Beginner’s SEO Checklist For Content Marketing Campaigns

Digital marketing best practices have evolved tremendously over the years, but one thing will always remain true: optimized content reigns supreme. Nearly every business owner, blogger, digital marketer and tech-savy person is well aware that the most effective campaigns are unique, relevant and share-worthy for a targeted audience or demographic. What fewer Webmasters know is that the secret sauce for a successful content marketing campaign truly lies in how it is intercepted and understood by the search engines.

I've written about best content SEO practices before, before, but here is a friendly reminder in case you missed it: "optimization" is just a fancy word that refers to the act of formatting a website or piece of content so that search engines can understand it. Although there are a few similarities, (like reading left-to-right for example) Google's indexing robots read content differently than humans do. Instead, they require a certain set of information and on-page formatting to fully comprehend the message and value behind it.

Whether you’re developing a new blog entry or static landing page, implementing the following on-page SEO checkpoints is an absolute must. (If you want anyone to see your content, that is!)

Despite seeming obvious, you'd be amazed at how many people neglect to implement a well-researched, unique title on every page or post of their website -- and it hurts them, big time. Title Tags are arguably one of the most important on-page optimization techniques, as this is the very first thing a search engine reads when visiting any piece of content and this will set a level of expectation for what the copy will be about.

The first 70 characters of the Title Tag will show up in Google Search and therefore deserves dedicated keyword research to ensure that you are targeting a phrase that is both highly searched yet low in competition in a given set of geographic locations. Every single page, post or other type of on-page content should have specific Title Tags that are all unique. This is not only to diversify the keyword phrases associated with your campaign, but also to ensure the search engines don't penalize you for duplicated content.

Despite ranking second in importance to Title Tags, META Descriptions are still an important SEO checklist item to remember. Similar to the title, this snippet of content also shows up in Google's search engines and therefore should include keyword-rich copy to secure the best page ranking possible. The META Description should be 1-2 uniquely written, full sentences that briefly summarize what the piece of content is about.

PRO TIP: Businesses looking for their phone to start ringing would also be wise to include their company's phone number in the META Description, too. This ensures that Google also indexes the information, associating the phone number with your brand online.

Those with any WordPress experience under their belt are almost certainly familiar with Header Tags, but few know what they actually do, other than adjusting the size of a headline without any HTML coding. Yes, it is true that altering text from Header 1 to Header 2 will adjust the font size, but it also has SEO implications. Just because you want the headline to stylistically be larger or smaller doesn't necessarily mean you also want to change the significance the search engines place upon it.

Keep in mind that Google's indexing robots utilize Header Tags as a means of organizing any set of content and understanding the desired order in which it should be read.

In today's fast-paced digital world, plain-text content just doesn’t cut it anymore. Not only is it boring, but it doesn't help a business or brand stand out from the competition. This ultimately causes the campaign's message and ROI-driver to fall upon deaf ears or worse, missed entirely.

The most effective content marketing collateral utilize a healthy, balanced mix of textual copy, imagery and video. While verbiage of some kind is a given, it is the latter two that really help a campaign shine (and convert). Adding these elements to your content is one thing, however. Without optimizing visual media, your website's load speed time and SEO value can be significantly impacted.

As a rule of thumb, all imagery and video content added to a campaign should be compressed which will greatly help with page load times. (I personally use this site for video and this one for images, in case you were wondering.) Lastly, don't forget to properly name your files and include an image or video ALT Tag so the search engines can understand what it is.

On-page linking structure is another important SEO technique that is often ignored or implemented incorrectly. There are a few ways one can make the most of internal and external content links:

1. Every page, post or piece of content on a website should have a navigation menu in the header and footer featuring links to key landing pages throughout the website. Don't forget that search engines read left-to-right: order your navigation menu pages according to importance for best results.

2. Links within copy are also a good idea, but don't overdo it. Ideally, you should include roughly 1-3 linked anchor phrases pointing to a mixture of internal and external URLs. Two things to remember here: first, do not link to the same URL twice within a piece of content (Google will negate the value of both) and always point users to a new tab when using external links.

Whether conducting research or looking to make a purchase decision, people search the Internet to do something. No matter how beautiful, flashy or compelling a piece of content is, the effort will never be profitable if it doesn't prompt users to engage and connect with a business or brand in a revenue-producing way. Examples include:

1. "Request A Proposal"
2. "Get A Price Quote"
3. "View Our Portfolio"
4. "Sign Up For Our Newsletter"
5. "Book An Event"
6. "Make A Reservation"

There aren't any hard rules when it comes to which calls to action are used, but the most effective are strategically placed throughout all promotional content and ordered in terms of significance to the brand's overall bottom line or campaign objective.

Be sure to have Google Analytics installed, which will provide some overarching idea of how a piece of content is performing. The more data you track, the more you know but keep in mind: not all metrics are created equal and it is really easy to get lost amongst the trees and miss the entire forest. Decide before launching a campaign what its most vital data points are and keep focused on measuring those from start to finish to avoid getting distracted by unimportant numbers and percentages.