Writing is essential for marketing a creative practice, and cultivating this skill should be a priority. Written content helps potential clients discover your work through search engines. To maximize these discoveries, it’s crucial to optimize your content for search and be found by prospective clients through search engine optimization (SEO).
Optimizing Your Content for Search Engines
Search engine optimization may seem daunting, but it doesn’t require much time to implement. With a little thought and tweaks to key components on your web page, you can improve your visibility. Understanding how search engines work and how users search for content is key to effective optimization.
At a technical level, there are three main parts of a web page that need adjustment to optimize your content: the main page title, the “meta” page title, and the search engine description text. Most website platforms provide tools to adjust these components. The key is knowing what to include in those fields.
Crafting Compelling Titles and Descriptions
Let’s break it down. The main page title is your headline, and it should follow best writing practices rather than being overly concerned with search engines. However, if there are clear keywords associated with your content that don’t distort your writing style, feel free to incorporate them. Make sure that your main title uses HTML “H1” tags.
When it comes to the meta title, think like a search engine and a searcher. Put yourself in the shoes of someone looking for similar content. How would you develop search terms to find that content? Use those same terms in your meta title to optimize it effectively.
Search engines aim to provide the most relevant results to users quickly and accurately. By summarizing the topic clearly and using terms closely associated with your subject, you make it easier for search engines and searchers to find your content. Additionally, using phrases like “benefits of,” “tips for,” “top five,” or “best of” in your titles tends to attract more clicks. Incorporate these phrases when they make sense and align with your content.
For the description snippet, reiterate key terms from your meta title. However, write it with a marketing focus rather than a technical one. Keep it short, to the point, and intriguing enough to entice clicks.
Harnessing the Power of “Long Tail” Traffic
One often underappreciated benefit of writing is the occurrence of “long tail” search traffic. These occurrences, although flying under the radar, hold tremendous value. As a result, we may neglect the opportunity to build up our content libraries, which can deliver powerful engagements.
Understanding Search Intent and Tailoring Content
Search engines have revolutionized how we access information. In today’s world, we have all the world’s information at our fingertips, thanks to search engines. However, with the vast amount of online information, how can your small design business stand out? In the past, some companies resorted to naming themselves AAA Designers to secure the top spot in Yellow Page listings. However, that approach no longer works, and the chances of your site appearing when someone searches for generic terms like “graphic designer,” “web designer,” or “photographer” are close to zero.
But that’s okay because searchers don’t look for designers in that way. As mentioned before, searchers add more terms to their queries to narrow down their results and find what they need. The more words added to the search query, the more the search engine understands the user’s intent. By adding specific terms related to your industry, such as “catalogue design,” “product photography,” or even geographic indicators, you can stand out and increase the relevance of your links in search results.
The Power of Specific Content
For example, if you search for “museum website development” to Google, Cuberis is found on the first page. And why are they there? Not only is their title tag set specific to those terms, their content and portfolio reinforce their area of expertise.
While there may not be many people specifically looking for a web design shop experienced in museums, those who do need it will certainly find Cuberis and arrive at their site with a level of trust, knowing that Google has validated their content as highly relevant. And that validation holds significant weight.
You can make this work for you too. General content about design or branding easily gets lost in the shuffle. However, highly specific content addressing the concerns and problems faced by your clients’ industries can rise to the top. The more discrete the topic, the easier it is to reach the top, and the impact becomes even greater when those events occur.
Unlocking the Potential of Highly Specific Content
Although this kind of traffic may be serendipitous and discreet, it holds immense power. It’s worth the effort to add highly specific content that addresses industry-specific questions, leading to these results. Keep writing and contributing to your content library. If you write it, they will come.
By combining these strategies, creatives can optimize their content for search engines while also capitalizing on the power of “long tail” traffic. Effective search engine optimization and highly specific content can help creatives attract their ideal clients and achieve long-term success in their businesses.
