When we help our clients improve their online brand visibility, we always address the need for sound content or blogs built around keywords. Fresh content is one of the most important factors for ranking on Google – at least in my humble opinion – and we all have Google’s Panda update fresh on our minds, but that content has to be optimized, and so often we find it is not.

Optimizing content is not hard. In fact, it will become second nature and be part of your writing process in short order. Remember, if people can’t find the content you create, then it’s a waste of time to create it. Here are a few quick tips on how to easily optimize your content for better online brand visibility.

  1. Pick one or two keywords around which to optimize your blog or content. You can’t optimize a blog around much more than that unless you’re writing a novel, so just pick one or two and focus there.
  2. Use at least one of the keywords in the title of the content. The title – at least in a blog – typically becomes the URL, so using a keyword in the title will optimize the URL as well.
  3. Use the same keyword you just used in the title in the first sentence or two. Bold it and hyperlink it to the page on your website that addresses that keyword (see the first paragraph above).
  4. Use the keyword(s) in the body of the content liberally, but don’t write for the search engines. This is where art meets science. If you load your content with keywords it’s going to read poorly, but you need to use the keyword(s) enough so that Google’s spiders understand what’s going on and give you some of that online brand visibility love. Just don’t overdo it!
  5. When writing your Meta data, use the keyword(s) in the title and description. Meta data may be losing some its Google luster, but it’s still an important piece of the online brand visibility equation and a sound best practice.
  6. Italicize and/or bold your keyword(s) once or twice throughout the content. Again, don’t overdo it.
  7. When you’re sharing and syndicating your content, be sure to use keywords. Use them in your Tweets, Facebook shares, and as tags in other social aggregator sites like Delicious and Digg.

And…

7.5 Be patient. Online brand visibility takes time if done correctly, and you want to do it correctly. Black hat tactics will only work for a short time, and then you’ll be digging yourself out of the hole you created for quite a while.

The above tips will become second nature after a short time and become part of your writing, which in the long run will make your content read nicely. Content optimization is a key component of your online brand visibility, so be sure to incorporate it into your arsenal.