Basic SEO Content Strategy

I was on the phone with a prospective client the other day and a familiar question came up, “How do I create search engine-friendly content?”  It’s a good question, and if you have a Web site, you should be asking it.  My answer starts with this simple, two-step search engine optimization (SEO) content strategy approach.

1. Think about how your content can help visitors move through your site
2. Make your site structure mirror that approach

Work from GENERAL to SPECIFIC; BIG to SMALL.  Search engine friendly content leads the visitor (whether it’s a reader or search engine spider) along. It both educates and directs.

An SEO content strategy block diagram looks like this:

Following this structure, your product URL might look like this:

Rather than focusing on inserting SEO keywords on pages, think big picture: Turn the whole site into a manifestation of the keywords. By approaching SEO at the strategic level you can make content the foundation of your site.

Justifying this approach

Your content should engage visitors at every part of the learning (and purchase) process. You want to do this because, depending on their “purchase intent,” visitors will arrive at different levels in the content structure.   If your content strategy addresses this, search engines will drive visitors deeper into your site to content that matches their needs. This approach has the added benefit of helping search engines understand more about your site and what relevance your content has to searchers.

In my example URL above, content about compact cars is intended to attract visitors in the research phase: the ones who know they want a compact car.  For these visitors, your job is to provide useful information about compact cars; to educate them.  If they are ready to buy, you need more in-depth content, like a product page.  Simple and straightforward, right?

Once you have your content strategy approach ironed out, you’ll need to focus on copy writing. I suggest reading Judy’s series of posts on  Writing Great Web Copy for inspiration.

Tags: content strategy, content structure, search engine optimization, search engine spider, SEO, web content, Web site copy, Website copy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Creative. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.