How to Develop SEO Content Strategy in Webflow?

Content makes a difference on your website. Great content doesn’t just engage readers but converts them as well. 

There are many different ways to utilize the power of content marketing, and one of them is to improve your organic rankings. In other words, using an SEO content strategy can boost your visibility in Google and other search engines, increasing the number of visitors to your website.

But that’s just one benefit. Here’s a list of other benefits you can get.

• Improved visibility in search results
• Increased organic traffic
• Targeted audience engagement
• Enhanced user experience
• Cost-effective marketing
• Credibility and trustworthiness
• Competitive advantage
• Valuable data insights
• Long-term results
• Global reach
• Adaptability to algorithm changes
• Improved brand awareness

In the following guide, I will show you how we use content internally at Flow Ninja and how we utilize Webflow to implement SEO strategies for our website.

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What Is an SEO Content Strategy?

In simplest terms, an SEO content strategy is a planned approach to creating, optimizing, and managing content on a website with the goal of improving its visibility in search engine results. 

The strategy aims to attract more organic traffic, target a specific audience, and ultimately enhance the website's online presence and authority.

Unoptimized content can result in:

• Low search engine rankings
• Reduced organic traffic
• Weakened authority and expertise
• Poor user experience
• Ineffective content marketing
• Missed conversion opportunities
• Inefficient resource allocation
• Inconsistent messaging
• Difficulty in tracking performance

In essence, it can hurt your online visibility, user engagement, and overall success.

Let’s see the exact steps you need to take to make your SEO strategy for success. 

Steps to Developing an SEO Content Strategy

I usually break down the entire process into the several steps listed below, which is also the process that makes the most sense for me.

Determine Your Target Audience

The first step is identifying and understanding your target audience. These are people who will find your content valuable. If you have a product or service you’re selling, the same people should also be introduced to your offer besides your content.

In the case of Flow Ninja, we determined two main types of audiences: managers who are looking to grow their businesses using Webflow and individuals who are looking to learn more about working with Webflow, such as devs, designers, SEO and content experts, and more. If you’re on this page, you’re likely among the latter. Of course, this article is written for the former group as well, as they can find valuable insights for their businesses.

If you’re working with other marketing professionals, you might try creating personas to delve deeper into their psychology. This will help you understand their needs and the type of content they would be interested in.

Basically, the first step is all about the psychological aspect of your content consumers.

Perform Keyword Research

Before I engage in keyword research, I ask myself the following questions:

• What would someone interested in my product search on Google?

This is the first step, which I repeatedly return to if I run out of inspiration when researching keywords.

Next, I proceed to find the most relevant keywords using tools such as SEMRush.

Now, there are a couple of things to pay attention to when researching keywords:

1. Always Focus on the Keyword That is Most Relevant for Your Content 

It’s super easy to wander off into keywords that may seem lucrative yet are not logical in your case. The best way to determine which keywords are relevant for you is to see the results it shows.

If the results aren’t what you expected, you should not take the keyword into account. 

For example, “agencies for building teams” and “agencies for forming teams” might be just a different combination of similar words, yet the results are completely different. The first one will show you team-building services, while the second one will also include pages that have something to do with creating expert teams. 

Yet, someone might easily overlook the true meaning of the first keyword and incorporate it into a keyword list, even though their company doesn’t have to do anything with team building.

2. Pay Attention to Search Volume and Keyword Difficulty

Search volume tells you how much a certain keyword is searched for in a single month. This will help you decide if the keyword is good enough to make it to your list and be incorporated into your content.

Now, if the search volume is small, you should still take the relevance into account. Sometimes, a super-specific keyword that will most likely convert might have a super-low search volume, but it’s worth it.

I’ll be specific here with an example. 

Imagine you’re selling bookmarkers in the shape of a heart, and someone is searching for that very same combination of words. In fact, it appears that 10 people do the same thing on a monthly basis. Would you insert this keyword? 

The answer is yes. Of course, you should also check the volume of heart-shaped bookmakers or just heart bookmarkers because they have the same power to convert but might be a better choice for your primary keyword.

Finally, there’s the concept of keyword difficulty, which determines how difficult it would be to get to the first page of Google if you want to rank for it, with 1 being the easiest and 100 being the hardest. Once again, it’s important to understand the tradeoff between search volume, keyword difficulty, and relevance for your content strategy (and your business).

3. Understand the Intent Behind Keywords 

There are basically four types of intent.

• Navigational — When someone uses Google just as a navigation tool to get to the services they want. If someone types “Facebook Log In,” that’s a navigational query, and you probably don’t want to rank for it unless you work for Facebook.
• Informational — When someone wants to learn something, they type in an informational query. It’s a good idea to consider some of these for your content strategy and basically provide answers for these queries, which would contribute to Google listing you as a relevant result. If you provide an answer that Google considers most effective, you might even make it to the featured snippet.
• Commercial — If someone is researching a product or a service, they will type a commercial query. In our case, we understand that many people want to compare Webflow with similar products, so we created several comparisons, such as Webflow vs Elementor, to target these commercial queries. Commercial keywords are more likely to convert compared to informational ones.
• Transactional — These are the keywords that are typed by someone looking to buy something. If they type “iPhone 13 Mini price,” they are probably looking to buy that product. These keywords are extremely handy for e-commerce.

Perform Competitor Analysis

Identifying and analyzing your competitors should be an ongoing process at every stage of your SEO content marketing strategy. This is important for several reasons:

• Market trends understanding — Gain insights into industry trends, including popular content, targeted keywords, and effective marketing channels. 
• Identifying content gaps — Discover topics your competitors aren't covering, providing unique content to your audience.
• Benchmarking performance — Compare your SEO and content marketing efforts with competitors to set realistic improvement goals.
• Learning from successes and failures — Adopt best practices and avoid pitfalls by observing competitor strategies.
• Enhancing keyword strategy — Refine your keyword approach by understanding the ones targeted by competitors.
• Improving user experience — Gain UX insights from competitors to enhance engagement and conversions on your site.
• Strategic planning — Understand the competitive landscape for better resource allocation and positioning in the market.
• Inspiring innovation and creativity — Competitor strategies can spark new, creative approaches in your content marketing.

I am going to admit it: I use competitors for inspiration all the time. I also learn a lot by reading blogs and exploring websites from the sites that compete with the websites I work with. It’s a natural process, and Google understands that. Now, what you should never ever do is be a copycat and try to be similar to your competitors, but I will cover that in the next section.

Create SEO Content

Even though this seems like another step of the process, it’s the most important step. Fail to create compelling content, and you’ll get no love from search engines, resulting in additional investments to make things right.

That’s why it’s important to have SEO experts and content writers with plenty of experience in their line of work, preferably in your niche.

If you’re not creating just blog pieces but also various landing pages, you’ll probably need professional designers to take care of the assets.

Writers shouldn’t only understand the topic but also be aware of how their work is going to be represented on your website. Is it going to be a blog or a landing page?

Finally, you should create content that actually aims to help. Search engines have become sophisticated enough to know when a text is relevant and just a keyword-stuffed fluff with no real value.

Using AI for Content Creation

According to Google’s EEAT guidelines, using AI is okay if the content is still relevant for the reader. In my experience, using AI from time to time to fill some gaps is okay, but a human needs to read and edit those snippets for maximum effect. The devil is in the details, and AI tools are nowhere near that circle of hell, meaning the human touch is still needed for the refinement of content. There are many AI tools, like AI art generators, that can help create stunning visuals, but they still require human oversight for the best results.

It’s not just that. Google is aware that boring and repetitive content will be nothing better than ChatGPT-generated answers to your queries. That’s why it’s essential to give your opinions, observations, impressions, reactions, and more — stuff that humans want from humans and that robots cannot do.

When you think about it: it makes sense. Suppose you’re researching how to do SEO content strategy. In that case, you want first-hand experience of people who used them, and not just blatant information that goes on and on about different strategies. Don’t get me wrong, that’s also important for your learning, but it’s people who’ll ultimately tell you whether something’s worth it or not.

Overall, it’s important to view your content as the knowledge and information you’re passing on to other human beings and not just as food for search engine robots.

Utilize Webflow for Content Upload

Webflow is great for handling technical SEO, but what about content? It turns out that the great CMS makes it easy to ship pages easily and even automate many things along the way.

I’ll list some of the main SEO features of Webflow that make the entire process easier for any content strategist and SEO expert. 

Webflow excels in both technical SEO and content strategy:

• Easy content creation and management — Its CMS allows for simple content addition and editing, requiring minimal technical expertise.
• SEO-friendly design — Creates responsive, visually appealing websites that improve SEO through enhanced user experience.
• Customizable SEO settings — Enables easy editing of meta titles, descriptions, and more right in the CMS.
• Dynamic content — Automates page updates using dynamic content, streamlining the content creation process.
• Speed optimization — Webflow's clean code leads to faster page loading, a crucial SEO factor.
• Mobile responsiveness — Ensures websites are mobile-friendly, an important aspect of SEO.
• Automatic sitemap generation — Keeps the website’s sitemap updated, helping search engines understand the site structure.
• Structured data for rich snippets — Simplifies adding structured data, improving visibility in search results.
• Content flexibility and scalability — Suitable for various content types and scalable for websites of different sizes.
• Integration with SEO tools — Allows easy connection with tools like Google Analytics for performance tracking and enhancing SEO strategies.

Optimizing Existing Content

Implementing an SEO content strategy should be an ongoing effort if you want to achieve maximum results. It means that, besides having a continuous content schedule, you should also track and optimize your existing content when necessary.

Now, the common dilemma is: when should content be optimized? Should you do it when you notice the visitors dropping?

In most cases, you should do it when it makes sense, meaning the existing information in your content needs to be updated and additional information added.

In other words, your content should always display fresh information to your readers.

Evergreen content needs to be updated from time to time. When you think about it, no content is truly evergreen, as the world around us changes rapidly.

Even if there’s not enough new information for your content to be updated and optimized, you should always check what the latest practices are for well-ranked content and apply it to yours if possible and makes sense. Google is commonly updated, and every once in a while, the preferred content structure and length changes, so keep an eye on that.

Common SEO Content Mistakes

Unfortuntately, content strategies for SEO also come with plenty of pitfalls that you should be aware of. Here are the most common ones.

• Not performing a technical SEO audit and implementing fixes — You can write the best content in the world, but it won’t matter all that much if crawlers cannot find them and index them.
• Being a copycat — Simply copying or slightly modifying content from competitors or other sources not only fails to add value but can also lead to penalties from search engines for duplicate content.
• Thinking AI alone writes good content — While AI can be a helpful tool, relying solely on it often results in content that lacks the depth, creativity, and human touch necessary to engage readers and meet specific SEO goals truly.
• Hiring underqualified or inexperienced writers — Such writers might lack the necessary skills and understanding of SEO best practices, leading to poor-quality content that doesn't rank well. Or they simply might not understand your niche all that well, failing to portray your website as authoritative in the industry.
• Ignoring keyword research — Failing to conduct thorough keyword research can result in content that doesn't align with what your target audience is searching for, leading to low traffic and poor engagement.
• Overlooking content structure — Poorly structured content can harm user experience and readability, making it difficult for readers and search engines to understand the key points of your content.
• Neglecting meta tags and descriptions — Overlooking these elements can result in missed opportunities to attract users from search engine results pages, as they provide a snapshot of what the page is about. They are also a great way to show search engines what keywords you’re aiming to rank for.
• Failing to update content — Outdated content can become irrelevant or incorrect over time, reducing its usefulness to users and its attractiveness to search engines.
• Overusing keywords (keyword stuffing) — This practice can lead to content that is unreadable and penalized by search engines for attempting to manipulate SEO rankings.
• Not optimizing for mobile — With the increasing use of mobile devices for internet access, not optimizing content for mobile can lead to a poor user experience and negatively impact SEO.
• Ignoring analytics and feedback — Not monitoring content performance or ignoring user feedback can prevent you from understanding what works and what needs improvement in your content strategy.
• Inconsistent publishing — Sporadic content updates can harm your site’s ability to build and maintain a loyal audience, as well as negatively affect search engine rankings.
• Not aligning content with user intent — Failing to understand and align with what users actually want from their search queries can lead to low engagement and high bounce rates.
• Neglecting internal and external linking — Poor linking practices can hinder the navigation and understanding of your site’s structure by search engines and miss opportunities for increasing authority and relevance.
• Focusing only on search engines, not real people — Writing solely for the purpose of ranking rather than providing value to the actual audience can result in content that fails to engage or convert readers.

Best SEO Content Practices

Researching keywords and writing content won’t cut it. Here are some other of the most important practices to consider:

• Content structure — Use a clear and logical content structure with headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to break up the text. Organize your content in a way that is easy for readers to follow.
• Keyword optimization — Place primary and secondary keywords in the title, headings, and throughout the content naturally. Avoid keyword stuffing, which can negatively impact user experience and SEO.
• Meta tags — Write compelling and keyword-rich title tags and meta descriptions for each page or post. Keep title tags under 60 characters and meta descriptions under 160 characters.
• URL structure — Create clean and descriptive URLs that include keywords. Use hyphens to separate words in the URL.
• Mobile-friendliness — Ensure that your content is mobile-responsive to accommodate users on various devices.
• Image optimization — Optimize images by compressing them for faster loading times. Use descriptive alt tags that include keywords for SEO and accessibility.
• Internal and external links — Incorporate internal links to relevant pages within your website to enhance navigation and user engagement. Add external links to authoritative sources that support your content. This also helps you determine which pages will get more link juice.
• Readability — Make your content easy to read by using short paragraphs, bullet points, and clear language. Aim for a Flesch-Kincaid readability score that matches your target audience's reading level.
• Content length — Longer, comprehensive content often performs well in search results. Aim for at least 1,500 words for in-depth articles.
• Content originality — Create unique and original content to avoid issues with duplicate content penalties. Cite sources and provide proper attribution when referencing others' work.
• User experience (UX) — Optimize your website for a positive user experience with fast loading times, easy navigation, and clear calls to action.
• Social sharing — Include social sharing buttons to encourage readers to share your content on social media platforms.
• Monitoring and analytics — Use tools like Google Analytics to track the performance of your content, such as traffic, engagement, and conversion rates. Adjust your content strategy based on the data and insights you gather.
• Content promotion — Promote your content through various channels, including social media, email marketing, SMS notification, and content syndication, to reach a wider audience.

These SEO practices can help you create content that not only ranks well in search engines but also provides a positive experience for your readers and helps achieve your content marketing goals.

SEO Content Strategy That Supports Your Objectives

Set up a good SEO content strategy, start applying it, and you should start seeing results after a couple of months. If there are no results, you’re doing something wrong or should rethink your content strategy.

If your business needs Webflow SEO and content experts, feel free to get in touch with Flow Ninja and start getting love from Google and other search engines.

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