SEO Checklist - Part 7 - Content Optimization

To make your web pages appear on a higher position the SERP search results, you need to optimize the content of those pages. Here I will discuss the various points that you might need to keep in mind while doing this.

Let's begin.

Here is a complete and structured list of things you could do to improve the ranks of pages on your website. 

Strategy

1. Keyword cannibalization: Keyword cannibalization is one of the major issues that have a detrimental effect on search engine rankings. When multiple pages on your website are targeting exactly the same keyword, they may eventually start competing against each other. Search engines will be forced to make a choice as to which page they should display in search results, and their choice may not be the one you want. If you are already suffering from cannibalization issues, you can use a 301 redirect. But if you're not sure how to do this, we recommend that you hire an experienced professional.

It may be a good idea to keep optimizing pages that already have higher rankings for your selected keywords instead of trying to take a low ranking page to the top. Working with those higher-ranking pages may bring you better results and can save you a lot of wasted efforts and time.

SERP Features 

1. Featured Snippet: A Featured Snippet designed to satisfy users' intent is a block of text located at the top of a standard Google organic search results page that presents users with a summarized answer to their question. Earning featured snippets is already a key SEO goal, and it may become even more important in the near future. Not only does it provide an amazing opportunity to boost your webpage's visibility, but it also dramatically increases your click-through rates and traffic, and this in turn leads to a higher conversion rate.
   
   
2. Star Rating: If you add a true rating for your content by inserting the relevant markup code on your page, Google may reward you with a rich snippet that includes a row of golden stars. Getting this star rating is an amazing opportunity to make your site stand out among other search results, convince users that you are trustworthy, and, more importantly, increase your click-through rate and conversions. Please note that your aggregate rating should be calculated based on the ratings provided by your page visitors. Otherwise, it may be considered spammy.

Content

1. Use target keywords in <h1> tag: If search engines don't find your target keyword in the <h1> tag of your page, they may rank it lower than they would otherwise.
   
   
2. Use target keywords in <meta> tag: Search engines use meta descriptions to understand what your page is about. Moreover, they are displayed in search results. A compelling meta description containing keywords users search for, may increase your page's click-through rate.
   
   
3. Focus on creating more informative content: Content length correlates with quality. Search engines try to provide more information to users, and thus sites with longer content tend to win higher rankings compared to those with insufficient content. That's why it is important to make sure the content on your pages isn't too sparse.
   
   
4. Make your text content more readable: Reading online is hard. Lengthy and overly complicated texts can make users stop reading your content and click away from a page that you'd like to promote in search results. Consequently, this leads to a higher bounce rate, which will negatively affect your SEO. Because search engines are becoming more focused on user behavior, you definitely want your audience to stay on your page longer. For this reason, you should make sure that your text is easy to read. We use the Flesch-Kincaid readability score to determine the readability of your text-based content.
   
   
5. Provide a more relevant title: The ultimate goal of search engines is to provide users with the most relevant search results. As a result, if search engines consider what you provide in your <title> tag to be incomplete or irrelevant, they may decide to show a different title in their search results. Although this change shouldn’t affect your rankings, we still recommend that you review your page’s title and try rewriting it to accurately reflect your page’s content.
   
   
6. Provide a more relevant meta description: The ultimate goal of search engines is to provide users with the most relevant search results. As a result, if your meta description doesn’t meet certain requirements, search engines may decide to change it. Although this change shouldn’t affect your rankings, it may serve as an indication that your meta description doesn’t accurately reflect your page’s content and you should improve it.
   
   
7. Avoid Keyword Stuffing in <meta> tag: Repeating target keywords on your meta description too many times will result in negative user experience and can hurt your page's rankings. Search engines may also consider this technique as an attempt to manipulate your rank, and they may ban your page from search results.
   
   
8. Avoid Keyword Stuffing in the body: Repeating target keywords on your page too many times will result in negative user experience and can hurt your page's rankings. Search engines may also consider this technique as an attempt to manipulate your rank, and they may ban your page from search results.
   
   
9. <body> tag should contain target keywords: Using your target keywords in your page's body may increase your chances of ranking higher in search results. It is best to place your target keywords towards the beginning of your page.
   
   
10. Avoid keyword stuffing in <title> tag: If your page elements contain multiple duplicates of your target keyword, search engines may consider your page to be spammy, and they may penalize you for keyword stuffing. It is recommended that you use your target keyword only once in your page <title> tag.
    
    
11. <title> tag should contain target keywords: A <title> tag is a key on-page SEO element that helps search engines understand what your page is about, and users will see it in search results. A page that contains relevant keywords in its title tag has a better chance of ranking higher.
    
    
12. Avoid keyword stuffing in <h1> tag: Filling your page with multiple keyword duplicates may signal keyword stuffing and lead to both a search engine penalty and a negative user experience. It is recommended that you use your target keyword only once in your <H1> tag.
    
    
13. Optimize Video Content: Landing pages with video content tend to gain more user engagement than those without. Embedding a video on your landing page will encourage users to spend more time on it. The longer users remain on your page, the more likely it is that search engines will consider its content to be high-quality, and, in turn, reward you with higher rankings.

Semantic

Enrich your page content with semantically related words.

Your page's content shouldn't only focus on your keywords. Search engines have begun placing additional weight on related words used in page content in order to provide users with the most relevant results for a particular search term.

If compared to your rivals, some related words are not present in your page's content then try to enrich your page's content with the semantically related words.

Enriching your page's content with terms related to your target keyword can help increase your page's relevance to search engines and positively affect its rankings.

Backlinks

Earn links from more sources.

Backlinks are still considered to be one of the most important ranking factors. In order to improve your position in search results, you should consider acquiring more links from other domains. The more quality backlinks a page has, the higher the chances that search engines will give it a higher ranking.

A good strategy is to acquire backlinks from rival domains that outrank your page in the Google top 10.

Technical Issues

Make your page crawlable.

Crawlability is one of the most critical factors of search engine optimization. No matter how good your page is, it will never appear in search results if it cannot be accessed by search engines.

That is why it is very important to make sure that pages with useful content are not blocked from being crawled.

For the best result, one may use the SEMrush On-Page SEO Checker tool.