The digital marketing industry has gone through so innumerable changes over the years.
In the beginning, SEO was king. And then it was declared that SEO was dead. Then everyone agreed that SEO was not dead, but it had been dethroned; content had usurped the throne. But recently, there has been another consensus . . .
. . . nowadays, the reigning monarch—one that’s as resilient as it is effective—is an approach that integrates both SEO and content marketing into one’s digital marketing campaign!
If you want your online marketing campaign to succeed, you’ll have to learn how to develop an SEO plan that revolves around content marketing. But first, you will have to understand why it is crucial to focus more on your content strategy.
So, how do you benefit from it? This is what we hope to clear up in this article.
Establish a Solid Presence in Your Niche with Content Marketing
One of the best ways to gain a solid foothold in your niche is to adopt an effective content strategy. Having one allows you to have a distinctive edge in your industry.?
Here are some of the reasons why:
1. Quality Content is a Must for SEO
In the past, before Google launched a slew of algorithm updates for its search engine, optimizing for the SERPs was mainly about—quite literally—mindlessly stuffing your web pages with keywords to appear in every related search, making your website rank higher on the search engine results pages. It was all about ranking and thus, traffic.
But things have changed. Nowadays, just having a substantial amount of traffic isn’t enough. It’s also about making sure people stay on your site once they get there.
Quality content helps in this regard. Both search engines and people like great content. That’s why SEO strategies work better when they include high-quality content borne from a solid content strategy.
2. SEO Needs the Right Words
Everyone who has worked for a decent amount of time in the industry knows that an SEO campaign always begins with keyword research. There is no argument about the importance of keywords in SEO. You need to determine what the best keywords for your brand are, use them strategically, and track how you rank for them in search results.
The question is: How do you use the keywords you have identified? Why do you use it in your content? You assign each keyword to a particular piece of content and then incorporate it strategically into the content. If you choose to hire article writers, you should instruct them to use keywords such that they flow naturally with the content they produce.
Using the right keywords is about making search engines happy (that’s SEO), while making sure they fit naturally into your writing is all about keeping your readers in mind (that’s content marketing). If you can do both well, you’re doing things right.
3. The Importance of Links in SEO
When big-name sites and famous people in your industry link back to your content or website, search engines start to see your site as more trustworthy and important. This usually leads to higher rankings in search results. But you can’t just buy links anymore to get those high rankings.
Nowadays, the best way to get experts, influencers, and well-known organizations to link to you is by consistently putting out quality content. When you have a content writer who consistently makes engaging and useful content, people are more likely to like it and share it on various social media platforms. When that happens, important people in your industry will notice, making you get more traffic as people flock to your website to see if you’ve more of the same interesting and informative content pieces.
Now that you know why SEO and content marketing need to go hand in hand, let’s talk about how to make that happen.
Ensure a Successful Integrated Approach by Changing Your Mindset
Many business owners and online marketers are already engaged in content marketing. So why is it working only for some and not for others? Well, the problem begins with the kind of mindset some people have as regards content marketing and SEO.
Even if you hire professional content writers or pay for content services, success won’t come unless you have the right mindset for effective SEO and content marketing. That’s where content strategy comes into play.
A Closer Look at SEO
If you ask people who struggle with content marketing or SEO what SEO means to them, many might say it’s all about getting more visitors to their website, making more sales, and earning money. While these are important goals for SEO, they shouldn’t be the only focus.
There is so much more to optimization than raking in traffic, converting visits to actual sales, and increasing your revenue. These days, four elements help you ensure success in your SEO efforts, and these are:
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- Determining what your target customers want and giving it to them.
- Communicating with website visitors even after they’ve left your site.
- Offering special discounts and/or rewards for immediate action.
- Develop a content marketing plan that uses highly targeted content to ensure you pull in the right people.
What do you notice in those four key SEO elements? None of them are focused solely on traffic and/or clicks, right? Yes, traffic, clicks, and other tactical elements still need to be taken into consideration, but they benefit you most when you understand that they are just a small part of a much bigger plan.
Exploring Content Marketing in Depth
If you ask people who haven’t succeeded in content marketing what it means to them, they might not fully understand it. Many business owners and online marketers think of content marketing as just a fancier way to sell their stuff. But that’s not what it’s about.
Content marketing isn’t just about pushing sales. It’s about creating content that informs, connects with your target audience, and shares interesting stories. It might seem strange, but sometimes you can sell more by not directly selling.
When you focus on sharing relevant stories and providing valuable information, you build trust with your audience. This trust leads to a relationship with them, turning them into loyal customers. And that’s what boosts the reputation and authority of your brand in the long run.
In Conclusion . . .
Now you understand why your SEO efforts will never work without content marketing. Where SEO sets requirements, content marketing works to fulfill them. This is how they complement each other.
Before you sit down to adjust your strategies accordingly, let me leave you with these takeaways:
- No one can simply be an SEO practitioner or a content marketer these days. To succeed in digital marketing, you have to be both.
- An SEO campaign that fails to take context into account will fail. In the same way, a content marketing campaign that fails to take optimization into account will fail.
- The points at which SEO and content marketing overlap are the points you should be focusing on because it is when you succeed in those overlapping functions that you can generate the best digital marketing results.
- Strive to consistently create evergreen content because this is the kind of content that lasts. Even when your campaign is over, for as long as the evergreen content that was part of that campaign is on your site, the leads, the traffic, the sales, and the revenue will keep on coming.
- When you plan your content strategy carefully and promote it properly, you will be able to leverage the true power of an integrated SEO/content marketing campaign.
Alone, SEO and content marketing are great. But together, they could be the best thing that ever happened to your business.