Content relevance

Written by Fernando Maciá

What is relevance?

When we talk about relevance in online marketing, and more specifically in SEO, we are referring to the correspondence that must exist between the keywords entered by the user in his search engine query and the content and code of the web page accessed through the search results.

We will therefore try to work on relevance because the more relevant we are to the searches made by the user, the more presence we will have in the search engine results pages. With greater visibility, we guarantee a higher number of visits to our website.

If you are relevant you will be more visible. If you are more visible you will have more traffic. If you have more traffic, you will be closer to success

Objective of relevance

Basically we will focus on achieving that relevance through two ways, on the one hand by optimizing our website for certain keywords, previously extracted from an optimal keyword search or keyword research; this will help to increase visibility and thus traffic.

On the other hand, by being more relevant to our target audience, the visits we receive will be of a higher quality and therefore, will have a higher probability of converting providing the achievement of our objectives.

Factors to be taken into account in relevance

When we talk about relevance, it is not just a matter of providing optimal titles or descriptions, but it goes much further than that, optimizing these factors, we must be relevant to the user not only with the content but with the structuring of it, the links that converge in it, and within a logical architecture of the website, distributing correctly and coherently the keywords that define it, in accordance with its contents.

We will therefore take into account:

• Define an architecture based on a correct distribution of keywords in the architecture. The keyword research and the assignment of keywords to each URL based on the content of the URL in order to be relevant to the content for the user.
• Correctly structure the content and its linking.
• Title, must contain the keyword to which the page is oriented, but its wording must be natural, descriptive and coherent with the content of the page. Google recommends using between 40 and 60 characters.
• Metadescription will not be valued for positioning by search engines, but it is the main claim in the snippets of search results, the main call to action. It will be the most commercial element, use it being descriptive, include the keyword, synonyms, compound forms of it, write in a natural way and sell the content that the user will find. The recommended length is between 130 and 155 characters.
• Hierarchy labels, or the so-called Hn. Every page must include an H1, be unique, contain the keyword and structure the page content around it using the rest of the Hn on the page. H2, H3, …
• Text and keyword density, it is important that web pages include text. It depends on the type of web, if it is transactional, informative, social, etc. the volume of text may vary, but it will always be optimal to develop a text relevant to the content and the keyword for which the user came to the web, becoming relevant to the user. Include again the target keywords of the page, without overdoing it, with a standardized and descriptive wording. The text must provide value to the user and must therefore be written for the user, not for a search engine crawler. Keep in mind that you should have a logical keyword density, around 2-4% as long as you use synonyms or words that the search engine assimilates as such without being repetitive and impractical for our visitor.
• Images and their alternative texts, alt attribute. Use images, they are a very attractive attraction for the user, but always label them correctly. Use the alt attribute and in the value of this, include an alternative text that accurately describes the content of the image, including the chosen keyword that defines the image, without abusing or crowding keywords in these images. When these images are used to link to other content, the alternative text of the image will be used by Google as anchor text of the link.
• Internal links and their anchor texts or anchor text, when we link other contents from the page, the text that includes the link to that content is called anchor text. It is taken into account by search engine robots when determining the object of the linked page. It should be concise and relevant to the content it links to. In modern search engines it is usually represented by blue, underlined text.
• Friendly URLs or semantic URLs must be friendly both for the user and for search engines, so we recommend that in addition to including the keyword, they should have a logical structure and be perfectly understood when reading the content of the same. We must not include symbols, accents or other characters or variables that impede its comprehension. We should not overdo it either.

If you can remember the Url, it will be a sure sign that it is friendly.

Best practices in relevance optimization

The content of your web page must be rich and according to the user’s expectation, provide value to the user with it.

When defining the above factors of relevance, write naturally, without being repetitive, use synonyms, be consistent with what the user expects and the content that is linked, titled, described or defined.

Avoid duplicate content, the generation of duplicate content detracts from the relevance of the page. The search engine, when displaying content relevant to the user’s search, will always offer content that is not only relevant but also different from the rest. If you repeat, duplicate content, it will be one of the factors most penalized by search engines, becoming a reason per se for a formal or manual penalty by Google.

Be careful not to generate uncrawlable content for search engines, either voluntarily or involuntarily. Avoid frames, the web programmed with frames and iframes, with flash technology, pop up, Ajax, etc.

Continually create new content, if the crawlers check that it is static, it will cease to be relevant, so generate content, new pages, develop the blog, FAQ or frequently asked questions. Think about and develop the right strategy for generating relevant content.

If you use the blog, tag and categorize it in a meaningful and relevant way.