One of the best ways to optimize underperforming content is to, first of all, identify what is wrong with it. For the average person, it's not always easy to identify those nitty-gritty details that can make all the difference between high-ranking content and poor content. For this reason, the best thing to do would be to get a professional SEO and content marketing expert to audit the content. The expert will identify some of the key issues you need to address and give you a comprehensive breakdown of why your content is not performing as well as you want it to. Also, SEO experts may give you immediate recommendations that you can explore right away and long-term solutions that help you get the best out of your content marketing strategy in the future.
Most people won't read your content closely - they skim, scan headlines, laugh at memes, or click on something interactive. By adding more white space to your content, making it clearly structured and easy to skim, and including images, videos, or interactive elements where appropriate (with alt-tags for accessibility), you make it easier for the reader to consume and boost performance. Pro tip: the easiest headlines to scan are questions, so use your H2s to ask questions - just be sure to answer them in the first sentence of the body.
When talking about SEO optimization & rankings of a specific piece of content, search intent is one of the significant factors that affect search performance. Writing content for people first and search engines second is a creative process I preach, and now it's showing more than ever across many industries. Always make sure to nail the search intent the best way possible and offer the most helpful content you can for the designated topic. Updating content to solve the search intent problem brings significant improvements (if there are no manual actions or other SEO problems included).
Backlinks are one of Google's ranking factors when determining content quality. The more backlinks you have to your content that come from authoritative sources, the higher your content will rank. Sometimes, backlinks happen organically. And sometimes, you'll need to conduct outreach to encourage other publishers to link to you. Building a strong network makes link-building easier, as your publishing contacts will already be familiar with you and your brand. Share resources with them that their audiences may find helpful or interesting and ask for a backlink. Do this consistently with all the content you publish and your rankings will skyrocket.
Write a compelling meta title and descriptive headings to pique the interest of your readers enough that they will go to the full article. Weak meta titles and headings can be reasons why your content is underperforming. These elements might be small details but they make all the difference because they either grab a reader’s attention or make them lose interest. The meta title, or title tag, is particularly important because it’s what readers can see displayed on the search engine result page.
Rather than sink into shame and ignore underperforming content, there are three steps content marketers can take to optimize content. 1. Reread the piece out loud. Does it sound like a human wrote it? 2. Revise the piece. Add personal touches. Update verbs in CTAs to be more interesting than the basic "read more, check it out" etc. Are paragraphs too long? Consider breaking long walls of text into shorter, bite-sized sentences. 3. Recycle the piece. After you've revised, it's time to get the new content out in front of your audience. Promote it on social media, share it in your newsletter, shout it from the mountaintops,whatever it takes to let everyone know you're offering a fresh perspective.
If your blog post is underperforming, take a second look at the layout. Is it easy for your visitors to find the answer to the main question they had when clicking on this article? If the first paragraph does not provide this information, consider adding a key takeaways or TL;DR section at the top of the page. Here you can summarize in 3 to 4 bullet points the most important details of your article while also including your main target keywords. By outlining this section in its own text box, the information can better stand out and grab your reader's attention while also helping to boost your SEO efforts.
To optimize underperforming content, start writing for a REAL audience. Your audience is composed by real people with real problems and real expectations. Even if you must consider some SEO rules when writing your content, stop thinking about AI and Google first. How to make sure you currently write for a real audience: - Analyse your market news and use it to share insights and comments - Share your customers' success to highlight your expertise - Focus on meaningful content only related to our personas' challenges
One way to effectively optimize underperforming content is to utilize structured data to make sure that the search engines have a better understanding of the purpose of your content. Whether it be a promotional article, event blog post, how to / DIY, educational resource, recipe, product description page or for entertainment purposes, correct implementation of structured data will help fine tune how your content ultimately performs as search engines are now using intent to deliver better results in the SERPs. Prior to resubmitting to the search engines, be sure to test your structured data schema using a free tool like Google’s Schema Markup Testing Tool. Once you have successfully added the structured data to your content then resubmit to the search engines and track your traffic, page views and monitor the goal of the content – sales of an item, tickets to an event, registrations for a course, sharing, re-posting or engagement.
If you don't have an elaborate SEO strategy in place, then that's the first step to getting underperforming content to do better in search. Keyword research, interlinking, and proper metadata structure are the foundation of well-optimized content. But if you're already doing all of that and still not getting your content to perform as it should, it might be time to put your social media channels to work. Social media is part of off-page SEO the same as link building. This type of SEO activity is vital to establishing authority and broader E-A-T efforts. Since link building is quite challenging, it might not be the most effective way to optimize underperforming content, so give social media a go first. Prepare a posting schedule that you'll stick by, decide on the format and content of your posts, and choose which platforms best fit your needs. The social media boost might be just the thing your content needs to blow up.
One place to uncover clues about underperforming content is the Google SERPs for your topic or keyphrase. By knowing what is most valued by the Google algorithm, you can compare your current content considered to be most relevant to searchers. Drop your keyphrase or topic into a Google search, and audit the results on page one. What's the search intent of the highest performers? Are the top spots filled with educational articles or how-to blogs, service pages, videos, or product reviews? Does your content align? To rank near the top for that keyphrase, your content needs to match the intent defined by Google. No fear, however. You can either reoptimize the existing content with the desired intent or reoptimize for a keyphrase that already matches your content.
I've seen probably hundreds of blog posts over the years whose content was actually of high quality, but it lacked traffic, engagement, conversions, etc. One of the easiest fixes is simply adding elements that break up the article visually. Instead of a wall of text (which users find intimidating and boring), add images, lists, pullquotes, stats, a graph, charts. Anything to break up those big paragraphs!
Marketing & Outreach Manager at ePassportPhoto
Answered 3 years ago
One of the reasons your content might be underperforming is that perhaps you're competing for the wrong keywords. What if the keywords you had on your mind aren't winnable because of high competition? You must pick keywords that are within your reach and can realistically "win" them over. The alternative is that sites with a much greater domain rating will almost literally bully your own content.
Primarily there could be tons of different ways to optimize underperforming content but one recommendation would be to view the data and compare See what the competition has written and how well they have written compared to yours, see if there is any thing missing or not defined well enough and redo the content Doing a complete overhaul is not the only solution and it would be better to do minor changes and test out different things, see if there are any improvements and move forward from there
Underperforming content is usually characterized by poorly optimized headings that fail to offer value to readers and that web crawlers cannot decode easily. To help improve such content, research top keywords in your industry and rewrite each heading to include these keywords. Additionally, ensure that your headings answer customers directly, are relevant to the content, and can be read on small screens, i.e., optimized for mobile.
Optimizing underperforming content is key to successful digital marketing; leveraging data is the best way to do this. By collecting data about your audiences, engaging with them, and understanding how they interact with your content, you can generate insights that help refine your strategies. Additionally, being aware of trends and technological changes can also be important when optimizing underperforming content. For example, utilizing Site Performance Analyzers or Video/Audio Analyzers may provide useful information as to how a page or video performs relative to its industry peers. Utilizing the collected data mentioned above and pairing it with tested execution tactics such as advertising campaigns and SEO optimization can bring higher performance among less popular content pieces, ultimately leading to better returns across the board.
Senior Content Writer | Technology and Business at Tidio
Answered 3 years ago
When it comes to content performance, every little detail matters. It is especially true for metadata. Many content creators overlook meta titles, descriptions, slugs, and text structure. This way, any well-written article will not perform well as those details do matter. The meta title alone can convince people to click on your website among all other search results. Likewise, it can discourage them from visiting your website. Make sure you think of your meta title and description as hooks rather than regular sentences in your text. Add relevant keywords to your slug and headings, speak to the reader, and check the length of your meta titles and descriptions. This way, you can give an additional boost to your underperforming content and ensure that it’s seen by more people.
Enhance the overall experience for the user: Make sure that your website can be navigated easily, that the material can be read and understood easily, and that the website can load rapidly. This will keep visitors interested and lower the percentage of visitors who immediately leave the site.
A simple way to optimize underperforming content is to do a quick search for your target keyword and see what type of content is ranking well. Scroll past the ads and analyze the results on page 1. What do they have in common? For example, do the top 10 results all feature a free pdf download? Is there a video embedded that adds value to the reader? Make a note of your findings and revisit your existing underperforming content, updating it with the type of content you have found that is currently ranking well. Keep an eye on your analytics to review your ranking in light of your updates.
Content that wasn’t widely read at the beginning can still be useful and it could still make for relevant reading down the road. If there is an old piece of content that perfectly accompanies a new piece of content, use a hyperlink. Make strategic use of that hyperlink. Put it up high in the new content and incentivize people to click on it. News outlets use that method all the time and it bolsters reader interest. Get your content in front of the right people and make it available to them. Before long, your under-performing content will have legs. “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Citizen Kane” were not blockbuster films upon release, but they continued to circulate and gained more exposure over time. Eventually, more people watched them and realized how brilliant they were. Keep that in perspective.