Before starting to write your website content, it’s expected that you’re already done researching and selecting the ‘right keywords.’ Then you’re also ready with a subject to write. But you have to take note of one more thing: making your content searchable. So now, here are some of the steps to start writing findable content:

Structuring content

Without a structure, your article will just fall flat both to search engines and your website visitors. A structure is necessary to help your audience find the information they’re actually looking for. Who would read your article that’s only made up of big chunks of text with no paragraphs, headings and even a good title?

Readers and search engines will appreciate it even more when you publish quality content that follows appropriate and correct structure. A smart content adopts structure to help your visitors read your article better.

The first thing that we’ll do to add structure to your content, and what many believe to be the easiest, is through headings. Headings are like guideposts that will help your readers take a quick glance for relevant information. In other words, headings are effective in properly showing the order or hierarchy of your content. Search engines do not ignore your h1 and h2 for nothing.

Another useful approach is using bold for important elements of your content. Use bold format to hint your readers when a text is important. Strong and bold tags have the same weight in Google, however.

Lists, which have its own intrinsic SEO value, is another eye-catching way that you can employ to structure your texts. Readers want to be guided and lists that break up big chunks of text give the impression that readers will be up for some easy reading.

Don’t forget that pictures! You’ll often hear this advice from SEO experts and from books about search engine optimization. For your readers, your content will appear to be more appealing than a content sans pictures, isn’t it? Not only will you get extra visitors to your content via Google Image Search, your prospect of ranking higher in search engines will also rise if you know how to optimize your images. Provide alt-text to the images that you are going to publish as well.

Aside from the use of generic anchor text (e.g., ‘this article,’ ‘here’), providing internal links is a helpful strategy to bring more visitors to your content. To do this, use keywords from the content and provide links on certain subject or topic.

Moreover, make your content visible above the fold of your website. There are plenty of reasons why you should give importance to this technique. You don’t want to give your visitors some headache scrolling several inches down your page just to read the beginning of your content, right? When Google noticed the cries of users about ads they come in the way of content, the search giant started penalizing websites where the topmost part is ads-laden. Still, it’s a matter your webmaster or your company can decide on. But don’t say we didn’t remind you.

Keyword Placement

The right keywords play an important role in making your content rank. In the digital era, you can no longer be purist about being strongly opposed to SEO activities. When you publish your content on your website, certain parts of your web page will automatically be subjected under the scrutiny of search engines.

Use selected keywords in some key elements of your content to increase your page rank:

• URL
• Title
• Headings
• Images
• First paragraph or near the top of the page

It is also expected of you to use the keyword several times in your content article aside from the elements already mentioned above. Abusive use of keywords is bad so to avoid being too redundant, try looking for synonyms.

Another best practice to use to make your content rank is by using keywords in a natural way. Keyword density or the ratio how often a keyword has been used may be one such tactics you’ll encounter along the way. But it takes some trial and error before you can master using keyword density.

Black hat SEO is an absolute no-no because it will only lead you to more trouble. So don’t employ keyword stuffing to trick Google.

Unique Website Content

The advantages of making your content unique include helping you readers find useful information they need. Second, your content will become more findable as search engines strive to provide readers with the most relevant pages for a search query.

But don’t confuse unique with unique value, which are two different matters. You can have a very unique article but that content’s value may not be as high as you might have imagined. Remember that your role as a content writer is to solve people’s problems. So if you think your content helps solve a user’s dilemma, then we can assume you’ve created a unique value.

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But why some are still not seeing the hidden gems of social media? One obvious reason is fear. There is fear that ROI is hard to quantify or achieve if you have a short-term goal of recouping all your investments in social media marketing. Another cause of worry is the question of whether it is more beneficial to engage their own workforce in social media or to leave such engagements to social media experts or third-party service providers. Of course, the longer you dwell on the questions than on answers, there’s some obvious opportunities loss.

Connected consumers

But before we resolve that, let’s first talk about customers. Who they are, what technologies do they use, and what keep them engaged using different social media channels are just a few of the questions to ask when we contemplate social media marketing. Knowing the answers are important because we will deal with customer engagement on a fairly consistent basis.

Doing social media on your own, your company will first need to align your organization’s engagement strategy with your customers’ expectations. Usually there is no wrong or right way of doing your own planning or implementation of your broader marketing program, but there’s a trial-and-error phase to deal with.

Some reality check

Admit that your organization may not immediately have the capabilities or know-how to effectively deploy and leverage social marketing. If you are a small or medium-sized startup, you may be better off hiring an outside company who specializes in brand marketing and social media.

The agreement between your company and your contractor will largely depend on the degree of control you are willing to concede to a social media company, not to mention the frequency of engagement required, and the desired results, to say the least. So for both parties to benefit from the agreement, the service provider is expected to be more transparent in what it can deliver, extent of what it can only deliver and those important concerns that will be beneficial to both parties.

To evaluate whether or not you need the help of an outside company, it is a must that you evaluate your strategy on top of what you already have in-house (e.g., required resources, capabilities, etc.) to handle the social media overhead on your own. Are you willing to invest in developing your own team via trial-and-error over a period of time? Or you would prefer tapping into these skills by the outright acquisition of or signing a contract to let a third party do the job?

Consider also

What’s at stake when you finally decide to get an outside company or a social media outsourcing provider? Make sure that all parties know your concerns: your company’s reputation. Whoever you select to be your contractor and have signed an agreement on to lead your social media must be informed that you have a reputation that you protect. Your additional online exposure will either make or break your reputation, so make sure you are clear about this.

Who would want a tarnished reputation, eh? So to stop or at least diminish the possibility of having your online reputation fall like a cookie crumbs, make sure that you have conducted due diligence efforts on the agency or social media company who you will engaged. Ask for your service providers to enlighten you with their credentials, portfolio of real life case studies to their current and former clients, and their proven track record in mounting campaigns relative to social media.

You could customize and agree on a service level agreements that will let the service provider select staff on board during the the design and delivery phases of your social media marketing campaigns. Hence, delegation of social media efforts must be done with careful thinking.

Now, that ROI

The successful undertaking of your social media strategy with the help of an outside company or agency can expect a return on investment (ROI) and that’s for sure. A well-executed strategy will reinforce your company’s brand to your target customers, which can then lead to a much improved top and bottom lines. When your customers find your brand messaging resonates to these people’s “inner values,” you can take a sigh of relief, because man, you just successfully built a relationship with your customers.

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