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IMA: Content optimisation in simple words

IMA, international leader within the sector of industrial magnets, was basically one of my first clients since I work as a freelancer in content creation and translation - now, three years later, I still work with them. We started off through a marketing agency but now work together in direct contact and our collaboration hasn’t been affected, neither by changes within the company's team nor by the pandemic crisis in 2020. If you want to know a little more about my collaboration with IMA and about the goals we achieved through optimising the content of their website and blog, keep reading:

Talking of content optimisation… What is that actually about? It is a broad topic, but within this project especially two aspects to consider when optimising content lead to my main tasks to do for IMA. If you’ve had a look at the section of my work samples you might already know, and if you don’t like to click around on websites, stay here and keep reading about what we’ve been working on together:  

Revision of contents... or finding the right shoes

First, it was important to review the German content of their website. Why? Well, to get a better idea of what I’m talking about, here’s an example: Imagine you meet somebody and that person is wearing two different shoes, maybe even the wrong way round. You’d probably make them notice or, if not, I’m pretty sure at least a tiny voice in your head would make some comment about it. Don’t worry! I would say that is an almost instinctive reaction when you meet someone and there’s something, in your opinion, “different”.

Not only when we meet people in person, we react this way though. It’s the same with online presentations. Even a dull, little mistake leaves an impression. The impression itself is nothing to complain about, actually, we love reactions, but we want to make sure it really is a good one!

When it comes to translations, more companies than you would think rely on Google Translate. Either because of a limited budget or because of timing and that’s exactly how on many websites weird copies appear, especially when the base language is very different from the destination language, as it is the case in Spanish and German, for example. Google Translate and other translation tools are very useful, but they don’t consider cultural aspects or ways of saying when translating, at least not 100 %. The result is content that leaves the same impression as a person that wears two different kinds of shoes.  

So, coming back to my collaboration with IMA, when I started working with them, I noticed that the company was indeed wearing different shoes; gladly when I told them, they appreciated and trusted me. That’s how I started to proofread their website, making sure to transmit Spanish information in a German - and of course, a correct - way.  

The key... is all about the words

Apart from the correction of the website's content, the next task on the company’s to-do-list was to improve their blog. After some changes within their marketing team, the new CMO put me up to date on what was actually part of the content strategy and the current SEO best practices - thanks to Thibaut at this stage! - so the next step for me was the following:

Writing optimised articles to position for keywords related to the magnetism industry, focusing also on secondary keywords to improve the company’s organic ranking.

Now, what is that again? As this is not supposed to be another SEO Guide - the internet really is full of those - I want to stick to simple examples. So, to sum up:

Imagine you meet up with a friend for a coffee and while talking, it turns out your friend wants to buy new shoes. Lucky him - because you know quite a lot about shoes and can advise him about what to pay attention to, what would suit him and other things to consider. Also, it turns out you ARE actually selling shoes for a reasonable price, so guess what chances are that your friend buys his new shoes from you after having given him such useful advice?

I know, that’s a pretty basic example, but actually: many things are quite basic! Even content strategies are not - or should not - be as complex as one might think to be successful. The idea is to provide information, useful information that on one side gives value to the reader and thus - even though they don’t end up buying - increases trust and makes them come back to you.

On the other hand, this information shows that you know about your business, which again increases trust and is a proof of quality. That again transmits a good feeling, so one is more likely to buy from you. Obviously, you can’t convince only your friends to buy something from you.

That’s where we come back to my collaboration with IMA and, of course, Google steps into the game. Basically, we do not only create content for our friends - just in case you got lost here, with “friends” I mean the company’s current clients -, but also for people we do not even know yet. Focusing on the right keywords and using them according to the SEO best practices, Google makes sure you appear amongst the first results. That is pretty much the way to gain more visibility without having to invest much into paid advertisement, reaching more people and getting in touch with possible future clients. 

To make long stories short:

Until here, that’s a lot of theory, I know! So let’s come to the results:

I did my best to put the company's guidelines into practice when writing or translating articles, making sure the texts are correct, relevant and informative, in order to attract more companies and convert them into possible clients. That was my job, at least for the German market. According to the reports Thibaut sent me, we could improve the ranking for many keywords, position new ones and thus improve the number of visits on the website. In 2021, he confirmed that Germany had moved from 5th or 6th on to the 3rd position in the list of countries that bring traffic to IMA's website. In 2022 we reached even the 2nd position!

Thanks to this project - and the marketing team of IMA - I had the opportunity to collaborate on a content strategy with long-term goals and to learn a lot about SEO, about getting out of my comfort zone (honestly, I would have never thought to have that much to do with magnets!) and also about creating content that gives value to the reader, in this case already existing and potential new clients of IMA.