Both of these strategies, when skillfully deployed, act as catalysts to achieve what every content creator aims to do.  Increasing website or content visibility and driving more traffic toward one’s homepage is crucial to building an online brand and following.  While content optimization and search engine optimization are excellent tools every content creator should keep in his or her toolkit, one must pay close attention to their key differences.  Understanding how these strategies differ opens up all of the beneficial opportunities each have to offer.

Attracting A Certain Type Of Consumer

Ever wonder how to target a specific audience and keep them captivated?  The truth is, everyone on the internet is working overtime trying to accomplish the same thing.  Yet, not everyone succeeds.  Most of those who fail miserably at finding and holding an audience fail to deploy the tactical approach of content optimization. Using this strategy, content creators will delve into the minds of their readers in search of the topics they are interested in, as well as the types of words and phrases that particular audience responds to.  Gathering this information then becomes extremely important, so that it can be put into practice.

How To Find Out What People Are Talking About

This integral data can be gleaned through social media probes; start conversations about particular topics and note the language individuals use in the resulting conversations.  Another excellent source content creators can tap is the variety of content optimization tools, which can be a very quick and efficient way to hone your focus in on a targeted audience.  At any rate, serious writers and website developers should be utilizing content optimization as a tool to ensure their content matches what their audience is looking for.

Search Engine Optimization: Similar, But Different

Now, search engine optimization is definitely the most discussed and “popular” way to boost traffic to one’s website, or entice more readers to indulge their written content.  However, at the end of the day, search engine optimization aims to achieve the same objective as content optimization.  The difference lies in the strategy.  Search engine optimization is keyword-oriented, as opposed to the overall type of content and understanding of audience language, which content optimization is more interested in.

How To Deploy Search Engine Optimization

When creating content, one needs to pay close attention to keywords.  Keywords are extremely important in ensuring that one’s content or website achieves a high organic ranking in search engines.  Obviously, ranking high in searches is critical to reaching a more vast pool of viewers, especially when certain subjects are trending.  One must choose the right keywords to target a specific audience searching for particular content, while simultaneously attempting to choose keywords that avoid too much competition.  In this case, competition is bad, because that particular audience will tend to be divided amongst those sites using the same keywords as opposed to reeling in larger shares of the same group with effective keyword usage.

Proper Application And Understanding

Search engine optimization and content optimization are both excellent strategies that every content creator needs to utilize. Understanding the differences between the two, seeking tools to aid in collecting data, and applying all of that knowledge toward one’s content will be key in creating a successful online strategy.  All content creators can remember the difference between these two crucial elements of online content strategy with one sentence: Content optimization focuses on the entirety of the content being produced, while search engine optimization is committed to finding those perfect keywords that will ensure a website achieves a high organic search engine ranking.