1. SEO Fundamentals Learn How to Optimize your Content

Enhance your understanding or broaden your expertise in content optimization with the free and reliable resources below. 

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Free Content Optimization Guides

12 Content Optimization Strategies To Grow Traffic & Rankings

Guide from Fraser McCulloch / Frase

Content Optimization: The Complete Guide

Guide from Priscilla Tan / Ahrefs

SEO Copywriting: The Definitive Guide

Guide from Backlinko

SEO Copywriting Guide: A Smarter Approach To Ordering Content

Guide from Maria Kalyadina / SEMrush

 

Role of Content Course with Eric Enge

Course from Eric Enge / SEMrush

 

Content Marketing Fundamentals Course with Ashley Segura

Course from Ashley Segura / Semrush

Strategical Content Optimization in an SEO Process

Video from Crawling Mondays

Free On-Page SEO Tools

Google Search Console Coverage, URL Inspection & Crawl Stats Reports

Web Based from Google

Bing Webmaster Tools Site Scan and SEO Report

Web Based from Bing

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Desktop Based from Screaming Frog

Greenflare: The Open Source SEO Crawler

Desktop Based from Greenflare

 

SEOlyzer: Crawler & log analysis for all SEO

Web Based from SEOlyzer

httpstatus.io: Easily check status codes, response headers, and redirect chains

Web Based from Sander Heilbron

 

SEO Server Header Checker Tool: Server Headers is your one stop tool to quickly extract useful SEO data from a URL

Web Based from Ryan Jones

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

Web Based from Ahrefs

Siteliner: Explore your website, revealing key issues

Web Based from Siteliner

Checkbot: SEO, Web Speed & Security Tester

Browser Extension from Checkbot

SEO Minion: On-Page SEO, Broken Link Checker, Hreflang Checker & more

Browser Extension from SEO minion

Detailed SEO Extension

Browser Extension from Detailed

SEO Pro Extension

Browser Extension from Marketing Syrup

 

SEOInfo

Browser Extension from Weeblr

 

Spark Content Optimizer

Browser Extension from SEOClarity

 

Link Redirect Trace

Browser Extension from LinkResearchTools

Yoast SEO

WordPress Plugin from Yoast

Rank Math SEO

WordPress Plugin from Rank Math

Tips When Learning & Doing Content Optimization
“Always give competitor results a scan to see what other phrases and terminology you might be missing to make your content easier to find on search engines. Don’t make assumptions as to what your audience searches for – back up your keywords phrase mix with trends data and ranked pages”
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“- Complete & Thorough KW Research

– Research Questions on the topic

– Ask the frontline staff about the questions Customers ask Write content which covers all relevant keywords and questions and fully answers the customers query”
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“To be consider while optimising content.
* Optimize content for users & search engine both.
* Focus on search intent.
* Provide more in-depth & valuable content than your competitors.”
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“Optimise your content according to your topic:
* Video
* Image/screenshot
* Infographic

Do some research before writing:
* Is it true?
* Did you try it?
* Quote white papers or their equivalents

Be unbiased:
* Don’t hate
* Be objective

Write as long as needs to be written.”
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“Keep in mind that there is a human who is going to read that content. So present info in such a way that it can be easily digested. Highlight specifc takeaways & ensure the content piece covers the end objective. Lastly, read again and again till you feel its time to go live.”
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“Ask ‘what is the purpose of this page?’ Ie. What do you expect the reader / visitor to do next? Some pages need CTAs, others are to match known psychographic preferences of the audience eg. Lists, outcomes, process, hedonistic motivations eg. free stuff”
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“Make you understand and analyze intent. Make note of content types, rich media, etc. And don’t copy what you see ranking. Beat what you see with something better!”
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“Pay special attention to how you are structuring your content. Does the content have a logical flow? Does the page structure aid in helping the user move towards a successful conversion? Does the content introduce the subject and then move towards more advance/specific concepts?”
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“Make sure you do keyword mapping first so you don’t end up having multiple pages optimised for the same keywords”
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“Gather as many relevant questions as possible for your main topic & answer those briefly. PAA, Quora, Reddit are all good places to start with. Benefits?

1. Makes your content relevant
2. Solves readers’ challenges
3. SEO advantage

Tip: Use them as H2 (if it makes sense)”
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“When optimizing a piece of content, think of it’s intent and the user’s need. Be precise, concise and straightforward. Use simple, clear words. The introduction is an important part where you give an answer or where you catch the user telling what you will exactly tell them.”
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“When optimizing a content piece, think about its intent – the reason why it is created. Keep the most important part at the top of the page & relevant information in the middle and lower part. I follow a pyramid structure:

1. Important Information
2. Good to know
3. Relevant Info”
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“Find your competitive advantage. Look at the results you’re competing against, determine how they’re strong/weak (copy, visuals, data, UX/UI) and double down on the area where you can bring the most unique value to the user.”
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“Look into the SERPs to get an understanding of what Google already sees as ‘good results’ for target keywords and topics. This will give you an idea of what’s expected from your content, while allowing you to see what’s being covered, so you can provide an even better page.”
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“Use the SERP Analysis also to see where is feasible to rank. Is Google showing brands like yours or it’s dominated by something else (e.g. aggregators)? If Google doesn’t show even show your type of website, perhaps you should optimise for something else.”
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“Don’t forget about the headers. Having optimized headers help guide the user through the page and understand what the content is about. Good headers should be a mix of primary/secondary keywords. Following a logical hierarchy between the Hs is a must.”
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Content Optimization FAQs
Why is content optimization important for SEO?

Content optimization is crucial because it enhances the relevance, visibility, and user experience of your website information. By strategically using keywords and phrases and targeting topics users search, your content aligns more closely with user search needs, improving its ranking in search results. 

What are the keys to content optimization

Content optimization involves several key components to ensure your content is both user-friendly and search engine friendly: content relevance, alignment to user intent, quality, originality, helpfulness and readability, among other factors. 

How to optimize content for backlinks?

Developing content that is attractive, useful, original; that connects with the way that people search and solve a problem or need, and is also easily shareable will tend to attract backlinks. 

What are the most common mistakes in content optimization?

Some of the most common mistakes in content optimization include: Focusing on quantity over quality, not considering search volume or search intent when choosing a topic and content type or format, overlooking titles and meta descriptions, among others. 

The SEO Learning Roadmap

Take a look at the SEO learning roadmap below, featuring the different areas, from the basics of SEO, to the most common activities and phases of the SEO Process:

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1 SEO Fundamentals

Start learning SEO with the fundamental concepts and areas, why they're important, and the basics to execute them: keyword research, content optimization analysis, technical optimization and link building.
Once you know the main SEO concepts, it's time to put them in practice by learning to develop an SEO process, from establishing a strategy and setting goals to management, measurement, and reporting.
Learn to implement the most important SEO configurations in the top Web platforms in the market, along with considerations to take into account.