14 Tips for Creating SEO-friendly Content

You already know how much work goes into optimizing your e-commerce website for search. You also understand that success in search rankings is not going to happen overnight. Despite having to play the long game with search, many e-commerce companies have found that keeping active on their websites helps speed up this process.

While Google is not always as upfront as we would like them to be about what factors influence site rankings, we do know that positive website growth is one of them. This means that you should publish a steady stream of content on your site and that content should be relevant and valuable to your target audience. Granted, creating content takes some work, but it does not need to be as cumbersome as you might think.

The key to succeeding in the content-marketing game is to use your time and efforts wisely. This means automating certain parts of the process and then dedicating your whole-hearted attention to others.

Consider these 14 tips a crash course on how to develop a content-marketing strategy process for your e-commerce business.

1. Create a content marketing strategy that defines everything: your brand’s voice, personality, style, and preferred subject matter.
2. Define your content creation process. It should look something like this: Research + Write + Edit + SEO.
3. Create a calendar that defines how many pieces of content to create each week as well as which days and times you will publish the new content. Also, factor in how often you want to update the rest of your site (as needed, of course).
4. Focus on quality over quantity. Your audience wants meaningful content instead of meaningless fluff. If you only have time for two posts instead of four a month, make them count.
5. Know the facts. Check your analytics to see which type of your content performs best and then aim to deliver more of it.
6. Don’t be afraid to trendjack. If you see something in the news or on social that is trending and can be tied back to your business, products, or services, use it as inspiration. This will keep your content aligned with what your consumers want.
7. Never create content that isn’t of use or value. This is not the place to promote your brand; that is what the rest of your site and product pages are for.
8. If you want to promote your products or services, make sure there’s a value-add in there. Can you offer a special discount for your readers? Are you announcing a secret sale? Do you have a new 360-degree video of one of your most popular products?
9. Make use of video, infographics, or photo-heavy posts when you can. You will not have to write as much, and your visual-hungry audience will love the change of pace.
10. If you are too busy to create something brand new or you are out of ideas, repurpose older content. Turn an old blog post into a video. Write a recap of your inaugural product’s first successful year. Design an infographic to go with a popular post from last month.
11. Create a template to streamline the content generation process. Find a word count that your readers love. Establish guidelines that show writers how to create easily scannable content that makes use of header tags, bulleted list formats, and shorter paragraphs.
12. Use tools to streamline the process. Text-editing tools (like the Hemingway App), headline optimization tools (like the one from CoSchedule), and WordPress SEO plugins (like Yoast) will take a lot of the guesswork out of the process.
13. Use tools to protect your content from theft. Content-management systems like WordPress have a number of add-ons to help you disable right-click copying as well as content scraping.
14. Promote your content across the social media platforms where your consumers are. Don’t forget to encourage your readers to share the love by including links to your social accounts around all your content.

Remember: your e-commerce site’s pages are where you sell yourself. Your blog or news feed is where you demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in your field. If you can deliver real value to your audience there, no strings attached, that may be all the encouragement they need to trust you.

About Endicia

Endicia is a leading provider of internet-based postage services that make it easier and more affordable to ship parcels through the U.S. Postal Service®. We know that shipping can be complex and our goal is to simplify your shipping operations so you can focus on doing what you do best. Visit us at endicia.com to learn more.