Are You Blogophobic? Recovery Step #4: 14 Ways to Optimize Your Marketing Content

This is Part 8 in a blog series on understanding – and curing – “Blogophobia: the Fear of Content Marketing” 

In the previous post, Blogophobia Recovery Step #3: Creating Your Marketing Content, I talked about writing styles, the importance of headlines, structure, editing, and tips to make posts more readable and shareable.

One of the primary reasons to engage in Content Marketing is for your business to be found on the internet – by prospectsand existing customers.  Existing customers look to find new information about you – recent projects, a breakthrough product or your latest achievements.  Prospects are looking for the same thing but with more of an eye towards taking the first step towards a starting a relationship with an unknown entity.  Your content marketing should address both issues: making you better known and less of an unknown.

“Pumping Up” Your Content

To get found, especially on the early pages of a search, requires Search Engine Optimization or SEO.  Search engines reward fresh, original content: new blog postings, an updated “Press” page or recent Case Studies, among others.  See my post“Search Me! 15 Ways to Google-ize Your Website”  to find out more.

When creating any content for your site, it’s important to remember these SEO-helpful tips:

1. Use your keywords and keyword phrases in the title of your post and throughout the body copy
2. Include a link to at least one other blog post or page on your website
3. Be sure to tag all posts
4. Write excerpts – a brief description of your blog post
5. Include a signature line with your name, company name, a brief description of the services or products provided and a link to your website
6. Include video – this can increase your ranking by 50%
7. Keep your copy short, simple and uncluttered; use subheads, bullet points and short paragraphs
8. Use numbered lists
9. Use keyword-rich Anchor Texts (the clickable text describing the underlying link)
10. Get inbound links (by creating and promoting valuable content)
11. Consider guest blogging to drive traffic to your site
12. Add a plug-in such as WordPress SEO Pack to ease optimization of your blog post
13. Use a service like InboundWriter to better optimize your content based on what your target audience is searching for
14. Keep the design of your website clean, simple and not overloaded with ads

The next post in the Blogophobia Series will continue your recovery from Blogophobia.  Now that you’ve created and optimized your content, it’s time to Publish!