Today’s trends see content marketing as a foremost strategy for SEO. According to research by HubSpot, 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing.
The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on writing and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and ultimately drive profitable customer action.”
Content marketing entails businesses creating and sharing relevant written and visual media so that their target audience can learn effectively about their brand, expertise, products, and services.
There are various types of content, i.e., articles, social media posts, blogs, infographics, and illustrative videos, to name a few. Blogs are one of the three primary content marketing forms, with 89% of content marketers using blog posts in their content strategy in 2020.
Content marketing is all about storytelling. Giving your audience high-quality content that is consistently relevant and relatable for them will help you establish a relationship with your target audience. Content marketing sends a very important message to your customers—that as a brand, you know who your audience is and that you are giving enough care and attention to their interests, well-being, and satisfaction. This relationship translates into trust and loyalty in terms of your customers’ purchase decisions in the long run.
On the other hand, SEO or search engine optimization is defined by dictionaries as “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.” Many people view SEO and content marketing as two different “personas”; while this is true, they are not mutually exclusive, and in fact, SEO is all about content marketing! Compared to content marketing, SEO is narrower and a bit more on the technical side, while the former is broader and more creative. You can integrate the two by channeling SEO’s technicalities and techniques into content marketing.
Here are some best practices and tips on how to integrate content marketing in SEO and dominate the game:
Knowing Your Audience Always Comes First
You cannot begin developing your content without knowing about your target audience first. Effective and valuable content is relevant and relatable to your target audience. As a business, you may already have prior research and knowledge of your target customers’ profile. Your goal in content marketing is to answer your audience’s questions and engage with their interests. People’s interests may tend to change like the weather, and it important that one stays up to date with today’s fads and trends.
Post Quality Content
Apply your research and knowledge about your customer profile to develop quality content. The top searches on the first pages of Google have a few things in common. Content like these is well-researched, current, and long-form. Share relatable content, up to date, and worth reading. Include photos and videos that are share-worthy and showcase your business’s personality and services and the experience that comes with it.
Choose the Right Keywords
This part is a clear integration of SEO and content marketing. SEO demands keywords, and content marketing works by making use of those keywords. Choose the right keywords and strategically place them in every piece of content you will post. Do not spend too much time obsessing over keywords; build a basic list of keywords that will target your content. With content marketing alone, you have quality content, but with SEO, you are making sure that your content reaches your target audience.
Make Your Content User Friendly
Given the right keywords, you have to optimize your content around them, not just merely playing where to paste them in between your lines of text. Make your content SEO friendly, in fact, “SEO friendly” is outdated, and we look on using the phrase “User-Friendly” instead.
In your content, make sure it provides solutions to real problems made by real users. Again, your goal in your content pieces is to answer your customers’ questions. Understand your audience’s intent when it comes to their search queries.
Make sure that your content is free of typos, grammatical errors, false statistics, and misconceptions. Make sure your content is readable. Set an appropriate tone and style that suits your target audience. In writing your content, you can separate paragraphs into small chunks and include many visuals to make it more appealing and engaging for your readers. Many people are not inclined to read, so it is a challenge to make them read.
You can also combine content marketing with social media to get maximum impact. Social media is quite powerful nowadays. Many social media marketers post content to increase brand engagement and awareness.
Dominating SEO with content marketing entails a fresh new perspective. Do not focus on SEO; focus on creating quality content!
The biggest mistake that any small or even big business owner could make is not prioritizing their company’s website. This hits small business owners hard, especially those who need to improve their marketing strategy. Not realizing the significance of a business website nowadays can negatively affect. For those who recently started a small business, your website is the heart and soul of your digital marketing strategy, so it is highly essential that you read along.
Must Incorporate Proper SEO Strategy
There is no use in having a website but not appearing on Google’s listings. You don’t just create a website, close your eyes, and let Google do the rest. The importance of SEO or Search Engine Optimization is key to your website’s success. If you fail to incorporate this, you might as well consider your online presence as dead. You wouldn’t want to be buried in anonymity. Of course, the main goal is to reach the top of the google search pages. The importance of purposeful keywords and proper link building is essential for SEO strategy. It would be best to keep in mind that your digital marketing approach should always target massive online traffic towards your website. Proper utilization of SEO techniques is critical and should always be a top priority if you want to make it and compete against hundreds or thousands of online competitors.
Overall User Experience
Getting to the top of the Google search results is one major feat, but after getting people to click on your homepage, you should have something in store for them. It is indispensable to have a killer homepage. Your site should have a visual appeal that entices visitors to read or engage in your call to action. This boils down to the perfect combination of website theme, colors, font, page loading speed, and most especially, user navigation. This combination makes up the overall user experience.
First-time visitors of your site will likely scan your homepage to see if it could stir up their interest. Thus, it is highly imperative to incorporate high-quality website design. It would be best to consult or hire a marketing company that could maximize the potential of your company’s online presence. Good website design is a reflection of a proper digital marketing strategy.
Must Be Mobile-Friendly (Responsive)
In today’s world, it is essential to create a mobile-friendly website. Google has showcased the importance of mobile searches as mobile-optimized sites ranked higher in search results. Mobile phone users would not put so much effort to browse a website that is not mobile-friendly. They would probably end up going back to the Google search results page and going towards the other competitor sites. If they find a place that’s easier to navigate through their phone, then the chances are that they would stick to that site. Having a mobile-friendly site could make or break your business.
Concerning this, the number of people who utilize mobile shopping has increased. Many people have leaned towards this shopping option because they won’t have to leave their homes to purchase their needs. To say that mobile shopping is already taking over is an understatement. Mobile shopping is becoming widely popular, and you should take advantage of this for your business, mostly if you are selling a product/s. You would want your website visitors to make that quick purchase. If you can complete a sale in just a small amount of time, then that means that you have better conversions.
Having a mobile-friendly website can help you keep up or even surpass your competitors. You should ride the wave of the public’s changing needs; that’s why you should always be up-to-date with the trends in both business and technology.
Must Establish Your Brand
Your website can help make or break your business as it reflects what your brand is all about. What makes you unique? What makes you stand out from the rest of the competition? Why should we hire your services? Why should we purchase your products? You can respond to these questions via your company’s website. You have full customization control of your site, and you can dictate both your copy and your content. Any site visitor should properly and easily access information about your business as soon as they step into your homepage. You should be able to establish your brand from the get-go. Again, this requires a smart digital marketing strategy. You should know how to market your business through the features of your website. Maximize your business’s potential not just via your homepage but also through all the pages that you need to showcase.
Must-Have a Killer Copy
Having a visually-enticing site is one thing but having a killer copy is highly imperative. Let’s say that you have already drawn people towards your site, and they stay because of the beautiful imagery and site layout. What’s next that they will do? They will read your copy. Whether customers scan your document or read everything, it is crucial to have grammatically-correct content. Lean towards the thinking that the grammar police would always check your site. It would be smart to check out an expert copywriting team’s services or a digital marketing company with professional copywriters. The copy on your homepage could make or break your marketing campaign. Make sure that you get the best copywriting service.
Final Thoughts
A proper business growth strategy requires intelligent digital marketing techniques
. Your website is a highly-essential asset of your digital marketing campaign. It is challenging to ignore the impact of a good website on any business. Decades ago, this conversation might not be possible, but now that technology is evolving along with the advances of marketing, it is imperative to stay updated or keep up with the times. If you want your business to make it amidst hundreds of competitors online, make sure that you incorporate the lessons you have learned from this article and apply them to your company’s website. Remember that you have a fighting chance to reach millions of people with the Internet’s help to make the most out of it.
