SEO Skills for Different Types of Content in 2023
SEO is one of the very effective marketing strategies that is being followed, but one shall stay up to date with the present SEO practices and standards. Here are SEO skills for different types of content.
SEO skills involve optimizing different types of 2content. Since content could be text, images, video, infographics, and so on. Also, consider that content is consumed on different gadgets and platforms.
Now, do you have a question in your mind “Are SEO skills the same for different types of content consumed on a variety of platforms and gadgets?”
Think, the user who enters their query in the google search bar may not ask specifically for an infographic image, however, their answer may be in that infographic. How then will that infographic image appear in their search result? Read further to find whether or not SEO skills are different for various types of content.
SEO skills for a variety of content essentially serve the same purpose. To put it simply, they help make the information appear in the search result consistently based on the keywords the content is built upon. SEO tells the search engine what the information is about.
In this article, you will read
- Meaning of SEO
- How search engine works
- Different types of SEO content
- SEO skills for types of content
So, Let’s begin.
Meaning of SEO: If you are a beginner and don’t know what is SEO, then relax and read further to know.
SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. It involves optimizing your content for keywords that any user may enter in the search engine address bar. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are search engines where people may look for information.
Content is the information that you get through the search result. This could be text, images, maps, illustrations, infographics, video, and audio. Keywords are those words users type in the Google search bar. They are the same subject matter keywords that your content is based on.
Optimizing content for a search engine is a technique used to build traffic to your website. The purpose of optimizing content is to ensure the visibility of your content through the information overload on the internet, for your specific keywords.
This involves a series of techniques used to optimize various types of content on the internet. These techniques have a direct correlation to the search engine algorithms that detect new information, discrepancies, spam, and the most relevant information.
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1. Search Engine Result Page (SERP)
Search engine algorithms are powerful because they crawl, index, and rank the content on the entire internet. Based on this content discovery, the search engine gives an output to your query like an answering machine.
People look for products, services, expertise, or information on the internet. There could be various questions or phrases that a user could write or voice search in the search engine for various products and services.
For example, a person may search for “Pet shop near me” (local SEO). So, when a pet parent searches a pet shop near me, your web page should appear on the search engine results page (SERP).
However, you may wish your website to display first on the first page. Most people rarely look beyond the first page, unless they are comparing information or don’t get what they had been looking for.
To achieve this, you need to optimize your content using techniques that give a signal to the search engines about the subject matter. These techniques are search engine optimization or SEO skills and techniques.
2.How search engine works:
Search engines detect information on the search result page that was relevant to you for your specific question. This way, the search engines detect multiple such data to decide the relevance of the content. How many users view the content, what is the time duration of content viewing, social media shares of the content, and such information is collected by search engines.
Blog articles educate the user looking for information and introduces your product or expertise to them. Such articles on web pages are optimized so that your website or article becomes visible to people searching for the same information.
What are search engine crawlers?
Companies, experts, and individuals put up information/opinions on the internet, and search engines deliver that information to you based on your question. Therefore, search engines are like answering machines. More so with the increasing popularity of voice search in recent years.
When your website is submitted to the google search console only then the website is indexed by the search engine. This content on the internet is detected by search engine crawls and indexed by search engines periodically.
Crawling refers to the process when search engines scan the internet for any new information on any URL on the world wide web. New content in any format, be it an image or video is discovered by search engine robots called crawlers or spiders.
What is the meaning of search engine indexing?
New content found by crawlers, is organized and stored in the index database.
Think of the old subject catalog cabinet in university libraries and you will get the idea. Indexing is done by search engines mainly based on your content subject matter. After this process is complete, your content is ready for display on the search engine result page.
Because of search engine optimization techniques used in your content, Google can detect what your content is about. If your content has been optimized according to a checklist of best SEO practices, this gradually helps the ranking of your content to increase.
More traffic from various demographics gives a signal to the search engine that the content is relevant. The most relevant content ranks highest and appears first on the first page. This way over some time your content can feature on the first page of the search engine result page.
It takes a series of SEO best practices on your content combined with significant traffic on your website to make your website credible.
In the Search engine result page, only the highly relevant content is displayed at the top of the first page and the rest are displayed in descending order of relevance.
Google is the most popular search engine as nearly 90% of the world’s internet users use Google to search for information. YouTube is also Google property apart from google images and googles maps. About 20% of internet users use Bing, Yahoo, and the remaining search engines.
What are search engine algorithms?
Neil Patel says, “The word ‘algorithm’ refers to the logic-based, step-by-step procedure for solving a particular problem.”
The ranking of any content is based on a search engine algorithm. In simple language, these could include certain parameters based on which the relevance is decided. Algorithms also detect spam and other activities to maintain quality in search results.
Updating and tweaking of the algorithm are done by Google regularly. Sometimes the changes are not visible and Google does not reveal all updates to the public. In the initial years, there were few updates in the algorithm and people tricked tactics in SEO that are against quality guidelines.
However, since the last decade, there have been regular and sometimes daily updates in the algorithm. To maintain quality in user experience, algorithms are strictly monitored by search engines.
High Impact Algorithms
Google Panda:
In 2010, google noticed increased low-quality content on the web. Intending to do good, google came up with the Panda algorithm in 2011 to tackle issues. This algorithm was a great step to make web searches effective and useful.
This algorithm assigns a “Quality score” to web pages used for ranking. It rewards high-quality content that helps users and people keep coming back to it for its real value.
Google is increasingly aware of user experience and ensures this through its algorithm. In-depth research, thoughtful analysis, and reports were given weightage.
Google’s Vice-President of Engineering, Ben Gomes said, “our goal is to get you the exact answer you’re searching for faster.”
Penguin
This algorithm by Google down ranks websites that have irrelevant backlinks. Artificially manipulating site ranking by spam backlinks was tackled. It looks for specific words on the web pages.
It follows Google’s basic principles to maintain the quality on the web. This algorithm tackles Black Hat spamming techniques.
Hummingbird
Keyword stuffing and low-quality content are addressed by the Hummingbird algorithm. It attempts to match searchers’ intent with content even if the keywords are not matching because it uses semantic indexing and synonyms.
This led to better keyword research practices. It meant content to give conceptual information that covers background information as well. So even if your content does not have the same keyword as mentioned in the user’s query, your content could appear in the search result if it is related to the same topic area.
Mobile
A very large number of internet users use mobile smartphones, it makes a better user experience to have websites that are customized for mobile screens. Having a mobile version greatly helps traffic. Speed of site and usability are factors that optimize your page.
Mobilegeddon algorithm introduced by google made an official culture shift from desktop to mobile. Google started indexing the mobile version of the content. Desktop content and mobile content had to be the same for traffic and rank. If there are differences in the content on both layouts then google bot or google robots could index your content differently.
RankBrain
This algorithm uses machine learning to understand user intent by co-relating various factors related to search and then gives the most relevant SERP. Context of search and machine learning were major key developments with RankBrain.
Related topics based on your search intent along with in-depth authoritative information are possible because of Rankbrain. This has also impacted SEO techniques.
Writing content with real value to the user will build a website reputation in your niche topic. RankBrain then recognizes your website as a reliable source of information for particular and related subject areas.
Recognizing natural language and a variety of search keywords in the subject area became possible after the onset of the RankBrain algorithm. Other significant algorithms are Medic, Bert, and Core updates
3.What are the different types of SEO content?
Web content is for users and not for search engines. The purpose of search engines is to serve users with information, products, services, and expertise. Search engine companies like Google aspire to add real value to society at large.
SEO helps to reach this goal. It brings the required information to the users when they search for it on the search engines.
For the search engine to identify what the content is about, it has to be suitably optimized. So, consider users need information on different levels of depth and scope with their customized perspectives.
This is when intelligent machine learning algorithms of search engines evaluate the user intent and match the world wide web to present the search result to its user.
Content on the web is created to match the requirements of users and solve their problems. To serve this purpose any content on the web is optimized so that search engines come to that web page and show it to the user searching it.
Product pages:
These could be any type of product ranging from grocery to movies. But the essence is, it is e-commerce when products are purchased online.
Such product companies require to create brand awareness on multiple platforms and through email marketing. Entertaining and persuasive content that creates leads and ultimately users go through the sales funnel.
Blog posts:
Blog posts can serve a variety of purposes. It can give insights, educate, inform, persuade, or even entertain. Blogs can be in-depth well-researched articles. They can be travelogues that serve as a helpful guide for planning travel.
Blogs could be listicles that present information in a list form. For example 10 ways to or 5 reasons why. These kinds of listicles are attractive and get clicks. The information too is presented in a format that can be easily digested by the reader.
Videos:
They are a very popular form of content in recent times. Videos could be watched on the go. They have various elements that entertain and engage the users at a surface level.
Reading content requires more engagement through comprehension, imagination, and digesting abstract ideas. Videos replace this deeper engagement with a lighter level of engagement. Moreover, videos could be quick pieces of information.
Videos could supplement the textual content. There are specific techniques to optimize videos. Think of YouTube searches and result pages for your query. SEO skills for YouTube are a little different from any other content SEO.
Infographics:
Infographics have content in images represented through illustrations and graphs. They get shared on social media or could be used in presentations etc.
Infographics are packed with complex information, presented in an easily digestible or fun format. They are great content, get tons of views, and can take your content to the next level. There are tools like Canva for creating infographics. Now the question is how to optimize infographics? Let’s find these answers in the next segment below.
So, you get the gist, that any change in content format would need a rethink for SEO skills and techniques. For example; e-mail marketing, audio files, podcasts, images, and presentations.
4. SEO skills for different types of content
Keyword research, keyword optimization, content organization, content promotion, are some common SEO skills that you must have irrespective of content format or type.
An important SEO skill is Newsjacking. It is good to know the pulse of the audience. Local culture or target audience culture gives a clue to what ticks and latch on to the latest trends.
For example; an approaching festival or significant examination result time creates trends based on these events. People might look for a particular range of products during these times. Similarly, for national and international events that impact users, an SEO-skilled content writer, and digital marketing specialist will create timely updates for these event-related searches.
On-page SEO
SEO includes on-page optimization, creating content around well-researched focus keywords, and being attentive to meta tags. Doing dedicated keyword research for high search volume, low competition keywords, right keyword density in content and comprehensive in-depth content depending on context are key ingredients for SEO success.
- Looking for readability
- Grammar checks including active voice
- Creating great catchy headlines
- Organizing content with bullet points
- Plagiarism checks
- Quotes by relevant authorities and thought leaders
These are some factors that will make your posts read-worthy and appealing. Pay attention to focus keyword, SEO title, headings and sub-headings, meta description, and tags. Google algorithm detects all of these for considering your content of any value.
A small but valuable key to visibility is giving related focus keyword names to image files. Image searches on google are sometimes a lead to good content discovery. Create great images and share them on social media like Pinterest. Answer the public and related searches are great for sub-headings in your content.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is another important factor for SERP. Conduct a website SEO audit to look for any area that needs attention. Website SEO audit tools will help identify these areas. Your website’s backend structure and architecture are significant for content discovery and indexing by Google bots.
Accessing search engines on mobiles is the new culture in present times which you can’t ignore. Having the same desktop content as mobile content is significant for SEO. Content can be responsive to the mobile screen. Keep a great content architecture for easy accessibility for users and search engine crawls.
Site speed refers to how quickly your website loads and this relates to a good user experience. You may not want the user to back off and jump to another website before your website loads. Selecting a catchy and relevant domain name with great efficient hosting is important in the long term.
Off-page SEO
Have your content on other sites as guest content. Guest-generated content is also a good option for getting backlinks to your website. Backlinks help search engines and users discover your website. Create a social media presence for brand discovery and influence.
You could use backlink checker tools to analyze competitor’s backlinks to their website and content. This will give you an idea of which sites to target for creating backlinks. The Alexa Overlap tool will get you informed of the exact audience your competitors are targeting. Make use of guest blogging opportunities to reach a larger audience.
Now let’s look at different types of content and SEO related to them.
SEO skills for Long-form Content:
For a lengthy well-researched blog article, great keyword research is the first step to find the focus keyword. Creating a long tail keyword that has a feel of natural user question is the next step.
Searches related to, answer the public, all the headings including title are important. Believe me, the h1 is most important for the user for clickbait. Create your content in comprehensive wide scope but in-depth information that adds value to the reader.
Have a good off-page SEO and call to action button especially if it is an E-book or PDF. In the case of E-books research on chapter headings and other parts of a book. If possible, have an authority write a foreword. Create a paid campaign or great SEO for social media promotions and backlinks.
Create a schema mark-up search-engine-friendly title tag. Have a clean URL for your content posts. Create outbound and inbound links.
Do not ignore semantic keywords or synonyms similar to your focus keyword. Long-tail keywords that you get in related searches on google could be synonymous with your focus keyword. Include those. Have a clear, attractive meta description with focus keywords.
SEO skills for Audio content:
I have noticed creating audio content is on the rise in 2020. Google podcasts search bar will provide you with the desired podcast. The name of the person + podcast will fetch the result.
According to HubSpot, podcast series with a lot of short episodes with quality audio and titles that align with queries will be searchable and popular. The podcast units have a series title, episode title, and a description that can be optimized. The titles are simple and the descriptions are keyword rich.
There can be segments within the episodes. These are early times of Audio SEO as per HubSpot. Voice searches on a google search are also picking up tremendously especially with the younger generation who have the quintessential Bluetooth speakers on their head/ neck most of the time.
SEO Skills for Video:
Video format marketing of content is already very popular with audiences in 2020. Think of Flipkart and Urban Ladder video to get the idea. Affiliate marketing has also given rise to influencers making YouTube videos with unboxing/reviews in them. The call to action is an affiliate link in the description box.
Keyword research tools have a YouTube search option that gives all results similar to keywords for google search. Videos have the title, description, tags for optimizing. Besides, video content must have the focus keywords. Additional tactics include inserting cards and adding elements that promote your other videos and having a subscribe button for joining the community.
SEO skills for Images and Infographics:
Images and infographics matter a lot for content engagement. Infographics that have mind maps or complex topics self-explain them in a fun and simpler way.
Designing infographics has become easier for content creators because of tools like Canva. Content of images and infographics cannot be read by google so you must optimize them by adding keywords as file names.
Compress images so that the web page loads fast. Photos should be of good quality. Have descriptive titles, captions, and filenames for images. Images must have Alt text, don’t leave them empty.
Abilities of an SEO professional
- Ability to question and analyze.
- SEO professionals are alert at what task they are doing and why they are doing it.
- Ability to write SEO-compliant material.
- An SEO professional not only writes optimized content but also guides others and attends client meetings.
- Ability to familiarize and adapt to selected technical concepts and jargon.
- Knowing how to decode google analytics data helps in writing better content.
Content writing has a very important role to play in SEO
Conclusion:
Nobody is born with SEO skills, and so SEO skills can be learned. It is also over some time that one learns what works and what doesn’t. What is more important is that an SEO content writer stays updated with search engine trends and be adaptable. Subscribe to authority newsletters, read google support information, network with fellow content writers and content marketers.
