Do you want more first-time viewers to your site with less work? Content optimization tools help by semi-automating the drudgery of making your best work discoverable and readable. Here’s a quick look at what content optimization tools do and how to choose the best one to match your workflow.
What are content optimization tools?
Content optimization tools make your content easier to find and easier to read. They bring more readers to your site by boosting your content’s organic search ranking. Once on your site, they retain new visitors with content that flows naturally and is visually pleasing.
Easier to find. Let’s be honest: there aren’t any deep secrets in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The rules of the road are well-known. (We have our own comprehensive SEO checklist that we built for our clients.) However, it’s hard to tell at a glance if a page is hitting all these bullet points.
Content optimization tools perform automated SEO checks. For example, they tell you if you have enough instances of your targeted keyword in your body text relative to its length. They’ll also identify if you have enough of the keyword in your headings, the page URL and meta description, the number of internal links your article has, etc.
Other tools go a step further and suggest enhancements to grab a potential reader’s attention. For example, the Headline Analyzer from MonsterInsights assesses how compelling your titles are based on the types of words they use.
Easier to read. Say you open an article. The first thing you see is a single paragraph that stretches the entire page of your portrait-mode monitor. How likely are you to keep reading?! Not very, right?
Similarly, if an article is a pile of run-on sentences, you’re probably not gonna make it to the end. Reading such content is mentally exhausting. An article should read like a light jog - not the Boston Marathon.
Readability doesn’t appear to be a direct ranking factor for search engines. However, it can impact whether readers stay on your site, engage more deeply in your content, and click on your Call to Actions.
That makes readability a big factor in stickiness. It’s also an indirect factor in search engine rankings, as a high bounce rate can hurt your overall position.
Content optimization tools improve readability by identifying and improving a number of factors:
- Spelling and grammatical errors
- Redundant or overly verbose language (e.g., “many” vs. “a lot of”)
- Length of paragraphs, sentences, and sections
- Use of active versus passive voice
- Complexity of language as measured by metrics such as the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score
Benefits of using content optimization tools
Should you use content optimization tools? As someone who’s been writing content for over two decades online, I say: yes, absolutely!
I recommend content optimization tools for two reasons:
They catch what you might miss. How often are you using passive voice in your article? Did you really include the keyword 11 times like you were supposed to?
Sure, you can comb your content with a fine-toothed comb to verify this. It’s easier - and less error-prone - to have an app do it for you.
They standardize output across writers. Technical content comes from various sources. Some authors may be professional technical writers. Others may be Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) with limited authoring experience. The result is various levels of quality and consistency from writer to writer.
Content optimization tools enforce rules and standards across all authors. That results in greater consistency and less work in the editing/pre-publication phase.
As someone who’s managed multiple writing teams with writers of diverse abilities, I view this aspect of content optimization tools as a godsend. They cut down the work I need to do as a publisher to get content out the door quickly.
Types of tools
It’s essential to select content optimization tools that fit into your workflow. There are two different categories of tools:
Integrated. Tools that work within your preferred authoring environment - such as WordPress, Google Docs, or your Web browser itself.
An integrated tool is your best option, as it fits seamlessly into your writers’ workflows. It minimizes copy/paste hassles and a potential loss of formatting.
A good example is the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. Below, you can see how Yoast automatically detects elements such as outbound links, internal links, and the use of the SEO keyword throughout the article.
A number of the tools I discuss below are available as WordPress plugins. WordPress is generally a great authoring environment due to it rich plugin ecosystem. That means you can mix and match different SEO and content optimization tools to get what you need. (For example, MonsterInsights’ Headline Analyzer, which I mentioned above, is available as a WordPress plugin as part of MonsterInsights’ commercial Google Analytics plugin.)
Standalone. Standalone tools work outside of your authoring environment. They’re not ideal, as they involve more leg work and might result in malformatted text caused by different editing environments. However, some targeted tools - such as the MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer - may be easy to incorporate into your workflow with minimal issues.
Popular content optimization tools
Here are a few tools we’ve seen our clients using and/or have tried for ourselves.
A few of these tools either leverage AI content generation or are often used to brush up AI-generated content. We’re not opposed to AI content as a well-scoped part of your content strategy. However, proceed with caution and keep a close eye on your analytics as you experiment with this.
In my analysis below, I’ll focus primarily on using content optimization tools to improve human-generated content.
Clearscope
Clearscope is currently one of the leaders in the SEO content optimization space. The company provides both an editor for authoring and writing content, as well as a Google Docs extension.
Clearscope also integrates keyword Search Engine Results Page (SERP) analysis into the editor. That means you can refine your targeted keyword in a single tool, rather than bouncing out to other tools like SEMRush.
Surfer SEO
Another popular option, Surfer is more slanted to companies that want to experiment with AI content. It works well with AI generation tools like Jasper and provides more direct content generation assistance. You can pattern a new article after the current top-ranking SERP entries and use Surfer to generate a starter skeleton for your article.
The plus side is that Surfer has a larger number of integrations, including Jasper, Google Docs, and WordPress.This makes it easy to match the tool to your workflow rather than forcing your workflow to incorporate the tool.
However, Surfer SEO also has a lot of mixed reviews. Many on Reddit who tried it for its content generation abilities say they abandoned it, as the suggested content was either bland or, in some cases, “nonsense.”
Hubspot
Popular Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform Hubspot has joined the fray with its SEO content optimization tools. On top of the traditional checks that other companies offer, Hubspot also supports a topic strategy discovery and planning tool.
The downside with Hubspot? It requires using the company’s CMS software. That’s fine if you already use it, but it may be a significant hurdle for those who use a different CMS.
SEMRush
Even SEMRush has entered the ring with a content optimization tool that works in Google Docs or WordPress. The SEO Writing Assistant provides the typical SEO checks and also includes a plagiarism checker to verify your authors didn’t lift text whole-cloth from elsewhere. (Sadly, this happens more often than it should.)
SEMRush also supports other SEO tools, such as a content template based on your current search engine rankings and an AI content generator.
These tools are available to all SEMRush customers. If you already use SEMRush for building your content strategy, this is an affordable way to boost your SEO game.
Yoast SEO
I mentioned Yoast SEO above, but it’s worth bringing up again if WordPress is your CMS of choice. The free tool with an optional yearly commercial license provides all of the foundational SEO checks, as well as a useful series of readability checks. It’s a great, affordable way to standardize authoring across your team.
The only issue with Yoast is that it’s WordPress-only. So if you use another CMS, you’ll have to consider one of the other available options.(Or move to Wordpress!)
Grammarly
Strictly speaking, Grammarly isn’t an SEO tool. However, it’s the best tool on the market for identifying basic writing issues, including spelling errors and grammatical faux pas.
I highly recommend using Grammarly along with one of the other SEO tools listed above. The Chrome browser extension works in any online editor, including WordPress, Google Docs, or another CMS.
How to use the tools
The best way to use content optimization tools is as part of the writing process. However, you can also use them to punch up existing content. If you’ve been in business for a while, you likely have dozens of pieces (or more) that could use an SEO and readability pass.
To revise older content, identify which items in your back catalog you should tackle first. Load each article in your CMS and integrate the content optimization tool’s suggestions to improve performance. (While you’re at it, also give the piece an evergreen check.)
Don’t apply changes robotically. Not every suggestion is a good one. For example, some of Grammarly’s suggested revisions may say the opposite of what you intended to say! Other suggestions may be correct but lack human color and warmth.
A content optimization tool is just that - a tool. It still requires an expert craftsperson to wield successfully.
Optimizing your entire content library
Content optimization tools can punch up single pieces of content. But how do you maintain an eye on your entire content library? I.e., how do you identify which articles are working, which are losing steam, and which could perform better given a bit of love?
We’ve done this work manually for our clients for years. We’re encapsulating that knowledge into ercule, our library optimization and content strategy platform.
Using the ercule app, you can see exactly which articles are doing well and where you may be missing opportunities. For example, the Sloths tab identifies articles that are generating traffic but not keeping people’s attention (i.e., have a high bounce rate). Meanwhile, Wallflowers shows you low bounce rate content that could benefit from an SEO brush-up and more aggressive promotion.
Want to learn more? Try the ercule app free and let us know what you think.
