The Best Blog Optimization Strategies in 2023

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Blog optimization is a content marketing strategy that takes existing content and edits, reworks, and strategizes it for improved SEO, readability, and topical relevance. Blog optimization can be done while producing new content or retroactively for old content. It is also done on a single piece of content for various niches or topics.

Here’s your guide to blog optimization in 2023:

What is Blog Optimization in Content Marketing?

So what does it mean to optimize a blog?

Optimization in content marketing refers to manipulating blog and online content to improve search engine optimization (SEO). Therefore, optimization would improve the content for search engine rankings and goals.

While a very general business term, we use optimization in this sense. After all, the literal definition of optimization means to make the most effective use of a resource. And that is exactly what blog or content optimization aims to do.

How Does SEO Optimization Work?

When content is initially developed and properly optimized, it will likely be promoted at the highest rankings for SEO. However, as time goes on, these factors change. Factors are impacted by changing Google policies on quality ratings, search intent, and interests. Therefore, it’s important to implement an optimization strategy, so your content never becomes irrelevant.

SEO optimization is usually completed when a blog needs to be updated to target keywords, improving its efficacy, or when a brand changes its direction. When you conduct optimization, you compare your business’s content marketing goals with its content marketing effectiveness. It takes a good hard look at what you’re doing or has done with your blog and sees if it can be improved.

There are several different strategies that you can use for optimizing content. The strategy you need will tell you what action to take. However, most optimization includes a content audit, new SEO keyword research, going through and mapping existing content with an action plan, and assigning tasks.

Examples of Different Optimization Strategies

There is no one-size fits all model when it comes to optimization. There are always several reasons why you may need to update your blog; mane of them do not require a comprehensive strategy (like evergreen content or housekeeping strategies). Here are some of the strategies used in SEO optimization and how they work:

Evergreening Content

Before we get into the continual optimization strategies that should be deployed periodically throughout the content’s life, there is also evergreen content management.

Evergreen content covers topics that maintain a consistent search demand throughout the year. Think “What should I blog about?” instead of a topic focused on a particular time frame, season, or time-sensitive topic like “Best Halloween Costumes for 2023.”

It is important to cover seasonal or topical subjects, but you want to ensure you have posts that read as relevant today, tomorrow, and for years to come.

Because these pieces are important, you want to update them regularly. While the topic is evergreen, the content’s facts, stats, and details may not be. For the blog to retain its value, it needs to be applicable, or it will lose relevance.

Content Audit or Website Quality Audits

A content audit or website quality audit will pull all URLs off a given site to assess the quality of the content for SEO. This is usually done during a web redesign or if the content on a site gets stale. In this instance, an SEO expert will analyze the data to identify whether it is old and needs a redirect or an SEO update.

Depending on the number of blogs on a site, content audits could be intensive and take a long time to get through, especially once the recommendations are delivered and the content team needs to get to work.

Housekeeping Optimization

As with anything, most blogs can be well-tended with basic housekeeping optimization tasks. These aren’t real strategies per se, but they are ongoing blog optimization tasks that ensure that your blogs are always up to date.

Housekeeping optimization strategies can include:

Simple schema updates
Title tag adjustments
SEO checks through optimization tools
Backlink updates with plugins

Targeted Optimization Strategies

Targeted optimization strategies are those optimizations that aim to hit a certain keyword, search intent, or topic that may be unique or different to a brand. This might not be a general building campaign but instead is changing a piece that could speak to a targeted topic and be more effective there.

If we take the example of employee monitoring software, a targeted campaign might find that targeting a certain demographic, like call centers, is very effective. The company would then put more resources into call center-related content. This might mean that the content already on the site is re-optimized to call centers, or copied and remastered for call center focuses.

Rebranding or Pivot Strategies

A rebranding or pivot optimization strategy will occur when a brand rebrands, redesigns its website, or pivots its content strategy. This optimization will look at all the existing content or strategy to adjust the focus to the new direction.

The pivot strategy was common during the COVID pandemic when many businesses were forced to do online-only work. The events space saw a huge pivot as in-person events were canceled and online events and virtual event software grew. Depending on the frequency of content production, the pivot strategy could utilize only old content to save money or produce brand-new content to keep up with the shifting times and strategy.

Split Optimization Strategies

Split optimizations need to focus on two different spots on one blog. So, let’s say you have a blog about remote I.T. services. The company may want to target local optimization posts for local SEO, but they may also want to provide general education posts without the geomodifier.

Split optimizations are very common. They may occur during the initial content marketing campaign, but usually, they show up as an optimization when the organization realizes the potential of this additional avenue and wants to share funds.

Niche Optimization Strategies

Businesses may deploy niche optimization strategies to address targeted niches’ pain points. Niche optimization campaigns can work like portfolio pieces and targeted campaigns because they speak to a specific grouping or target audience.

It is usually very helpful to optimize content for niche work, but it is often the case where mostly new content is created.

Google Update Optimizations

The most important optimization strategy, especially for 2023, is the Google Update strategy, deployed whenever a Google update is released. This is only relevant to those brands impacted by the update, so it’s not necessary for a company to make a significant adjustment with every update.

In this case, performing some crawl or content audit is usually helpful, especially if the update is more technical than on-page SEO.

Starting a Blog Optimization Strategy in 2023

Blog optimization may sound like a large process. Breaking it down into action items can make this process run smoothly.

Establish Your Goals

Before you start, sit down and map out your goals. If you’re interested in optimizing for a specific purpose (a Google update, for example), then your brand messaging might not change. However, you may need to run an SEO audit or a quick SEO strategy.

Conduct Audience Research and Brand Assessment

A great place to start with an optimization strategy is a “clean slate.” What we mean by this is not that you want to erase all your old work; instead, you want to pretend like you’re starting from scratch.

A brand assessment will tell you if you’re messaging is still right for your products, services, and target audience. Then research your market to identify the changing trends, topics, or strategies you ended up addressing. You may find that your blogging strategy is relatively okay, and it’s time to develop some eBooks.

Run Keyword Research for Topical Assessment

During optimization, it’s helpful to rerun keyword research and SEO audits to see where you’re hitting the mark. Running a content audit requires going through every page on your URL and seeing if it’s useful for SEO. Use this as a time to assess that blog’s performance to understand the next action steps.

You may see that your page is already hitting a certain keyword or key phrase. You may find that your keyword research informs you of new directions for your blog. This can include archiving, 301 redirecting, updating page titles, updating SEO schema, changing the primary keyword, and more.

Set Up a Spreadsheet With Your Action Plan

Once you’ve gone through each of your website’s blogs, create an action plan. If you’re updating your blog page, you want to consider the degrees of impact. For example, that blog may be shared on your socials or backlinking to a useful site. Consider this useful traffic and account for it either by updating it or creating useful redirects.

In this spreadsheet, you’ll document the actions needed at each step. If you’re conducting a pivot optimization, you’ll want to go through and categorize which blogs can remain the same and how they can support your strategy (i.e., linking?). For blogs needing a refresh, move these into a constructive tab that lists out all the items you need to complete. This likely includes:

Strategizing new SEO keywords
Optimizing content
Improving URL and page title
Adding images or improving existing media
General housekeeping and SEO schema

Your action plan should take into account the most up-to-date guidelines on what Google and other search engines consider high-quality content, including e-e-a-t page quality rating.

Assign Action Items

Likely, you aren’t doing this all on your own. If you are, then try to be reasonable about your expectations. If you’re assigning out to your team, delegate due dates and organize all the resources each team member needs. Take into account dependencies, like if you’re waiting on one person to complete a task, as this can impact other task timelines.

This includes:

Adding the keyword in the title
Keeping your title tag short
Using an evergreen URL
Crafting a compelling meta description
Optimizing images
Adding a table of contents
Including ‘linkable snippets’
Adding schema markup
Adding internal links

While a highly skilled SEO expert should tackle the optimization of each post, you can also learn and stay up to date with SEO best practices to ensure your blogs are always hitting the mark.