Consistently producing new content is necessary for a good SEO content marketing strategy. However, as you know, not every content piece is successful. So, do all of your older, unsuccessful blogs just have to sit there and collect dust?
No! Take advantage of your existing content!
Transforming your failed content into gold is possible with the right keyword research and re-optimization.
What is Content Optimization? A Short Overview
Content optimization ensures that your content reaches as many users as possible. It is the continuous process that helps your blogs become discoverable in your target search engine results pages.
At content optimization’s core is keywords. A blog should be focused on a target keyword and a small set of related keywords. For example, “Do I need rehab?”. This keyword should be in your content, metadata, alt text, and internal links in places where it makes sense.
But remember: Google is smart.
It knows if you are ‘keyword stuffing’, or in other words, fitting in your target keyword anywhere and everywhere you can, even where it doesn’t make sense. Ensure that your blog is first and foremost readable. The user’s experience always comes before optimization.
There are many other aspects of keyword optimization, so let’s dive into how you can apply those to your older blogs and increase your Organic traffic.
How Do I Optimize Older Content?
There are several ways to improve your site via Healthcare content marketing and SEO. However, the first step of optimizing your older blogs is evaluating your posts’ value.
Evaluating Your Content Collection
First, in order to take advantage of low-hanging fruit, identify the content pieces that are ranking on the second or third page. These pieces will be easier to give a quick boost to since they already are ranking for their target keyword.
Next, to make this easier for ourselves, find your longest content pieces.
Your piece of content is far more likely to rank if its word count is over 1,000 words. So, narrow down the longest content pieces that aren’t ranking well so that you don’t have to write additional content.
For example, our blog titled Mental Illness in Today’s Society is ranking on the third page for our target keyword. This blog has a word count of 1,016 words, which is enough length for us to work with without adding to it. Since it was written in 2018, it needs some updating!
Let’s Get to Optimizing This Existing Content!
To start, let’s focus on target keywords. In some cases your target keyword will be clear right off the bat, like in our previously mentioned example. Other times, your older blogs are targeting the wrong keyword, or are not targeting any keywords at all.
Choosing the Right Keywords to Target
We want to choose a keyword based on (in this order):
- The relevance of the keyword to your blog’s topic.
- If it is a long-tail keyword, and not too broad in meaning.
- How competitive the keyword is
- Search volume, how many people search this keyword per month
It is crucial that you choose a keyword that is obtainable. If we were to target the keyword “mental health”, we would have a very low chance of ranking well. This keyword has a very high keyword difficulty, and is much too short-tail.
Long-tail keywords, like “mental health in today’s society”, help narrow down your audience to the right users that will have a low bounce rate. In addition, they are much easier to rank for and allow you to target more related keywords.
Search volume is important, of course, but don’t get stuck on only using high-volume keywords despite their difficulty. Targeting low-volume keywords can increase conversions by bringing in more relevant users, as well as bringing down the difficulty, just like long-tail keywords.
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Existing Content Optimization Techniques
Now that we know what our main keyword is, let’s start optimizing your existing content and targeting that keyword correctly.
Content
The content itself should include its target keyword several times. Do a ‘command F’ search to ensure that your keyword is mentioned. In our example blog, it was only mentioned once, in the H1 heading.
As a result, we added this keyword into the content about 3-4 more times. It is important that the keyword and its related keywords show up at least a couple of times in the headings, especially H2 headings.
Metadata
Next, we move on to metadata. Metadata is the title and description of your page within the search engine results page. Both the meta title and the meta description should include the keyword, as well as a call-to-action. The call-to-action is important because it invites the user to click on the link, and gives them that extra push.
In our case, Google is choosing to not display our meta description. This happens often, and there is not really another choice other than changing your meta description, and optimizing it differently.
We edited our meta description to include our keyword, as well as a call-to-action. A meta title should not be longer than 50 characters, and a meta description should never be longer than 160 characters.
It also always helps when your slug, or the last part of your URL, includes your keyword. Please ensure that you have a redirection in place, however, if you are going to do this step.
Links
Let’s evaluate links. Our post links out to external sources three times, which is exactly where it should be, given that it is an informational article. Make sure your posts link out to a credible external source at least once.
However, our blog does not have any internal links. Linking to other relevant pages on your site is a great way to boost keyword ranking on your blog, those pages, and increase traffic to those pages.
Images
Finally, let’s take a look at images and the user experience of your blog. Your blog should always have a featured image. Every image has something called ‘alt text’, which is the text that visually imparied users get read to them that describes the image. It is best practice to include alt text, and to try to include your keyword in this alt text.
It is also important to try to include an additional image or graphic in order to keep the user engaged. SEO for drug rehabs, and all Healthcare centers, is focused on providing peace of mind to the user, and including more images helps provide more visuals and information.
MGMT Digital Can Help with Content Optimization - And Beyond!
Content optimization not only takes skill, but it is extremely time-consuming. We understand that you want to focus on your business, and not worry about implementing existing content optimization techniques. That’s where we come in!
MGMT Digital is a boutique digital marketing agency that is well-experienced and passionate about all things marketing and helping others. While we primarily focus on addiction treatment marketing, our clients span across Healthcare and beyond. Get in touch with us today for a free audit of your website!
