Having high-quality content that ranks well with Google all comes down to creating an effective content strategy to market your work. Having a real strategy in place takes that well-written content and puts it into action in a decisive way, so you can quickly understand why something is ranking well or what needs to be changed to help a less popular page or article. Broken down into smaller steps, it doesn’t have to be overwhelmingly technical or complex.

Attention digital marketers looking for content research tools: there’s a free, effective research method right under your nose, and it’s one that you likely know well.

Google Search is one of the optimal ways digital marketers can conduct content, topic, and keyword research. It’s a door into the world’s most sophisticated content database, giving you insight that, used well, will transform your content marketing into well-researched works that hit the mark every time.

There’s more to optimization than keywords. We have long been told that keyword optimization is – well - key. Modern search engine optimization, however, goes beyond simple keyword

Using keywords is a good way to discover new topics and add depth and value to your posts.

If you focus your digital or content marketing on topics rather than keywords, you’ll get less caught up in what keyword should go where and offer better, more engaging content that is genuinely useful and attracts the right audience.

If you find yourself on the wrong side of Google, you could lose significant traffic overnight. Worse, if you are relying almost entirely on Google traffic, you could go out of business.

Google provides a lot of help for business owners, who can have their sites designed with Google’s webmaster and search evaluator guidelines in mind, but over-reliance on internet traffic from one source - and a lack of attention to what Google is doing in its lab - can spell disaster.

Designing your headline is a combination of art and science.

Art, because your headline should be poetic. You can use poetic devices, such as alliteration and assonance, for example, to lull readers into taking action.

Poetry has been described as “the best words in the best order.” Your headline, therefore, should definitely be considered poetry.

Science, because you should focus on the strength and frequency of your keywords, the length of your title, and other factors relating to the composition of the title.

If you’re new to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), learning all there is to know may seem like a daunting task, but don’t worry just follow these 4 simple steps and you will quickly become an SEO pro.

Whether you are providing information, entertainment, products or services, smart SEO will match you to relevant search users, significantly increasing traffic from those you want to serve.