**by Aaron Bradley**
It hardly needs saying that content is important for SEO: a properly
structured site with frequently updated, keyword-rich content is the
best foundation for high search engine rankings. Quality content that
is interesting or useful to users also has an excellent chance of
receiving unsolicited links, further enhancing a website's ability to
rank well for relevant searches. To maximize these considerable
benefits, SEOs should take an aggressive, hands-on approach to content
creation and promotion. Being involved at every stage of a website's
content development cycle offers the best chance of supporting
in-house optimization efforts.
Content is, of course, a pretty broad label. While an SEO tends to
think of content as text, a website's content is the sum of everything
that appears on its pages, from words to videos to buttons.
Ultimately, non-textual elements such as images or audio files still
form part of a website's semantic universe and, if anything, should be
singled out as content optimization targets. That an image lacks an
alt attribute, or a webcast a summary or transcript, is nothing if not
a lost optimization opportunity.
Regardless of the component parts, in-house SEOs are (unsurprisingly)
best prepared to exploit the search engine value of website content.
In terms of topicality, nobody knows a site's keyword universe better,
nor has a better understanding of what content users are searching for
relevant to that universe. From a logistical standpoint, pushing
content live may require work by copywriters, developers, designers -
stakeholders an in-house SEO knows and works with on a daily basis.
And strategically, it may well be SEO that is the driving force behind
content development in the first place, simply because it is required
to maintain or improve search engine rankings.
Chicken or egg? Content optimization vs. content development
Who owns content (particularly textual content) in your organization?
Marketing? Merchandising? Public relations? A chief editor? As often
as not, the answer to this question is poorly defined, split between
numerous stakeholders, or simply unknown. Ill-defined content
ownership often means an ill-defined content strategy, and this is
both a problem to be solved and an opportunity for SEO.
I would argue strongly that SEO should take an active rather than
passive role in content development. Whether or not this means
owning content in the sense of being responsible for it, or simply
being an important contributor to the content landscape, SEO needs to
be involved strategically and tactically at many points in the content
development lifestyle. Optimal content, in the holistic sense, will
always perform better in search than content that is simply
optimized after it has already been produced.
Whether taking a defining or contributing role in content
development, there are points prior, during and after the production
of content where in-house SEO should lend support and guidance.
Content topics and treatments
Content development starts with strategic planning, and it is
imperative that SEO takes an active role in the planning process. This
is particularly true when there is an initiative to expand a website's
content base by adding new content sections, or substantially revising
existing content. There are a number of ways by which SEO can add
value to discussions surrounding topicality:
Provide topic suggestions based on keyword trending data, such as
Google Insight for Search
Use internal search and traffic metrics to reveal which topics are
important to users
Once a topic has been determined, provide actionable keyword analysis
to writers
Based on your analysis and observations, provide page, post and
section titles early. An SEO-friendly title, using important keywords,
is not only beneficial for SEO in its own right, but helps frame the
semantic nature of the content that's produced. Without your input,
the desired Review of the New iPod Touch may take life as The Scoop
on Apple's Latest Music Machine.
Content container architecture
Where will the new content live, and how will it be presented on the
website? While SEO-friendly site architecture is a whole topic unto
itself, often content development involves new page design, and at the
very least, always requires integration into the existing site
structure. Whether new page templates are being developed, or if this
is simply an opportunity to improve the existing structure, there are
a number of steps an SEO can take to help ensure SEO-friendly content
containers.
Ensure file names will be SEO-friendly, especially for static content
where file names may be hard coded
Ensure pages possess a sensible heading and sub-heading structure
Define in advance how content will be integrated into the site's
linking structure
Ensure that components like Flash and JavaScript are only used if
truly required
Coming late into the architecture phase can have very unfortunate
consequences. I've found myself looking at videos without dedicated
landing pages, page titles rendered as background images - even a blog
created entirely in Flash where it was impossible to link to
individual posts!
Publishing and indexing
Make sure your shiny new content is ready for the search engines, and
expedite the indexing process in any way you can (particularly
critical, of course, for topical news). Steps you can take to improve
SEO traction and encourage rapid indexing include:
Ensure the <title>, <meta> description, <meta> keywords and <img> alt
attributes are encoded by an SEO prior to the content going live
Ensure that XML sitemaps are updated
Ensure that pings are sent for any syndicated content
Notify the world about the newly-published content by linking to it,
which can include highlighting it on a blog or news section, posting
the URL on Twitter or pointing to the new content on a Facebook page
Process is important here, and ignoring it may dull the impact of
excellent content. A page that is SEO-friendly when it goes live will
perform much better in search than one where SEO tasks were deferred
in the interest of expediency, especially for topical content. Ensure
the process allows time for dotting the i's and crossing the t's,
ideally by making final SEO tasks part of the work flow.
Providing feedback
The writers have really taken heed of your keyword analysis, and
produced some fabulously rich content. The developers have gone the
extra mile and produced an RSS feed from scratch, and now a site
section of topical content is syndicated. Don't simply pat them on the
back and move onto the next task; provide them with feedback on what
their efforts actually achieved in search. Provide writers and other
content developers with:
Reports showing organic keyword traffic to the new content
Reports correlating conversions - purchases, sign ups, newsletter
opt-ins, etc. - with keyword traffic
Newly-achieved rankings in one or more engines (screen shots are
great)
By providing this sort of data to your content partners, you'll not
only be acknowledging the importance of their work, but increasingly
make them partners in search engine optimization efforts. I've known
more than one writer that's been initially indifferent to search
marketing that's ended up sending me search result screen shots.
Sharing knowledge and success metrics with your extended team (i.e.,
virtually everyone) both empowers them and demystifies the SEO work
they undertake.
In summary, in-house SEOs will see the ranking returns on an
organization's investment in content by making their presence felt in
each stage of the process. If, as the adage goes, content is king
for SEO, a successful in-house SEO should endeavour to become the king
(or queen) of content.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Aaron Bradley <http://searchengineland.com/author/aaron-bradley/>
Aaron Bradley is SEO Manager for online jewelry store Ice.com
<http://www.ice.com>
, and writes on search issues at his blog SEO Skeptic
<http://www.seoskeptic.com>
. He has been an in-house SEO since 2005, following ten years as a
website designer.
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