How to improve your content SEO and get more web traffic

I’ve written a few articles on similar subjects, this is a little different. Let’s take an in depth look at how we can create content that increases your SEO (search engine optimisation). There are a few tools that can help us too.

We all spend time creating content we love and want to share with others. If you do it right search engines will do all the hard work for you.

There is always more you can do to increase the authority of your content, anything you publish and think is good can always be expanded on.

There are 3 types of internet or web traffic so to speak, they are organic, paid and direct. All 3 are achieved in different ways, SEO is all about organic traffic. Content driven, if you have the authority and answers people are looking for then your SEO increases. High SEO will see your site move up search engine rankings and get you on that first page. The search engines are getting seriously smart, any content you create that is subpar will be treated as such.

Getting on that first page of search engines is key, Google and Bing are key players. YouTube is technically the second largest after Google, it’s content is all video based…and it’s owned by Google. For this article we are looking at webpage SEO, however YouTube can play a part in this.

Word count

If you were to do a quick Google search for word count improving SEO, 300 words comes up a lot as what to aim for. Don’t get me wrong some content may be fine around this “magic” number. If all your webpages or blog content are around this size, how good is it? Authority on webpages comes from content, search engines know this.

Ok, so let’s say you have some well written and knowledgeable articles or content around 1000 words, more if you are able. If you write some smaller articles or posts, you will still have authority. If all content is around 300 words each piece you write could be worth less to search algorithms. Just make sure all content you create has a purpose and is not just a filler, increasing content that is basically useless to the end user will show.

Algorithms take into consideration the amount of users that consume your content. If users click away from your page quickly, they will deem your content less authorative. This will be construed as your content has little authority and won’t increase your web ranking.

The more time users spend consuming your page content the better it’s authority and web rankings will become. If your content is on a narrow niche with little other web presence this may not matter as much. However, the internet is huge these days and ever expanding, future proof your content regardless. If you have the authority on your niche then make sure to retain it.

Let’s some sum up word count (content). The more the better? Yes as long as your content is easy to read and is of use to the end user. People will get the information they are looking for and stay longer, the easier to understand it is, the longer they will stay.

Multimedia

Using more than one medium of expression or communication, that’s the dictionaries explanation. We’ve talked about word content, let’s look at our other content options.

Take this article for example, it’s all word content. Do I need to add pictures or video content to get my point across? Not really, but could I and more to the point should I. I could definitely add some fancy pictures, maybe a chart or two, if it’s relevant and helpful them yes.

All relevant content will increase your web page authority. This is a fact, but only if search engines understand how multimedia adds to your contents authority. There are ways you can help web crawlers understand how the multimedia in your content increases it’s value. Multimedia is not just helpful to search engines, it gives your visitors more context and increases engagement. This in turn will keep them consuming your content longer.

If you add multimedia then make sure it’s easily understood by search engines. Say for instance you create a blog on travel and you are discussing a particular area or place. You write a bit of content then add a picture before your next written piece. If you were to upload this picture from your phone (as an example). It’s name could be something unrecognisable and out of context. Ie 240719HDR11242.

To help search algorithms “see” how this picture fits in to the context of your content, give it a suitable name. “A picture of the sun setting over Holyhead mountain”. Obviously this only helps if you are writing about this particular place.

Charts and graphs can also be added to increase content and authority, the more information the better your SEO will become. As with multimedia any information should be added with the correct name to show how it enhances your content.

If you have already created your website or blog, go back and rename all your media as appropriate. It make take several weeks for the crawl bots to recheck your site information. Alternatively you can request it sooner via Google search console. You will see in a short period of time following this action an increase in your web rankings. Every little helps to increase your sites authority, increasing SEO and ultimately bringing in more organic traffic.

Tools

I use wordpress to create my websites / blogs. Whichever creation tool you use there will be plugins that can help achieve better SEO. The one plugin I use is Yoast SEO, it’s great for adding written context to the media on my webpages. In fact Yoast is a good tool to help increase SEO in many different ways.

You can always embed YouTube videos into your content, it could be your own or something you have found. As long as it fits in to your web page context it should help increase it’s web authority.

Conclusion

In short each webpage you create needs to be the one place people can find answers to their particular question. If the written words along with various forms of multimedia help achieve this then you are onto a winner. Authority will increase, your web ranking will get better. It all helps to increase organic traffic, effectively optimising your SEO for you in the process.