In this post, we discuss tips for making SEO a priority in content strategies and how this impacts scaling SEO. We will also talk about issues that affect SEO goals and KPIs.
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For SEOs who work on enterprise websites, SEO content strategy can become complex. An enterprise website has thousands to millions of pages vs. a small to mid-sized organization’s website, which may have only a few hundred web pages or less.
Enterprise companies may have content writers from multiple departments for different websites, website sections, and subdomains. That’s why it's so important to make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to SEO content strategy.
Tips for Keeping Your SEO Content Strategy in Sync
Many enterprise organizations ensure that their SEOs are working in tandem with their content teams and writers throughout the content life cycle.
Yet for some organizations, there can be a disconnect between the content teams and the SEO teams.
Here are some tips that may prevent a disconnect among content strategists, writers, and the SEO team:
- Include SEO as part of the process when writing assignments are given.
If this doesn’t happen, it can lead to optimizations being made after the content has been completed. This leaves out the opportunity for the writer to include relevant keywords that have search volume while they are crafting the piece. Including SEO early leads to a more efficient writing process.
- Keep the SEO team aware of writing assignments in all project management platforms.
Some organizations use email or a calendar to schedule content writing. When the SEO team is in the loop, it helps keep SEO strategy on track.
- Provide keyword research to the content teams once content topics and an abstract are put on a content calendar or in a project management system.
This is an opportunity to provide writers with relevant keywords so they can write holistic SEO copy. It allows them to pick and choose the keywords they want to write about to ensure content is in line with SEO strategy.
This can also prevent keywords from product pages from being the focus keyword of the copy (to prevent two or more pages from competing for the same keyword in Google’s search engine results).
Finally, it ensures relevant keywords with search volume and user intent are used.
- Have writers send page copy to the SEO team for feedback.
This type of relationship with writers and SEO teams fosters excellent copy, ensuring it is inclusive of relevant keywords.
- Provide keyword research to the content teams in a spreadsheet briefly outlining which keywords you recommend.
This helps provide structure to the writers and achievable keywords based on competition.
- Encourage other teams to consider SEO in projects that use systems or platforms not based on the brand’s domains.
A great example is event sites. Make sure the SEO team is invited to the planning stages for these projects.
- Include a link gap analysis for keyword competition in your keyword research.
Guide the content team on what the keyword competition is for keywords, so the writers know whether or not to target highly competitive keywords.
You don’t have to exclude keywords that have intense competition, but the business should be aware of the competition. This allows the company to decide whether they want to invest in link building in this instance.
- Provide feedback to management on how competitive targeted keywords are and what budget is needed for link building.
This information can prevent unrealistic expectations on ranking for keywords due to a lack of link building.
- When upper management creates omnichannel campaigns, provide them with keyword research feedback. Make sure they use keywords with relevant search volume.
It can be a challenge for SEO teams to find relevant keywords with any search volume when using organizational created language.
Try to include additional longer-form content with keywords that address users’ pain points and that have search volume.
We recommend internally linking these assets into the campaign content to overcome organizational created language.
Map out your content by topics and keywords in a spreadsheet, so that you can better internally link your content to the user’s journey and for link authority.
- Consider earlier stages of the buyer journey when writing content (especially for B2C websites with a longer sales cycle).
Copy that speaks to the user’s pain points can resonate with them. This can help to include your organization into consideration and show up on the list of vendors they are vetting for their needs.
- Make sure there is no disconnect between the keywords associated with copy and different stages of the buyer’s journey.
Don’t confuse your users and Google. Keyword intent with copy is crucial for showing up in search engine results, so don’t let it be forgotten.
- Include non-branded keywords, a focus keyword, supporting keywords (sub-topics), related keywords, and question queries in evergreen copy. Include the keywords in h tags (h1, h2, and h3) and then used in each section.
Pages that are more encompassing on topics that include these types of keywords perform better in search results.
- Does your copy rank for relevant non-branded keywords? Does your copy rank only for branded keywords?
This can happen when the SEO team is not invited to provide keyword research up-front to writers before writing their copy.
- Use a product-led SEO content strategy that includes audience feedback and user intent to create a product around the user’s needs.
A product-led SEO strategy will give you an advantage over your competition.
- Measure progress on a list of URLs you have optimized individually rather than SEO goals across pages that you optimized in a group.
If you can measure organic lift across a large group of URLs, you will have a better ROI on SEO optimizations and be closer to achieving your SEO goals.
SEO Goals and Key Performance Indicators
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): metrics that the SEO can demonstrate are on target or not to achieve their SEO goals
Enterprise organizations may require a KPI list at the beginning of each quarter or fiscal year on what the SEO’s efforts will be centered around to achieve SEO goals.
SEO goals: goals set by your manager or the organization to increase organic traffic, conversion rate, and revenue that you as an SEO need to achieve
How to Scale a Content Strategy to Achieve SEO Goals?
To scale the optimization of content on enterprise websites, SEOs should have a clear understanding of what effect their on-page optimizations will have.
SEO best practices are a great place to start optimizing web copy for SEO. It is necessary to split test SEO optimizations across large sets of pages to scale SEO optimization.
Let the SEO split test statistically prove whether or not the SEO best practice provides an organic lift or not.
Knowing upfront what optimizations will have a positive lift in organic traffic from statistically relevant proven tests allows you to scale SEO optimizations across large sections of a website and come closer to achieving your SEO goals.
SEO best practices should not be taken as gospel. Here at SplitSignal, we have seen the same SEO split tests run across different sites and industries provide different results.
This is why SEO split testing is crucial for your SEO strategy. We can no longer blindly follow SEO best practices with keyword and user intent.
How Does SEO Split Testing Help Scale a Content Strategy?
Statistical SEO A/B split testing allows organizations to validate what effect a proposed SEO optimization will have with a statistically relevant result.
This allows SEO teams to pivot with test results that are negative or that have no change and to test further until positive SEO tests are achieved.
The SEO team can then request from their dev teams SEO optimizations that only have a positive lift to organic traffic!
Now you can scale SEO optimizations that are statistically proven to have an organic lift across website sections.
SEO Split Testing with SplitSignal
Semrush’s SplitSignal is a client-side SEO split-testing platform that allows you to show whether an SEO optimization is worth making.
It is important to note that there are no bad SEO split tests. Having statistical insight into how an SEO optimization will perform (based upon test results) before the SEO optimization is implemented is priceless.
Three types of SEO split test results are possible with SplitSignal:
- A Positive Change: This metric shows a positive lift in clicks from Google search engine results to the variant page test group over the control group.
- No Change: This metric shows no positive or negative change in clicks. This test is an opportunity to test further until you have a positive lift in clicks.
- A Negative Change: This metric shows a decrease in clicks from Google search engine results to the variant page test group over the control group. This is an opportunity to protect against a drop in organic traffic and to test further until you have a positive lift in clicks.
Learn how to read SplitSignal test results.
SplitSignal SEO A/B Split Test Metrics
SplitSignal integrates with Google Search Console (GSC). The primary metric we look for in SEO split tests is increased clicks from Google search results.
Consider adding these metrics to your current SEO KPIs if you haven’t already:
- Clicks: the clicks the variant pages receive from Google search engine results (SERPs) (are shown within the tool)
- Clickthrough Rate (CTR): the number of Google SERP impressions divided by clicks from Google SERPs to each URL in each group (these are available for download)
- Impressions: the number of times a URL in a group is shown in Google SERPs (available for download)
- Average Ranking in Google: the average ranking in Google SERPs for each URL in each group (these are available for download).
Knowing whether an optimization will increase or decrease clicks, CTR, impressions, and average ranking gives your SEO team an edge over your competition.
Learn more by reading the SplitSignal FAQs.
Prove SEO ROI with the SplitSignal ROI Calculator
With the SplitSignal ROI Calculator, you can show management a forecasted 12-month revenue calculation based upon the statistical SEO split tests that had positive outcomes.
It allows you to show your management the potential for increases in revenue through positive split tests. This helps to validate your SEO content strategy based on statistically significant tests results, which hold more water than falling back on SEO best practices.
10 Ways SEO Split Testing Can Help Your Content Strategy
- You can clarify why you implemented optimizations based on positive tests
- You can tie revenue and future revenue to positive tests and optimizations
- You can prove to the dev team why SEO optimization is a priority to the business based upon the relevance of a test and future revenue
- You can save dev dollars by only sending dev requests that have a positive result
- You can achieve your SEO goals faster by implementing SEO split testing
- You can protect against reducing organic traffic with negative SEO split tests
- You can find lifts to organic traffic with positive SEO split tests
- You can find optimization strategies that have no change, so you can pivot your strategy to retest until you have a positive test
- You can save time that you would have wasted on optimizations, that have negative test results or no change test results
- You can focus your time on SEO optimizations that will have a positive impact rather than ones that will bring a negative change or no change at all
Apply today to learn more about the SplitSignal pilot program. You can scale your SEO content strategy with optimizations across your pages, allowing you to attribute SEO ROI to sections of your site while protecting your site from negative or no change optimizations.