There are lots of technical tips and even a few questionable tricks you can use to enhance your SEO ranking. However, if your goal is to generate results by driving qualified prospects to your website your primary focus must be a content-driven SEO approach which answers questions satisfying the curiosity of human visitors and search engines.

Using a content-driven SEO approach gives you a manageable roadmap to consistently improve your search position.

Start your content-driven SEO plan with questions

People come to search engines with questions. Your goal is to anticipate questions prospective customers are likely to have.
To win search you must build pages which answer the questions as specifically and completely as possible using language people are likely to use in their search.

Discover which of your content is working now

Check your Google Search Console and Google Analytics to identify pages which are valuable and build on their strengths. Look for pages which fall into one of the following categories.

RANKS WELL IN SEARCH – For pages which show up frequently in search results but are not driving traffic focus your attention on improving the meta description. It is clear Google values your page, but human beings do not, so make the description more appealing. There is a high level of interest in this topic, consider creating a related post.

GENERATES THE MOST TRAFFIC – These pages are a great portal into your website so make sure you delight visitors when they arrive. Make the next step obvious. If there is no call to action add one. If there is something, but visitors are ignoring the offer it is time to refine the page, change the structure or offer.

GENERATES MOST CONVERSIONS – This page is moving prospective customers through your sales funnel. Your goal is to drive more prospects to this page.
Create internal links from related pages and make this one of the primary targets for your link building program.

To build on your existing content, identify at least ten pages or blog posts to improve each month. While you are making the changes, take time to add and optimize pictures, add multimedia and additional content. Remember to share the links to these updated pages on social media, in your email newsletter, and with key referral partners.

Create new content

A content-driven approach needs new content to be effective. Keep a running list of content ideas, questions, and themes. Revise your content plan to accommodate changing trends in your market and in your website performance.

Looking at a content plan 90 days at a time gives you the chance to see how themes can be woven through your website, social media, and email newsletter. Planning ahead gives you time to research topics so you are ready to create relevant and unique content every week. Yes, you need to be creating every week.

Content can be a blog post, a podcast, video, infographic, case study, or interview. If you want to stay relevant you must create a steady stream of new content to catch the attention of a search engine.

The bottom line? If you want to win search, start with a content-driven SEO program.