What Is Content Optimization? How To Optimize Content (2024)

Imagine searching for a flannel shirt online and finding yourself on a page with pixelated images, eye-watering animations, and fashion tips inspired by Saved by the Bell.

Unless you’re specifically looking for a throwback moment, this likely isn’t what you need. Luckily, search engines like Google favor up-to-date and optimized content, so this page from the 1990s is unlikely to top search results. Website owners know that to keep viewers coming in, their content has to be a lot more relevant and timely than this.

Content optimization is the process of doing just that, and it’s a crucial strategy for ensuring your content performs consistently. Learn more about this content marketing technique, with insights from Kevin Espiritu of Epic Gardening.

What is content optimization?

Content optimization is improving your content so it can better achieve its goals, whether that means topping search engine results pages (SERPs) or converting readers into customers. Whatever the objective, the content optimization process is vital to putting your best foot forward—and ensuring people see it.

When you publish a piece of web content, you’re reflecting what users are looking for and competing with the top search results at that time. Six months later, your advice might be outdated, the keyword intent might have changed, the weighting of search engine ranking factors may have tipped, or other publishers might have overtaken your rankings with more comprehensive content. To maintain your search engine rankings, you need to be proactive.

Why is content optimization important?

Continual optimization keeps your content fresh and findable on SERPs. Search engines reward up-to-date and unique content by looking at comprehensiveness, freshness, timeliness, and uniqueness—the key ranking factors for Google.

Updating your content also builds your reputation as a trusted adviser to your target audience. It makes your content more quotable, potentially earning you more website backlinks (i.e., other websites linking to your page). And since more eyes and traffic mean a wider audience of potential buyers, you can see increased conversions from your content over time.

How to optimize content

Optimizing content requires a wide array of strategies. Some help improve rankings on SERPS, while others help nurture people down the sales funnel. Use content mapping to identify your top priorities, then use these 10 methods to optimize your content accordingly:

Review user intent

For each piece of content you have, reevaluate your customers’ search intent. Why are they searching for the keywords you’re targeting? What value can you provide in that moment?

For example, if your article targets the keyword “best running shoes for flat feet,” the intent would be to find detailed information to make a well-informed purchase decision. You might consider including comparison charts, pros and cons, or product reviews to help consumers compare their choices. Ensure your content is high-quality and useful; providing real value to readers will make it more likely for them to trust you.

Fact-check for accuracy

Keep your material updated and factually accurate so consumers can trust you as a source for high-quality information. Kevin Espiritu, founder of the popular blog and ecommerce brand Epic Gardening, highlights the importance of this for his company. With a mission to help 10 million people worldwide learn how to grow plants, Epic Gardening needs to ensure its existing content is consistently helpful and fresh. “We go backwards year-over-year and say, ‘Do we need to refresh that blog?’ Let’s go ahead and see if we’re still accurate,” Kevin says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.

Build fact-checking and refreshing into your content strategy by setting calendar reminders each quarter for pieces you need to revisit. Use your best judgment to determine the best cadence for reviewing blog posts. Some topics that evolve quickly (like AI technologies) may need to be revisited every few months, while others (like the history of hair dryers) may need a review every year or two.

Add relevant keywords and metadata

Once you know what your users are looking for, it’s important to build ways for your content to show up at the top of SERPs. Use keyword research to understand what the important related keywords are for your topic, and incorporate them organically into your blog posts, product descriptions, and titles.

Avoid cramming in as many words as possible without taking any interest in readability. Keyword stuffing like this often has a counterproductive effect. It turns on Google’s spam filters rather than triggering its algorithm to prefer your page. Make sure you still prioritize breaking up your content with headings, using short paragraphs, and implementing the results of your keyword research in content your site visitors will enjoy reading.

Use title tags, image labels, and meta descriptions to improve search engine rankings. These simple tips can make it easier for search engines to understand what’s on each page of your website and better recommend it to users. Using alt tags for accessibility is another way to get keywords on your page and increase your chances of capturing search volume.

Incorporate video

Research shows that video increases dwell time (i.e., the amount of time users spend on a webpage), which helps boost search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. It also increases conversions. Adding high-quality informative videos such as explainers can boost page performance dramatically. If possible, consider adding closed captions. This can make your video accessible to those who have hearing issues or prefer to watch videos without sound. Unlike audio, video transcripts are also indexable by search engines, so having transcripts can boost your rankings further.

Improve technical SEO

When search engines crawl your web content, it’s not just the content that matters. Search engines also assess how well they can read your site and the overall user experience. In addition to updating the on-page SEO elements like keywords and metadata, consider the technical SEO elements like:

• Site speed
• Mobile-friendliness
• Crawlability
• Site architecture/navigation

You can assess your technical SEO using Google’s Core Web Vitals, which prioritize loading times, responsiveness, and visual stability. Use Google Search Console or another web analytics tool to check your tech health and track key metrics like site speed and performance.

Review site navigation and internal linking

Internal links help search engine bots understand your content and how it fits in the broader ecosystem of your website. Contextual internal links allow bots to find and rank your pages more easily, passing authority between pages. They also allow users to navigate easily around your website, meaning they’ll spend more time engaging with your brand.

As part of your link-building strategy, list all of the existing content that relates to the piece you’re optimizing. Content optimization tools like Ahrefs’ Link Opportunities can help simplify this process. Ensure that your new article or blog post links to those related pages. Similarly, update existing pages so they link to your new and improved content. Check for broken links and update them with relevant internal links.

Build brand affinity

Whether or not your content is high quality depends on the value it provides the reader. Improve the quality of your offerings by bringing something new to the conversation. Share expert insights and dig deeper than your competitors. This content optimization technique builds affinity with your readers and positions your brand as an authority in your realm.

For example, Epic Gardening’s content marketing strategy relies on educational content. People discover them through research and build a relationship with the brand before they purchase seeds and tools. The company uses quality content rooted in regional specialization and horticultural expertise. “We bring on other creators in different areas of the country because gardening is so regional,” Kevin says. “They’re all trained in some kind of gardening, so we’ll pick the right writer for the right topic. But then we also have all articles passed through a horticultural review for accuracy.”

Optimize content for conversions

Every piece of content should have some stage of the buyer’s journey in mind. For example, educational articles about gardening basics may help bring curious prospects into the funnel. By contrast, a comparison blog post about different types of mulch could aim to drive sales.

When optimizing content, ask yourself what the next step should be for the consumer, then map content to the different stages of the customer’s journey. Speak in your audience’s language—you wouldn’t use niche gardening jargon when speaking to someone who’d never touched dirt before.

Finally, ensure that your calls-to-action (CTAs) are clear and well-positioned, accounting for where readers are in their journey. Pepper CTAs throughout your content where they make sense—not just at the end of a page.

Encourage social sharing

Content amplification through social sharing increases your chances of reaching a broader, more diverse audience. This doesn’t just have indirect SEO benefits like increased referral traffic and backlinks, it’s also valuable for increasing brand awareness. When users share your content, new audiences engage with your brand without you having to pay for ads or rank high on Google search results.

Create shareable moments by calling out expert quotes or original research. Bring them to life with compelling visuals and social media sharing icons to help drive social exposure.

Improve readability

Improving your content’s readability increases the time people spend engaging with it, improving metrics like session duration and bounce rate. Use clear headings to grab attention and make your content skimmable. Simplify your language with shorter sentences and break up big blocks of text with bullet points and infographics.

Apps like Hemingway and Grammarly can help you tighten up your writing and ensure your spelling and grammar are on point.