5 Hacks to Optimise Any Piece of Content for SEO

So you got a piece of content of any kind, and you want to optimise for search engines. Then you will be happy to know that it is much easier than you think.

Now that content is the king, knowing how to code or complicated strategies that only an IT expert could implement aren’t as much necessary to achieve a successful SEO strategy. So, yes, you will be able to see your content on the first page of Google Search if you just do what it takes.

And what it takes is what we are going to discuss below by presenting five hacks that you can use to optimise any piece of content.

# 1 – Optimise your headings

Yes, it is plural. It is not only your title that you must optimise. It is also your subheadings and any other sentence that stands out your content for design reasons – I mean, their fonts is likely to be bigger, bold, italic, or in a different colour. And it is because the eyes of your visitor will be driven exactly to that direction, as a most obvious reason.

The a-bit-less-obvious reason is that the heading is what give people the answer to the question “should I waste my time reading it?”. And it is crucial for you that they say yes if you want to increase your traffic and conversions. And your subheading will keep them reading until the end – so you got the point.

Also, remember some simple but relevant rules. There is only one H1 in your content, and that is it. You can have multiples H2, H3, and H4 if you like and need, but hierarchy should be respected – meaning that you go smaller as you create subtopics, not new topics.

# 2 – Invest your time in the SERP

You probably already know that you should create a specific SERP to each one of your pages and posts. That it should include a title tag and a meta description filled with the right keywords. And you are right about it.

But I bet you don’t spend more than one minute doing it. And that after you publish it, you never get back to it again. But it couldn’t be more wrong. If your content isn’t performing as well as it should, you must consider updating your SERP.

It is especially important when the number of impressions is high in your Google Analytics, but the CTR is low – meaning that people see your SERP, but it isn’t compelling enough to make them click on it.

# 3 – Add synonyms and related phrases

Keywords have been the primary concern of anyone trying to optimise a piece of content so far. And it is still truth as most search engines will rely on them to index content and to decide what show in their results.

But you should also know that search engines are getting smarter and that they are getting capable of understanding that people might use different words to say the same thing. As a consequence, synonyms and related words or phrases are also starting to be used as a reference.

That is to say that you should expand your keyword list so to include them. And it actually is very good news, as you will never fail again on the keyword density criteria – words with the same meaning will do the same trick for you.

# 4 – Rename and resize your files and images

Here is something that many people ignore. The name of your files and images are as important as your visible content because search engines crawl them as well. So make sure that you create them with meaningful keywords so Google Search will know what your image or file is about in no time.

You also don’t want that your images and files compromise the speed of your website or blog. So make sure that you upload them in the size that you will actually use. And compress it until the point when you don’t compromise the quality.

As a last note, bear in mind how important your visual resources are so don’t waste the opportunity. Only upload videos and images that will add value to your content, and ensure that are just like what your target audience like to see and hear.

# 5 – Optimise your categories

Categories are something poorly taken care when it comes to online content. You will create them just because they are there, but it is very likely that you will be spending much time considering what to write there. But the fact is that many websites rank well on Google Search due to their category system.

The thing here is ensuring that the category name has a strong keyword on it. This way it will be crawled as any other item of your page would be. As a consequence, you should avoid being too creative or adding info that doesn’t meet the name (a “Reviews” categories should only have reviews pages or posts in it). And you should choose categories names that people (and search engines) have to think to discover what they find there – they should be self-explanatory.

You will also want to think well about how you will distribute your content so your categories will make sense. You don’t want that some categories end up with 100 posts or pages, while others have only two or three.

The bottom line

The number of SEO hacks that you can find is significant. But the five suggestions above will give you a head start in front of your competitors, so make the most of them. They are very easy to master, and you won’t need to allocate any extra money to implement them – what is even better.

On the other hand, they will require of you some extra effort and time. You will need to improve what you are doing and keep a constant eye on your analytics so you will know that you on the right path.

Still, it will worth every minute, so start working on it today. Your SEO strategy will shine and so will your traffic and conversions.