SEO (search engine optimization) encompasses all the actions you can take to have your website rank higher in search engine results. The goal of SEO is to increase the quantity of organic (non-paid) traffic your website content receives from those search engines. On-page SEO factors like page titles and descriptions, content (a blog), tags, internal links, and even site architecture can help improve search visibility and increase traffic.

With that in mind, we’ve created an SEO checklist for basic website optimization. Make sure these nine things are on your radar.

1. Identify Keywords

Identifying target keywords is a crucial first step in your SEO optimization checklist. These short words and phrases indicate what users are searching for — and identifying the best, most relevant ones and then implementing them for your website is vital for optimization. Once you’ve established which keywords to use, you can create high-quality, relevant, and authoritative content based on those words and phrases.

There are keyword research tools — including Google Keyword Planner, part of Google Ads,  and SEMrush — that can help you find keyword suggestions for your SEO. These tools give you access to seeing the search volume for your keywords, what the competition is like, and trends for search volume over time.

2. Integrate Keywords

After you’ve identified the relevant keywords for your business, you’ll want to put them to use. This is part of your on-page SEO checklist and ensures that every page of your site activates primary and secondary keywords to your advantage, including in title tags, meta descriptions, page headers (H1) and subheaders (H2 and H3), image alt text, and content. Just make sure to avoid keyword stuffing and keep the content and sentence flow as organic and easy to read as possible.

3. Make Sure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly

Nine in 10 (94%) internet users access the internet using a mobile device. So it’s no wonder Google prioritizes the sites that optimize for mobile in its search results. A site must be responsive in its user experience, quickly adapting to mobile and tablet devices. Mobile-friendly elements like hamburger menus, optimized images, and easy-to-read text can help ensure a good UX. You’ll also want to regularly test your site on mobile and across different devices.

4. Maximize Site Speed

In today’s time-starved climate, where attention spans are shorter than ever, faster websites are generally going to edge out the ones that load more slowly. That’s why maximizing your site speed should always be included in your technical SEO checklist. Google suggests a page load time of no more than two or three seconds. Try using the Google PageSpeed Insights to analyze your site speed and learn about any necessary recommendations for improvements.

5. Ensure Additional Technical SEO Is Covered

In addition to page speed, other technical SEO tasks include basic site audits like adding internal links and fixing any broken ones. Make sure to optimize your website architecture and submit updated sitemaps to Google. You’ll also want to make sure your website is secure and uses “HTTPS” rather than “HTTP.”

6. Optimize Images

Part of maximizing site speed can include image optimization. Images should load quickly and correctly — something that Google also values. To optimize images, consider reducing image file sizes to ensure they’re web-friendly. You’ll also want to label your images with relevant keywords and use alt tags that describe images to improve accessibility.

7. Develop a Content Strategy

Creating high-quality content that provides your customers with interesting information is essential for any SEO checklist. Content should be fresh, accurate, and relevant. And it goes without saying that a human being should edit content to ensure it is accurate, all links work, and that it is free of typos or other errors. Another way to help with page engagement is by integrating images and bullet points for maximum user engagement. An updated blog with articles that utilize keywords can also improve SEO.

8. Engage in Link-Building

External backlinks can help your search ranking — when they are accurate. Identifying links that no longer work on other sites and suggesting links to your pages as replacements can be a lot of work, but it will pay dividends. Tools like SEMrush or SE Ranking can be helpful in auditing and tracking backlinks.

9. Optimize for Local Search

If you have a local or regional company, optimizing for local search should be included in your local SEO checklist. To do this, make sure to claim and update your Google Business Profile.  You’ll also want to use location-based keywords in your website content, titles, and meta descriptions. Reviews can be helpful for your SEO, too, so you may want to think about encouraging your best customers to leave a review.

Want Support for Your SEO Checklist?

This basic SEO checklist is a starter kit for your long-term SEO strategy. Ultimately, SEO is a long game, and results don’t often appear immediately. It’s also a continuous process that requires constant monitoring and analysis.If SEO seems overwhelming and you’d like some expert guidance and support, Denver Post Media is here to help. We’re leaders in helping brands and companies achieve their marketing and advertising goals, including SEO and website ranking. Learn more here.

Relevant, high-quality content is more critical than ever today — especially in a digital marketing strategy. That’s because content marketing is all about sharing your brand’s story in a way that feels authentic and valuable to the consumer.

But, content marketing can be expensive. And for small businesses and startups who are on a strict budget for content marketing, it may feel daunting to execute. If you’re working within a small budget for content marketing, there are still plenty of ways you can create and maximize content to your advantage — without breaking the bank.

Check out these ideas that allow content to be king while being kind to your content marketing budget.

Build Your Following

Does your website have a blog? Are you actively building your email list? Are you posting on relevant social channels for your audience? These are just a few ways to establish a foundation for your content marketing — without paying for digital advertising. Timely, high-quality blog articles that include SEO can help generate more awareness and leads. An engaged email list is ready and receptive to content. Likewise, maintaining a consistent social posting schedule can help build traction. To boost social engagement for free, interact with customers, answer DMs, and consider running contests to increase your following.

Get the Most Out of Your Content

Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose! It can feel overwhelming (and not budget-friendly!) to have to generate new content constantly — and to make that content engaging. So, don’t reinvent the wheel every time. Think about content that has performed well in the past and strategize ways to recycle it.

For example, you could take a successful blog and repackage it into a social carousel post with informative, shareable takeaways before sending it in an email newsletter. Or you could take video soundbites from a seminar or workshop you hosted and turn them into engaging teaser reels. You could even create a white paper from that workshop. The options are truly endless when you think outside the box to extend your content across multiple channels and posts.

The more content you can get out of a singular exercise, the better ROI you are likely to see, and the less time and money you’ll have to spend on new content.

Leverage UGC (User-Generated Content)

Utilizing user-generated content (UGC) is both a strategic and cost-effective way to engage in content marketing, too. Indeed, 79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions, and consumers find UGC 9.8x more impactful than influencer content when making a purchasing decision.

UGC includes things like giveaways or contests asking people to submit a video, photo, or testimonial. Social listening tools can also help you find organic content from customers — or you could always reach out to customers directly to share their stories.

Lean Into Customer Reviews

Another way to generate low-cost, high-value content is by showcasing real customer reviews. While this may seem relatively basic, the research shows that they work — and they work well. In fact, 94% of people say that positive reviews make them more likely to use a business — 91% of individuals aged 18 to 34 trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Whether you’re listing the number of five-star reviews received in an email, or highlighting direct feedback from customers, it all can tip the scales in your favor when consumers are evaluating your business or product offering.

Define Your Audience

If you’re going to invest in digital advertising with part of your content marketing budget, it’s crucial to ensure you identify the right target audience you want to reach so you can maximize your dollars. While this audience may be smaller and more niche, reaching your best-fit prospects will often ensure a better return on investment. You may also consider segmenting your target audience so you can create even more personalized content for them to help increase conversion rates.

In addition to standard demographic data like age, gender, location, and income, you may consider qualifications like your audience’s:

• Key motivators, beliefs, and values
• Pain points and challenges
• Preferred content channels
• Preferred content types

Evaluate Your Content Marketing Budget Breakdown

You may also want to strategize exactly how you want to segment your content marketing budget. It can be helpful to look at a typical content marketing budget example to do that. Here’s one example that shows how funds might be allocated:

• Content creation (the actual writing, design, and production of the content)
• Content promotion (paid advertising, social media boosts, and email marketing to get the content in front of more people)
• Marketing tools (CRM and CMS, email platforms, and analytics tools that help make your content marketing streamlined, effective, and measurable)
• Salaried team members
• Freelance or agency resources

Consider Bringing in Outside Resources

As you can see with the content marketing budget breakdown, there is a lot that can go into the process. Rather than investing in new marketing tools and using internal resources — or feeling like you must hire a new team member or two — you may want to consider bringing in some reinforcements.

An expert digital marketing agency like Denver Post Media can be an incredible asset to small teams wanting to build their content marketing strategy. Our award-winning Content Studio team is dedicated to storytelling solutions that drive value, and we specialize in working with clients of all sizes, including small businesses and startups. We can scale your content marketing quickly, effectively, and within budget.Our content solutions typically fall into one of the following three categories — including content development and strategy, branded content, and sponsored content — but we offer custom solutions for all our partners and their budgets. Learn more here.

You’ve got mail! Email is nothing new in the world of marketing, but it has earned its keep as a powerful tool to drive conversion.

Recent studies show that people are three times more likely to make a purchase from email campaigns than social media. What’s more, email marketing ROI is around $36 for every dollar spent — so it’s not just effective, it’s cost-effective.

That’s why it’s no surprise that email marketing has maintained its staying power to complement and elevate other advertising efforts.

Yet, an average of 40% of email users have at least 50 unread messages in their inboxes, with one in 10 saying they have more than 1,000 unread messages!

So, what does it take to break through the inbox clutter and make email “work”? In today’s highly competitive, highly content-driven world, there are several things to consider when creating successful email marketing.

9 Essential Factors for Successful Email Marketing Campaigns

1. Build and Maintain a High-Quality Email List

Before you can ever press “send” on that amazing email campaign you’ve developed, you need to have a list to receive your email! While it’s easy to focus on list quantity, it’s better to focus on its quality. You can have 100,000 people on a list, but if only 1% of them are interested in what you have to offer, then it’s no more effective than 1,000 highly engaged recipients.

That’s why it’s vital to continually cultivate your email list through strategies like custom sign-up forms, lead-generating offers, incentives and discounts, and more. Preference centers — where subscribers can check the box on their interests — can also be helpful in developing a loyal list that’s easily segmented.

You should also regularly maintain your email list by removing inactive and invalid emails while sunsetting those subscribers who always ignore your emails. This curation process will ultimately increase your email deliverability and help your emails stay out of the dreaded SPAM folder.

2. Segment Your Audience List

Speaking of lists, strategically segmented audiences will pay dividends for your email marketing efforts. In fact, according to HubSpot’s 2023 State of Marketing Report, marketers report that segmented emails drive 30% more opens and 50% more click-throughs than unsegmented ones.

You can segment your lists based on demographics, purchase history or behavior, demonstrated interests, or pain points. Through segmentation, you can also tailor your email frequency, content, and offers to the most relevant lists — ensuring your recipients are only receiving emails that are meaningful and useful to them.

Indeed, 78% of marketers say that subscriber segmentation is the most effective strategy they use for email marketing campaigns.

3. Personalize Your Email Campaigns

Personalizing your email campaigns is an essential factor in making email segmentation successful. You can personalize the content of any email — even if it is going to your entire list.

Start by using each recipient’s name in your subject lines and greetings. Then, consider customizing the content to reflect subscribers’ preferences and even their browsing history. Many email marketing services automate this personalization process for you.

Studies show that, with personalization efforts, marketers can achieve a 26% higher open rate because the emails feel more engaging and relevant to the recipient.

4. Don’t Underestimate the Subject Line

An email subject line is the first impression of any campaign — yet its importance is often overlooked. But, 47% of email recipients report they open an email based on the subject line alone — with 69% saying they mark an email as SPAM based on the subject line — it can no longer be an afterthought.

There is a science behind the perfect subject line, and it may require some trial and error for your unique audience lists. The best subject lines are intriguing yet clear, interesting yet impactful. Ultimately, you want to make your email stand out in an inbox in all the right ways so it’s impossible to ignore and tempting to open.

5. Activate Automation

The best email marketing platforms, including Klaviyo and Hubspot, will provide robust marketing automation tools that can help you streamline your email marketing while saving time and increasing effectiveness.

Automation provides the pathway to developing custom, targeted flows and optimizing campaign messaging so the right people see it at the right time. It can also help you track email performance and subscriber engagement patterns.

You can read more about email automation benefits and best practices here.

6. Optimize for Mobile

Did you know that approximately 81% of all emails are now opened and read on mobile devices? For that reason alone, it’s essential that your emails are responsive and optimized for mobile.

Email marketing platforms generally provide the ability to preview and test each campaign as it will appear on desktop and mobile — with some even offering the option to create different layouts for each within the same email.

7. Deliver Value

It may seem basic, but an excellent question to ask for every email you send is this: Does this email deliver value?

Every successful email marketing campaign must have a compelling value proposition and a unique benefit to the subscriber. From special brand announcements to personalized and relevant content, early access offers, email-only deals, and so much more, there are many ways to deliver value via email.

8. Establish a Clear CTA

Some email marketing campaigns miss the mark because they fail to close the deal with a strong CTA.

Consider the intended action you want your subscribers to take upon opening and reading your email — and then make sure to tell them clearly.

CTA text and buttons should be concise yet focused on the benefit of the action. Consider language that is more specific than “Click Here” or “Submit,” to increase engagement and interest. For example, if your email campaign centers around getting customers to take advantage of a 50% off deal, your CTA could say something like, “Get the deal here” or “Claim your 50% coupon here.” See the difference?

9. Pay Attention to Your Campaigns

The most successful email marketing campaigns are constantly and consistently being analyzed and optimized. This isn’t the time to set it up and forget it.

For every email sent, look at your reporting metrics — including open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribes. If you are continually seeing low open rates or a high number of opt-outs, it’s probably time to press pause and reconsider your subject line or your messaging — or even your list segmentation and email frequency.

Put Our Email Marketing Services to Work for You

Email campaigns are an essential piece of most marketing strategies. Denver Post Media provides comprehensive email marketing services in Colorado to give you the support you need and ensure you have all the pieces in place to create highly effective campaigns and optimize existing ones.

Whether you’re a small business looking to make an impact or an established powerhouse seeking next-level strategic ideas and advanced reporting, we customize our approach to each and every one of our partners and their unique business needs. Learn more here.

Data is a four-letter word with major potential. When used correctly and strategically, data can inform marketing decisions and ultimately improve performance and increase revenue.

Digital marketing analytics harnesses the power of data so you can utilize it effectively and efficiently.

The three basic types of marketing analytics are descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics. Let’s take a closer look at how each one works — and how you can use it to your advantage.

Descriptive Analytics

Defining Descriptive Analytics

One of the easiest ways to explain descriptive analytics is that it addresses the question: “What happened?”

By looking at a company’s raw historical data, this form of analytics helps provide an understanding of various performance metrics — from marketing campaigns to social media, sales, and more. It also can identify demographic segments, engagement levels, and other trends that can inform future marketing strategies.

Examples of Descriptive Analytics in Marketing

Web Traffic and Engagement

If you’re already measuring Google Analytics (GA) for your website traffic or pulling social media reports from your respective social platforms, you may be using descriptive marketing analytics tools without even realizing it!

Traffic and engagement reports compile raw user data from your website, ads, and social channels and compare your current metrics with historical data points to show results and identify trends.

Survey Results

If you’ve conducted surveys with current customers or prospects, descriptive analytics can be helpful in this type of market research because it shows correlations that you might not otherwise notice. By identifying relationships between variables from survey data, descriptive analytics can illuminate trends to help you make future marketing decisions.

KPI Reporting

Descriptive analytics can also be used as a tool to track your progress toward goals.  By integrating data points and your key performance indicators (KPIs) for things like monthly page views, engagement rate, social impressions, and landing page conversions, this analysis can determine if you’re on track or need to adjust to hit your goals.

Predictive Analytics

Defining Predictive Analytics

The goal of predictive analytics is to answer the question: “What could happen in the future?”

Simply put, this type of analysis uses historical data to forecast future trends, events, and behaviors. With this type of analytics, you are essentially “predicting” what will happen — through proven data points. As such, the findings can help you develop strategic, targeted campaigns and make better-informed, more accurate decisions.

Artificial intelligence plays an important role in predictive analytics through automating and processing data, enhancing accuracy, and creating efficiencies.

Examples of Predictive Analytics in Marketing

Behavior Targeting

Historical behavior data from consumers can be used in many ways — including content creation, ads, and marketing strategies to better reach and convert prospective audiences while generating loyalty among current customers.

Audience Segmentation and Lookalike Generation

From digital ads to email and beyond, audience segmentation is an integral part of elevating the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. Indeed, 78% of marketers report that subscriber segmentation is the most effective strategy they use for email marketing campaigns.

Segmentation helps you create groups within your current and prospective customer lists based on various demographic data points, behaviors, and traits. That way, you can deliver personalized and relevant messages directly to each segment. Predictive analytics can help segment these audiences more accurately and efficiently by leveraging machine learning algorithms.

Alongside audience segmentation is generating customer lookalikes to further enhance your lists. Predictive analytics, with the assistance of machine learning, also comes into play here to look at your existing customer profiles and identify other people who share similar characteristics. With your list of lookalikes, you have a more targeted lead list to attract and convert.

Demand Forecasting

You probably intuitively know when certain seasons of demand for your products or services are at their peak — it could be summertime or holiday shopping. But what if you could better anticipate customer needs without the guessing game? This is another time when prescriptive analytics comes into play to help forecast demand. By looking at consumer behavior, seasonal shifts, browsing and click history, and more, this analysis can inform how demand will change so you can be ready for it.

Lead Scoring

If you’ve ever spent too much time and too many resources on cultivating the wrong potential customers, you know the importance of lead scoring. It helps predict a lead’s likelihood of progressing along the sales funnel from brand awareness to conversion.

Predictive analytics can be essential in the lead scoring process by reviewing past behavior and interactions to inform how much potential current and future leads have for conversion.

Prescriptive Analytics

Defining Prescriptive Analytics

Essentially, the goal of prescriptive analytics is to answer the question: “What actions should be taken next?”

Through data, this type of analytics ultimately provides recommendations for a course of action and next steps. It’s integral to the process of data-driven decision-making — in partnership with human-led discernment and judgment.

Artificial intelligence also plays a role in prescriptive analytics.

Examples of Prescriptive Analytics in Marketing

Email Marketing Automation

One of the most straightforward and effective use cases of prescriptive analytics is in email marketing automation.

By collecting data from your email lists and segments, prescriptive analytics makes it possible to send more personalized emails. Then, future relevant email flows are triggered by consumers’ interactions and clicks, putting them in different categories based on this behavior. Prescriptive analytics can also help indicate the best time to send emails.

Content Personalization

Content is key in the marketing landscape — but the right content at the right time to the right person is crucial. That’s where prescriptive analytics comes in to make algorithmic content recommendations based on a consumer’s previous behaviors, browsing history, and more.

Harnessing the power of these content recommendations can lead to higher engagement, more effective ad retargeting, and increased conversion.

Campaign Budget Management

While prescriptive analytics can play a crucial role in helping create better marketing content and strategies, it can also help you behind the scenes of campaign budget management.

It can be challenging to know how and where to allocate campaign budgets. By reviewing prior budget data and performance indicators, prescriptive analytics can help inform optimal allocation for better ROI. It can also create budget simulations with different allocation scenarios.

Putting Marketing and Analytics to Work for You

If you want to harness the power of digital marketing analytics but aren’t sure where to start and what marketing analytics tools to use, Denver Post Media is in your corner.

We take a holistic approach by integrating the three basic types of marketing analytics to help businesses inform — and transform — their marketing strategies and campaigns across channels and garner outstanding results.

Search is no longer what it used to be.

We all remember a time when we typed in a query, scanned a list of links, and clicked through to find the answer. And for years, digital marketing strategies were built around that very behavior. It was all about optimizing for rankings, driving traffic, and converting website visitors.

But that model is being rewritten. It’s a zero-click world — and we are all now living in it.

Today, more users are getting what they need without ever clicking a link. You’ve probably done the same.

AI-powered summaries, conversational search tools, and enhanced results pages are delivering answers instantly, without users ever clicking a link. This shift isn’t just a trend; it’s a fundamental change in how search works online.

The question that businesses are now navigating is how to rank in AI search results, rather than a search engine results page.

The goal is not just to appear, but to be selected as the answer. That means the right strategy is more important than ever.

What Exactly Is Zero-Click Search?

Zero-click searches are aptly named because they occur when users get the information they need directly from a search page — often from an AI-generated response — without ever clicking through to a website.

While this trend isn’t new per se, it is accelerating more rapidly than ever due to:

• AI-generated summaries in search engines
• Voice search and conversational queries
• The growing use of AI tools for research and recommendations

The result? Fewer clicks and higher expectations.

The impact of AI search results on SEO is clear: Businesses can’t just focus on driving traffic; they must own the answers to what their customers are asking.

AI Search Trends Shaping 2026

Understanding AI search trends is the first step in adapting a digital marketing strategy for your business. At Denver Post Media, here are some things we’re seeing that are defining the zero-click landscape:

1. Answers Over Links

Search engines are prioritizing direct answers. If your content isn’t structured to be easily summarized, it risks being ignored.

2. Authority Signals Are Critical

The new currency is authority. As AI decides which sources to trust, credibility, expertise, and consistency become some of the most valuable assets a business or brand can build.

3. Conversational Queries Are Now the Norm

Users are asking full questions now — not just typing a string of partially baked keywords. This shift means that your content should mirror natural language patterns.

4. Multi-Platform Search

Search is no longer limited to Google. There are so many other places that users are turning to for answers, including AI tools, social platforms, and niche communities.

How to Rank in AI Search Results

Whereas ranking used to be about position — being first, or at least on the first page — in the AI-driven landscape, ranking is more about inclusion.

Your content must be strong enough, clear enough, and trustworthy enough to be pulled into an answer that represents the best possible response to a search query.

That requires a shift in mindset. Content is no longer just competing for clicks; it’s competing for credibility.

If you’re wondering how to rank in AI search results, you have to evolve your SEO strategy — not abandon it. Here’s how:

1. Create Answer-First Content

The businesses that are gaining traction in this zero-click environment are generally approaching content differently. Instead of chasing clicks, they are focusing on answering real consumer questions clearly and directly.

The most effective content anticipates what a customer is actually trying to understand and delivers that answer in an easy-to-follow way.

That often means leading with clarity: strong, question-driven subheads, straightforward explanations, and formatting that doesn’t force readers to hunt for the takeaway.

If a piece of content can be easily lifted into a summary or quoted in part, it’s far more likely to surface in AI-generated results.

2. Build Topical Authority

Depth matters. So does expertise. AI prioritizes sources that demonstrate both over time. Consistently publishing high-quality content that’s designed to inform is paramount.

You’ll want to explore core topics from multiple angles, offer insight rather than repetition, and reinforce your business as a clear, trusted source of authority. When done well, this creates a body of work that signals credibility, not just relevance.

3. Optimize for AI Search, Not Just Keywords

While keywords still play a role when it comes to how to rank in AI search results, they’re no longer the end-all, be-all.  AI search optimization requires a far more nuanced approach.

Rather than searching for short, fragmented keywords, people are using complete thoughts and conversations. For example, instead of typing “Denver marketing agency,” a user might ask, “What’s the best way to market my business in Denver right now?”

You’ll want to focus on relevance and context as well as natural language phrasing. The best-performing content today reads less like it was written for an algorithm and more like it was written for a real conversation — organic, not forced.

4. Strengthen Brand Authority

In a zero-click search strategy, your brand’s authority must extend beyond your website. It includes PR and media placements, social media, thought leadership, and local and regional visibility.

This kind of authority doesn’t come from a single piece of content and isn’t created overnight; that’s the challenge and the opportunity. Businesses that consistently invest in thoughtful, well-informed content and distribute it across trusted platforms are far more likely to be recognized as reliable sources over time.

5. Leverage Your Own Data and Insights

Original insights are now the gold standard. That means publishing your own proprietary research, sharing your customers’ insights or personalized case studies, and offering unique perspectives on industry trends.

AI tools generally favor content that adds new value, not just a copy-and-paste of what’s already out there in any given industry or space.

6. Structure Content for AI Readability

Another shift that’s easy to overlook is structure. Even strong ideas can get lost if they’re buried in content that’s difficult to navigate.

As AI tools scan and interpret information, clarity becomes a competitive advantage. Content that’s organized thoughtfully — with clear headlines (H2s and H3s are your friend), a logical progression, and sections that are easy to move through — has a much better chance of being seen and surfaced.

It’s not about dumbing anything down; it’s about making your thinking easier to access and understand.

Rethinking Success in a Zero-Click World

Not that long ago, winning the SEO game meant clicks. Now, those clicks are only a part of the picture. Success looks very different in the zero-click world.

As we tell our clients, success is now about being referenced in AI-generated responses, showing up in search summaries, and influencing decisions without a direct site visit. These are the new signals that your content is doing its job.

We help businesses wondering how to rank in AI search results by aligning their content strategies with the evolving trends, amplifying brand authority through premium content development, reaching highly engaged audiences, and building credibility. Learn more here.