When taking SEO into consideration, many people focus on the body text. The copy makes up the core of the content, so while it makes sense to put so much effort into natural text content, it often comes at the detriment of other ways you can optimize SEO content.

Users have changed the way they consume media, and thus, the practical applications of SEO content must change. You may be surprised to learn that there are several ways you can optimize your SEO content that has nothing to do with the text body at all.

Caleb Ulku is an expert in online marketing, founder of Ulku Logistics. He works with businesses directly to help keep them up-to-date with the constantly-changing field and guide their online business decisions. He realized that many of his clients had never thought about including non-text elements in their business’ content, yet this factor was holding them back from providing a better user experience, which translates to better rankings in the search results.

Caleb brought these elements to light through his services. He notes that content has now become a blanket term for everything from videos, to images, and even infographics. These elements can all appear in Google’s search results as highly-rewarded, featured snippets.

If you take a look at Google’s search results page, you’ll notice there are several tabs that appear underneath the search bar. Each category is a form of content that you can optimize for, and gain a top ranking in.

The following three items are a couple of things that you can optimize with the help of SEO, but probably aren’t doing yet:

 

1. Interactive Quizzes

Online quizzes are some of the most interactive forms of content available to users. They have become extremely popular, and it doesn’t seem like their popularity will be slowing down any time soon. In fact, Buzzfeed attributes a majority of its daily traffic to quizzes hosted on their platform.

If you’re looking to drive traffic to your website and show up in the search results, you might want to give interactive quizzes a try.

How Do You Optimize a Quiz?

Learning how you can optimize a quiz is fairly simple. Include your target keywords in the title and text body of the quiz and you are already off to a great start.

If you have the option, consider changing the meta description as well. Key terms that show up in the meta description won’t have a direct effect on ranking, but they can show passively positive results as it entices users to click on the result, driving more traffic – a direct ranking factor – to you.

Remember to keep the quiz enjoyable no matter the subject, and if you sell a product, you might find it beneficial to match users with a particular product.

 

2. YouTube Videos

Did you notice that one of Google’s most popular tabs is the Videos tab? That is where videos from YouTube and DailyMotion are featured, matching the search terms users look for.

YouTube is one of the most popular search engines in the world. It became so promising that, in 2006, Google purchased YouTube and has since integrated it into its popular search results. Optimizing your YouTube videos will allow you to get more views and engage with more people, even from outside the YouTube platform.

How Do you Optimize a Video?

YouTube optimization relies on the keywords not just being in the title, but also within the video description. In the past, YouTube only supported one or two lines of content in this area, but today, it can support more than 500 words of text and links.

A tip for the hashtag savvy – hashtags on YouTube videos also help show the video on those search results as well.

 

3. Your Images

Much like videos, Google has a dedicated tab for images. Google Images was created so users can search for pictures with ease, perfect for today’s society of memes and reference material. Optimizing your images can help improve the visibility of your content, as users can easily click through the image to your webpage to learn more.

How Do you Optimize an Image?

When posting an image on your website, you can optimize it by filling in the image’s caption, alt text, and description. On platforms like WordPress, you can see these fields appear for any image you insert.

It is important that these areas are not spammed with keywords, but appear as readable, natural content to best adhere to Google’s guidelines.

 

With these tips, you can optimize your content in three new ways that you might not have thought of before, improving your visibility and rank positioning.