A checklist for optimizing content
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We’ve been talking a lot recently about strategies for creating new content and updating old stuff.
The next step is doing the things. Making changes to articles. Moving words around. This issue of the newsletter has some specifics on how to do that.
We created an action item checklist to get you started. Make a copy for yourself. (You can even slap your own logo at the top and look extra-smart to your clients.)
This checklist is all about alignment.
Alignment? That’s kind of a vague buzzword, isn’t it?
🌈 What we mean by “alignment”
Using consistent language and structure across every element of a blog page – meta-tags, headings, visuals, etc… that’s what we mean by alignment.
The elements that we recommend aligning:
- Page heading (H1 tag)
- URL
- Page title
- Meta description
- Subheads (H2, H3, H4…)
Every component serves a unique purpose. When all components of a page have a shared point of focus, the page as a whole is more coherent.
For example: Headings and subheads help a person make sense of your written content. It’s even easier for them when those headings use consistent terminology (ie. keywords). Formatting that content (with h-tags) streamlines the process, too. It makes a page’s structure more visually clear.
This is helpful for the people reading your blog and the search engine crawlers
ranking your blog.
Bonus: when a reader (or search crawler) has an easy time understanding what you’re writing about, they’ll attribute it to you being really smart and helpful and trustworthy!
🏄🏼 What you can do
You can get started aligning your content today. Here’s how.
1️⃣ Make a copy of the action items checklist.
2️⃣ Choose a blog page from your site to optimize. (Hopefully, you’ve prioritized certain pages for optimization ahead of others. We’ve got some recommendations for how to build that strategy.)
3️⃣ Copy the content from your chosen page (including hyperlinks and images) and paste it in a simple text document. You could even paste it on the template, beneath the checklist.
4️⃣ Identify a keyword that you want to target before you start optimizing the page.
5️⃣ With your keyword in mind, start at the top of the checklist and work your way down.
Some action items on the list are based on ‘best practices’. For example: a 60-character limit in page titles. Others are purely subjective, like the suggestion to include your brand name at the end of every page title.
If you disagree with any item, go ahead and delete it from the template. Add a few others according to your own style guide.
After all, this is your checklist now.
xoxo, Ercule
