After choosing the right approach for your link-building campaign and preparing for its launch, remember not to overlook search engine optimization (SEO). It’s easy to focus solely on the campaign itself, but spending just 15 or 20 minutes ensuring your SEO elements are in place can significantly enhance traffic, engagement, and value for your business.
Below is a checklist of essential tasks to ensure your content campaign runs smoothly and aligns with your ranking efforts. While ranking may not be the primary goal, addressing basic on-page SEO elements requires little time and can yield substantial long-term benefits. Let’s begin with on-page SEO.
Page Titles
Optimizing page titles is a fundamental step often overlooked. If you’re undertaking a complete page redesign with custom HTML or CSS, manually defining a page title is necessary since templates won’t apply.
Consider these two key points:
- The page title appears in Google search results and may be used on social channels if open graph tags are absent. Aim for a catchy title that encourages clicks on your content.
- If your content aims to attract links, it could potentially rank for significant keywords. Conduct basic keyword research to optimize your page title. If there isn’t a completely relevant keyword available, include some secondary phrases. Avoid targeting a keyword already used by another page to prevent cannibalizing rankings.
Meta Description
Although not as impactful as page titles for rankings, crafting a clear, accurate, and enticing meta description that reflects your content can improve click-through rates and might be used by social platforms if open graph tags are undefined.
Images and Text
Images, like infographics, often contain text. Many static infographics include large amounts of text, which is not ideal from an SEO perspective. While some text within images is unavoidable, such as small snippets or brief paragraphs, reconsider using infographics if your content is text-heavy.
If you’ve created a graphic with extensive text, consider developing a standard HTML page supplemented with images and icons. A long-form content page could be more effective, allowing for better optimization for traffic and rankings.
Internal Links
Internal links are crucial yet often overlooked. Focus on two types of internal links for optimizing on-page content:
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Links to key pages. Successful content-led link building can direct links to your site’s content. Filter this link equity to key pages in several ways:
- Include a discreet navigation menu at the top of the page with links to key categories.
- Embed links naturally within the text, avoiding forced placements.
- Add a footer with links to key pages, ensuring it doesn’t compromise or distract from the main content.
- Links from key pages. Links from significant pages can assist pages that don’t support substantial content or aren’t in the main navigation. If internally unlinked, a page might not rank well despite acquiring external links. Ensure a robust internal linking structure to allow link equity flow.
Canonical Tags
Typically resolved using a good content management system properly configured, canonical tags are crucial if using a custom template. Even if not catastrophic, ensure they’re available, used correctly, and point to the correct URL. Watch for subtleties like:
- Http vs. https
- Www. vs. non-www
- Trailing slash vs. non-trailing slash
Google can sometimes correct these errors, but a quick check during development or post-launch will prevent mistakes.
Dataset Schema
For content featuring datasets, consider implementing Schema markup to help search engines understand your page’s context. This can potentially result in rich snippets if the dataset is understood and the page is sufficiently trusted.
Images
Visual elements, such as images and custom icons, often accompany content-led link-building campaigns. Ensure they are optimized to avoid slowing down your pages due to image bloat.
Basic optimization includes compressing images to improve load times, which is crucial for outreach to bloggers and journalists who may access content on mobile devices with slower connections. Also, take time to name your files and optimize image ALT text to aid Google in understanding them.
Tracking and Measurement
Tracking your content piece’s success is essential, and several integration options with other channels should be leveraged. Begin with the basics:
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Google Analytics/GTM Code. Omitting this is a common mistake. Successful content without proper tracking leads to missing crucial data, such as indirect conversions or customer engagements on your main site. Test Google Analytics post-launch using real-time analytics or extensions like Tag Assistant or GA Debugger to ensure accurate tracking.
- Remarketing Tags. Request remarketing code from respective teams for targeting content visitors in future campaigns. Options include display advertising or social feed ads, either redirecting visitors to product or category pages or engaging them with future content.
Social
- Open Graph Tags. While not the primary goal, social media shares can increase if the content is popular. Customizing images, titles, and descriptions for social sharing enhances chances for additional shares and traffic.
Having images formatted for socializing with tailored Open Graph tags, comprising compelling titles and descriptions, is beneficial. Many content management systems offer tools to define these tags, simplifying the process. For instance, the Yoast SEO plugin on WordPress allows easy specification of Open Graph and Twitter tags for each post or page, optimizing your content for social sharing.
