reasons

Avoid using the word “things” in the headline as it appears very generic.

• Use Trigger Words

Using trigger words like “how,” “when,” “why” and “what” persuades your readers. Try using either a number or a trigger word and never combine both.

• Come Up With a Bold Promise

Promise your readers something of immense value. Will you equip them with new skills or talents? Will you unlock an unanswerable mystery? Will you coerce them to do something they’ve never tried? Will you make onerous tasks a cakewalk?

The idea here is to persuade the reader to read the content and gain something of true value. Be bold, seductive and dangerous but don’t overpromise.

Finally use Coshedule’s Headline Analyzer Tool to create even better headlines while implementing the points mentioned above.

3:- Use Long-Tail Keywords

One of the important reasons why people conduct Google searches before writing a piece of content is that they’re seeking useful information. This is also a major reason why you should be updating your site consistently.

River Pools grew their company to 80,000 monthly visitors within just 6 months from 10,000.

How did they accomplish that unachievable feat?

 Merely through blogging…

 Their organic traffic went up dramatically.

Marcus Sheridan, the owner, started targeting long-tail keywords in his posts and everything underwent a dramatic change. They started showing up on the first page of Google within hours after publishing the content.

An important takeaway here is to target keyword phrases. But avoid excessive optimization or stuffing them. Ensure that they gel well for your readers.

That said, it’s equally important to understand that modern content optimization is much more than just keyword targeting. A great approach is to create content that focuses on the intent of the keywords you use.

Besides the headline, the introduction is another part that catches the attention of the reader. So try using at least one of the keyword phrases so that readers exactly know what the post is about.

4. Use “Bucket Brigades” To Create a Contagion Effect Of Your Page

Look:

And here it is…..

Check it out now!

So what’s a “Bucket Brigade?”

These are basically short sentences or phrases that propel the reader to read the next line to know more. They were originally designed to keep people occupied with sales letters but now have become an important component of every blog post.

Bucket Brigades also help people stick to your page for a longer time, which in turn, boosts your ranking.

Find areas in your content where people are likely to hit the back button and then introduce a Bucket Brigade.

Brian Dean of Backlinko fame uses a lot of Bucket Brigades because of which the average time on his page is:

Yes, that’s over 4 minutes.

And most of the average time spent on his articles is because of the sprinkling of Bucket Brigades.

By persuading your reader to read one sentence and then the other…..and the rest, you try keep him read the entire post. As a result, the bounce rate decreases significantly, which positively impacts your ranking.

5. Use LSI Keywords

Latent Semantic Indexing or LSI is a concept Google uses to know what your page is all about.

The old SEO copywriting methods of stuffing keywords in the paragraphs and meta descriptions are now obsolete.

What’s the way out?

The answer lies in using LSI keywords.

Say, you write an article with the seed keyword being “cars”…..

Now…

The word “cars” can mean anything to Google.

It can indicate:

• Cars, the movie
• Cars, the vehicle
• Cars-Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Community
• Cars-Credibility Accuracy Reasonableness Support Business……and more

When Google sees a page with LSI keywords containing the word “cars,” the situation can be something like this:

…it knows that the cars you’re talking about is a vehicle.

But if it sees something like this…………

….it’s about Cars, the movie.

If you include LSI keywords in your content, search engines crawl your site and have a perception about the content.

It also prevents your site from ranking for the wrong terms and being labeled as a spam.

How do you find LSI keywords?

An easy way to find LSI keywords is to choose your main keyword and enter it into Google’s search bar. You’ll automatically find the best matching phrase for your keyword like this……

You can also use Ubersuggest, another free tool to find LSI keywords:

Niche Laboratory is a great free tool that helps in finding the best LSI keyword matches. It also offers keyword suggestions, web page titles, meta descriptions and more.

6. Use The APP Method

Here’s the bitter truth about content optimization……..

When someone lands on your page from Google, you’ve just 2 seconds to convince them.

Not 10, not 7 but just 2, and if you can’t grab their attention in those 2 seconds, you’ll be losing them irrevocably.

Right off the bat, try hitting them with something crazily crazy.

And this is where the APP formula works.

What is APP?

APP stands for Agree, Promise and Preview.

Let’s now break this to have a clear understanding:

Agree

You would want to start your intro with the simple concept that someone searching for your keyword agrees with what you have to say. In other words, you understand their plight. Once you’re in sync with your readers, they will more likely stick to your page.

In this particular post, we’ve mentioned the plight of copywriters wanting to optimize their content….

Which is a common issue and a grave one. Immediately, they say “yes,” which convinces them to hang around more.

Promise

Now that they have approved to what you’ve said, it’s time to fulfill the promise. This is when you give a sneak peek into their solution.

Preview

Your readers have agreed with you and also have hopes from your promise.

Now is the time to strike the iron when it’s hot.

You have to tell them what you’ve in store for them

By polishing your preview, you’re all set to go.

You now have an introduction that keeps the readers hooked to your site…..

The ball is finally in your court

7. Page Links

Link building is an important aspect of copywriting that pleases the search engines. Google knows that’s there’s a lot of information out there as is evident by its mission:

Page links are in indication to Google that you are sociable and have got beneficial content that can be accessed from other sources. The content could either be your own or from another site.

Once you link out to authority sites or sites with useful information, it’s an indication that you value what other people have to say. …

And Google will reward you for being in tune with the company’s mission since you’re making all the information in the world easily accessible. If you are an experienced copywriter, you will surely link out to other valuable resources.

There are no set rules for linking, but……..

Always try linking to in-depth guides.

Secondly, link with appropriate anchor text to make it more natural for the reader.

Summing Up

If you have a clear buyer persona and solve the problems of readers by producing the best content, you don’t have to worry about page links, keyword density and social signs since these will be occurring naturally.

Focus purely on your readers while writing and…….

Not the Bots.