BLOG CONTENT REVIEW/AUDIT - SUMMARY

London & Zurich - Full Audit Available

Summary

As per our discussions, I reviewed the Knowledge Hub content on the London & Zurich website.

I have completed a thorough analysis of readability, SEO and conversions (how easy it is for someone to convert on a piece of content) for your Guides and News articles. You can navigate to each section using the table of contents below. I have also included a ‘key takeaways and recommendations’ section that summarises the key suggestions across all content. 

Key takeaways and recommendations

Target audience

It’s important to identify and speak to the primary audience that will be reading the content so that each piece is aligned to solve their pain points. Currently, the audience of each piece of content isn’t always clear. I recommend fleshing out the guides for Landlords, Gyms and Nurseries so that they each get more value.

Linking

Utilise internal linking if writing about a topic that's mentioned on another blog post, e-book, or web page, it's best practice to link to that page. Not only will internal linking help keep visitors on the website, but it also highlights other relevant and authoritative pages to search engines. Linking to other well-performing pages will give the newer page a better chance of ranking due to the association.

Link to external articles or websites if they enhance the point you are making as it shows search engines that you provide a good user experience. Ideally, link to influential and quality websites e.g., by adding sources for compelling stats. Associating with already-trusted websites is great for SEO.

Landing pages

Create tailored, optimised landing pages with clear CTAs or enticing offers – e.g., for guides directed at a specific target audience. They could have the aim of conversion/click-through or lead-gen such as to get in contact, use the pricing calculator or fill in a sales enquiry form.

Keywords

Make sure the primary keywords are in titles, main headings and the first sentence (if it makes sense and sounds natural). Make sure secondary keywords are related to primary keyword(s), in subheadings and incorporated naturally and strategically throughout the copy.

Headlines/titles

Make post titles more relevant to the search query to motivate users to click on articles when they see them in search results. Click-through rate (CTR) plays an important role in SEO.

Use titles and subheadings – the blogs could be a lot more enticing to the reader (with optimised titles) and better optimised for search (with headings). I also recommend making headings longer and including long-tail keywords. As well as adding the focus keyword, try to make the headlines catchier by using action words. Also, think about creating more numbered lists and listicles – but stay on brand.

Copy/content - Engagement

Create more benefit-driven content. Customers only really care about one thing – what is in it for them?

Remember to keep the engaging part ‘above the fold’ - the point at which the user must scroll to get more information. Currently, the articles don’t offer value, important information or engaging content above the digital fold.

Some introductions aren’t enticing enough to keep users reading. A good introduction builds on the headline and lets the reader know exactly what to expect by illustrating what the benefit is to them (why should they spend their precious time reading it?). Offer the value/benefit quickly and efficiently. The hook (the first sentence or two) should pull them in. It can be a question, cutting statement or inspiring statistic to incite curiosity – utilise these.

Embolden or italicise key phrases and words to improve scanning. Include more stats, quotes and facts to engage the audience - this will give your article more authority and make it more scannable.

You use the passive voice often – e.g., ‘This can be done…’. It is better to address the audience directly, e.g., ‘You can do this…’ or ‘We can do this…’ Using the active voice helps to add energy and clarity to the content.

Categories

Categorise the content, e.g., by subject matter, colour coding or grouping them under subheadings with secondary keywords. We can achieve this by dividing the articles into the major topics discussed in the Knowledge Hub.

You could use the topic cluster model - choose broad topics for which to rank groups of related content that collectively cover a broad subject area. They create a strong internal linking network, improving SEO by giving the blog authority over a topic, as well as organising the content.

Deploy tags for specific topics discussed in an individual blog post to complement the categories used for the broad grouping of your posts. A blog tag is a word or phrase that describes a blog post, representing the specific points it makes. Tags describe the subject matter of your posts, letting you micro-categorise your content. Tags help your content rank, make a large blog more manageable and appealing to readers, relate posts to one another, and show you which blog topics your readers like most.

Most of the News content pieces don’t quite fit under the term ‘News’ – they are more ‘Insights’. Consider changing page/sitemap title. Also, many of the articles are guides and could be moved to that section.

CTAs

Make CTAs clearer and more engaging by having more that are direct conversions. Include a brief paragraph at the end to conclude the articles – highlight how it benefits them and offers value. Every piece of content must have an engaging CTA because the closing paragraph compels the reader to take action. Often the articles end abruptly and without the next steps to take. It’s important to make it easier for users to take the next step.

Maintenance

It’s important to create evergreen content and to optimise older posts by updating them with new examples, tips etc. You can also repurpose different pieces of content to create another one or publish it in a different format (e-book, infographics, slides, etc.). Remove redundant, outdated or poorly performing posts that are no longer relevant to the audience.

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Combine more engaging guides into toolkits and repurpose them into a webinar or PDF guides.

Length

A healthy mix of shorter and longer posts is ideal. Quick posts are good because we can read them in a short period of time, while longer posts deliver the biggest value for organic SEO.

Create longer articles (c.1500 or more words) that cover a topic in greater detail. Some of the shorter posts (500 words or less) could be combined into longer-form content with a greater chance of ranking.

I also recommend taking the best-performing posts and making them even better by increasing their comprehensiveness. Include more topics and keywords that the content doesn’t currently cover, add and optimise images, and structure the content to improve user experience. This will bring even more traffic to the website.

Publishing

Publish articles more regularly to increase the chances of showing up in search engines, thus gaining more authority from Google. Produce new content to fill existing gaps – i.e., more relevant posts on current trends, and posts solving current problems for specific audiences.

Credibility

Add testimonials to help convert undecided users as required. You can also add customer logos, quotes, etc. to increase credibility/trust.

Visuals

It’s important to include images and high-quality visuals throughout the content as search engines rank engaging content with visuals higher in search results. Images and videos are far more engaging than plain text, so make sure blog posts contain those types of assets between paragraphs. If possible, try to include at least one high-quality and relevant image for every 500 words for a good text-to-image ratio. These assets can include images, screenshots, infographics, videos, graphs, charts.

In terms of the current images, I suggest mixing them up a bit more. There are a lot of people at desks with notepads and laptops. Images are powerful tools to capture attention and add value to written content. Create custom illustrations to explain concepts or to accompany data.