Content Planning for Search Engine Optimization

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Preparation is the Key to Successful Content Planning

This post doesn’t describe the actual creation of content for a site, from an SEO stance, but it does detail some of the content planning and steps that can be taken to help in the process.

It also doesn’t discuss some of the technical aspects of SEO that should be planned upon to make a site easier to be found by search engines. But it does provide several questions that may make it easier for someone who is considering optimizing their site for search engines when they engage in content planning for the pages of their site.

I think that part of content planning for a site also should include an awareness of search engines and a knowledge of some SEO goals because they will help your pages be found by searchers who are interested in what you create. Those goals aren’t too difficult to keep in mind when it comes to creating the words and images for a site, but are worth considering:

• Find and use words that are important to your audience, and that they expect to see,
• Advance the goals of your site in the creation of your content,
• Understand who your competitors are, and what they are doing on the web, and;
• Define a unique selling proposition that helps you stand out.

Many people who engage in SEO consultation are contacted after a site has been created, with a design in place, and a lot of effort undertaken to get the site easy to use and made persuasive and engaging. But, often the best time to talk with an SEO is before those efforts are made so that many best practices can be shared and discussed while steps along the way are made to create an effective web site, and have assistance in the content planning part of building your site.

I like creating a Content Requirements Plan because it sets up a framework for building a site, and discusses the roles of the people involved in that effort. One of the pre-project content planning items involves creating “User Profiles,” which is a section where SEO keyword research can be really helpful. Keyword research doesn’t involve finding words to optimize pages for that will bring high levels of traffic. Instead, it focuses upon finding words that people who are the intended audience of the site will use to search for the site, to help fulfill the objectives of the site owner.

The content assessment created through this process also includes finding “key content categories or descriptions.” This is another area where SEO research can be helpful.

Here are some research guidelines that can be used to help, and can complement this effort in finding the right words to use on a page to benefit both visitors to a site, and the search engines that index those pages:

Defining a site’s objectives while content planning:

It helps to define the goals of your site from an early point. A site may have more than one. Here are some of the most popular:

• Selling goods
• Selling services that aren’t offered directly on the site itself.
• Attracting subscribers to online services hosted by the site.
• Generating leads.
• Educating an audience
• Sharing information
• Attracting advertisers
• Building a reputation for a person or organization
• Building a community
• Storing and offering whitepapers and documents
• Allowing private communications between members of the organization.

One of the nice things about considering a site’s objectives early is that it also allows you to define metrics to measure how well the site meets these objectives. This approach is more complicated than creating a ranking report for certain keywords, but it can be much more satisfying to see that the goals of a site are being reached.

For example, when it comes to optimizing a large site that sells goods for search engines, instead of focusing upon a few broad and popular terms to rank well with, it might be better to try to make sure that individual product names rank well in the search engines. That may mean making sure that a search engine indexing program can successfully index a large dynamic site, and that each page has its unique page title, headlines, and content which reflects those product names. It can also possibly mean that those products are accompanied by some articles that provide visitors enough information to make an informed purchasing decision as well as giving search engines something to index.

Looking at the products or services offered during content planning

This page on a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) may be helpful for some of the following questions.

• What are the products or services offered on the site?
• Is it selling goods or services directly online?
• What are the strengths of the products or services to be presented?
• What are the weaknesses of the products or services to be presented?
• Are there opportunities envisioned in the sale of these goods and services that may not be met online presently?
• Do any threats to the sale of goods and services exist? What are those?
• If the site is intended to generate leads, is there a preference that people call, email, fill out forms, visit a location in person?
• Are there any unique challenges to offering the goods or services or information, such as legal restrictions based upon the age of a visitor, distribution of goods, the subject matter of the site, protection of visitors’ privacy rights, protection of trademarks (those associated with the organization and others), copyright of materials used, or others?
• Are there some related goods offered by others? If so, what are they?
• Are there some related services offered by others? If so, what are they?
• Who are those others who offer similar goods or services online and offline, and what else do they do?
• Have there been others who provided the site owners with online marketing services, and if so, what types of efforts did they make?

These are marketing inquiries, and several folks who engage in Seach Engine Optimization may say that these steps go beyond what an SEO does, but an effective effort to optimize a site for SEO could, and should take ideas like these into account. One of the areas where an SEO may be most effective in analyzing and explaining what competitors are doing on their sites to attract audiences – see what steps they have taken as part of their content planning. Such an effort can lead to looking at audiences and competitors:

Who is the intended audience?

Just who is the content you are creating for when you are content planning?

• Are the products or services geared towards a specific audience?
• If the products or services aren’t aimed towards a known or defined audience, is it possible to envision certain groups that might be more attracted to those goods or services than others?
• What is the geographical range the goods or services will be (or are) offered within?
• Are there other demographics that will help in gaining an understanding who the audience is, including age, gender, income levels, education levels, experiences and backgrounds, occupations, personality types, and more?
• Is there an audience that might be missing from the existing site, or the planned site? Might these audiences be reached through gift certificates, wish lists, wedding registries, or other means that can draw an unanticipated audience to the site?

Who are those competitors?

Knowing what challenges you are facing can be really helpful when it comes to content planning, too.

Some of this type of information can come out in questions in the “products and services” section above about Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Interestingly, many planning to build a site, or running an existing site may see their competitors as one group, without being aware that they are competing with other groups for traffic on the web – sometimes inadvertently. There are times when words and phrases commonly used in one niche are also popular in others. And trade groups, discussion boards, and topical directories can be competitors in search engine results.

• If the site has online competitors, what are their web site addresses if known?
• Are there offline competitors that offer similar goods and services?
• Are there any industry groups, trade journals, online industry directories and forums, user groups, consumer review sites, or industry educational sources that can be used to build a better understanding of competitors? Where do the site owners turn to when they want to keep track of news and information within their specific industry or market?

Knowing who your competitors are, and seeing what efforts they are making to reach out to an audience is an important step. Being able to articulate why they are considered competitors, understanding what approaches they are taking, and grasping how effective they are at those efforts can be helpful.

But knowing something about your competition doesn’t mean that you should imitate them. Instead, it could be valuable to find ways to differentiate yourself from them, which leads to developing a USP.

What is the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) behind the site?

It’s important to know who the audience of a site may be, and just as important to know who the competitors are. In that competition, in reaching out to that audience, it’s also important to understand how the people behind a site want to reach out to that audience. That is a key element behind your content planning, what makes you stand out as unique and different and memorable.

• What differentiates what this site offers, or will offer, from that offered by the people in their market who offer similar goods or services?
• What would the site owners say or offer to potential customers that would persuade those people to want to do business with them, or visit their web site?
• What do they offer to get people to become repeat visitors?
• What do they have on their site for people who have already purchased their goods, or used their services?
• What is it about what they offer that would have other people recommend their site to friends, family, or business associates? How can they make it easier for visitors and customers to become evangelists for their site and their organization?

Developing Categories and Keywords

Armed with this information about site objectives, what’s offered, intended audience, competitors, and USP, it becomes a lot easier to come up with categories and words and phrases to use on a site. Here are some other considerations to find some of those words that a targeted audience may use to find a site, and expect to see on the pages of that site.

• If they have an existing site, what words have people used to find their site previously? These can often be found by looking in log files, or web analytics tools used by the site.
• Again, if they have a site, does it use a site search function? If so, that may be a good source of information in finding information about what people hoped to find on the site.
• Do they have brochures and other marketing materials that describe what they offer such as brochures, catalogs, ads for other media, stock responses that they send to potential clients and existing customers, newsletters, articles, published interviews with members of the organization, or others).
• Are there specific terms of art within the industry that their audience may be mostly unfamiliar with? What are those?
• Are there specific terms of art within the industry that their audience will likely be familiar with, and may expect to see upon the site? Likewise, are there terms of art within the niche that audience members may not be familiar with?
• Which products or services do they want to emphasize the most, based upon a return on investment?
• What products or services do they offer that they may believe are in an emerging marketplace?
• Do they have any other web sites? If so, what are they, what do they offer, and what are their addresses?

Content Planning Conclusion

SEO involves expertise in taking steps like those above and using other research methods to help build content for a site. It also can involve writing persuasively and engagingly, and avoiding potential technical problems that may keep a search engine from crawling and indexing a site.

Answering questions like those above can make it easier to do content planning and also incorporate search engine optimization into the content of a site that you are planning.

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