Visual photographs? Stunning.
Website? Well-optimized.
Content? Vague.
Now, this is a problem.
A successful website relies on content, and good content is led by SEO. But there’s a problem: SEO needs your content, while your content needs SEO to be found. These two components need to work in harmony for a website to rank well in search results.
But how? GoSEO got you covered. In this article, we will give you the blueprint to integrate the two pillars of your online success.
What is content marketing?
Are you familiar with ‘ostrich marketing’? It’s when you bury your head in the sand and hope that your problems will go away.
This is what most marketers do right now. They know what their audience needs but never address those needs.
Just because you have a clear audience doesn’t mean you’re doing content marketing.
Content marketing means you know 360 degrees what you’re talking about. You have developed an audience who needs your product/service and delivered it in a way that satisfies them.
Content marketing is not just ‘writing copy’ or ‘putting some stuff on the web.’ It’s about building relationships + earning trust with your audience.
Just check how Shopify nailed it with their Shopify’s Business Encyclopedia. The platform did an amazing job in explaining its product and catering to new and existing customers. It came across as a genuine, informative resource that helped start-ups and aspiring e-commerce business owners learn and trust the brand.
What is SEO content?
SEO content pertains to web pages, articles, and blogs that a website’s technical team determines will improve the site’s search engine ranking. But in order for SEO content to have any impact, it needs to be relevant to the audience, original, and thought-provoking.
For the past few months, we have published more than 32 blogs as well as dozens of articles and infographics on GoSEO. These content garnered organic traffic for our website. The bottom line is an SEO content strategy can improve organic rankings and reduce bounce rates.
Take note that SEO content may come in the form of a blog, a website, a company profile, a SlideShare presentation, an infographic, a GitHub repository. It can even be a product review. But the idea is the same. It’s all about creating content that your audience will find helpful, shareable, and informative.
It is all about giving VALUE.
For instance, you are running an advertising company specializing in Google Adwords. Your audience is made up of companies who:
* Never tried Adwords even though they’re spending large amounts of money
* Don’t know what Adwords is
* Think it is some sort of gambling game
*Too choosy when it comes to a service that costs them a lot in terms of money and time.
* Stopped using Adwords because they got a bad impression from a competitor not doing their job right.
* Got frustrated when they ran out of budget and couldn’t use Adwords anymore
* Don’t understand the value of Adwords and what it can do for their business
Knowing what type of audience you have, you can build a content strategy around what they need.
In this case, the Adwords service provider wants to educate these businesses on Adwords and show them that it’s worth it to invest in marketing.
This is what SEO content can do. It’s not just about brainstorming and scribbling content. SEO content is the art of giving the audience what they want to help them achieve their goals. If you can use SEO content to do this, then your SEO strategy will be just as successful.
How SEO And Content Marketing Work Together?
Did you know that 47% buyers conduct research first before purchasing a product?
Hence, if your blog is not optimized for search engines, how will you expect to rank on Google? Chances are, you won’t.
To conquer SEO, create QUALITY content. When we say quality content, we don’t just mean it’s ‘well-written’. We mean it’s valuable, informative, and comes across as something you would want to share with the world. Quality is an umbrella term that encompasses all factors cited in Google E-A-T guideline.
If you are familiar with the Periodic Table of SEO Factors, you know that content is the number 3 factor, right after links and on-page factors. That’s how significant content is in optimizing your visibility.
Having said that, here are the factors you need to consider when creating SEO content.
1. Quality
You will notice that we’ve mentioned a couple of times over the blog, but a key to success here is ALWAYS delivering quality.
But what are the metrics that you should use to measure quality? The Search Quality Evaluator Guideline of Google is your compass. Some important highlights are:
Relevancy
Originality
Authority
Specialized for Searcher's Need
Does your blog post meet the searcher’s search query and provide said searcher with what they’re looking for? For example, a blog post about a dog training may not rank as high as a dog training service provider’s website because it is not specialized for searcher’s need.
Take note that some factors might not apply to your company. That’s okay. Just know that the best content strategy for you will be unique and tailored to your audience’s needs.
Hence, if you are using YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) guidelines, make sure that your content fits the criteria of the searcher’s need. Google’s algorithm is set up to find and rank high websites that will provide the most value to their audience.
2. Keyword
What kind of content would your audience find useful? How many keywords does your blog post rank for? Most importantly, how many backlinks does your URL have pointing to it?
This is where keyword research comes in. It provides direction and clarity on what type of content your audience wants to consume. It is one of the trickiest and most important parts of SEO.
So, what do you need to know about keyword research? Let’s go over a few things:
*The secret sauce to keyword research is the 10,000-foot view of your business. Think about it. You are not just creating content for today. You are creating content for the future. What are the timeless topics and trends you want to cover over the next 5 years? Are they the topic that the future searcher will search for?
*Leverage the insight of your niche. If you’re an AdWords company, you not only want to rank for AdWords, but also for ‘AdSense’ and ‘google ads’ as well. Knowing this, you can find keywords that your audience will be searching for. Just make sure to use the same language as your audience.
*Use a tool like Google Trends to see what type of keywords searchers are searching for. What are the trending topics right now? If you know your industry, you’ll already have an idea of what would be popular in the next few years.
3. Research
To build authority, you need to be knowledgeable.
To be knowledgeable, you need to be an expert.
To be an expert, you need to do the deep research!
Your research starts by knowing who you are speaking with. Let’s go back to the dog training example. If you are a dog training service provider, your potential client are most likely inclined with dog breeds. They can be a fan of a specific breed, even. Maybe a golden retriever? Or a Shitsu? What about a puppy?
By knowing what your target audience as, you’ll be able to include those topics within your blog post.
Know that dog training is not just about dog breeds. You can write about puppy training and how the new puppy should be brought up by its owners.
Here are some keywords to take note of:
Puppy training tips
Dog breeders
Dog breeds for kids
House-training Tips
Night-time potty-training techniques
Housebreaking Tips for Puppies
Housebreaking procedures There you have it. That’s how you build authority and reputation as an expert in your niche. Not just that, but also with a bit of additional research, you can also explore what other niches are trending right now and plan accordingly.
4. Answers
Answering your searcher’s questions on your blog can significantly affect the amount of traffic on your blog.
But why is that? More than 50% of Google searches are not clicking on the other pages. This is because most search engines aim to satisfy its user’s needs right on the first page of the search result. That’s why they give priority to content that can answer their searcher’s query.
Let’s look at some interesting numbers here.
A study was done by Venture Beat on how keyword searches affected the number of SERP rankings. Here’s what they found:
Keyword searches that ended up on the first page of Google search results accounted for close to 80% of all clicks on the search engine.
Why is this? It’s because you’re addressing their needs. Even the other 20% of keyword searches were found to be on the second page.
Think about it. Do you want to make the searcher go over 100 pages to find what they are looking for? Of course not! You want to satisfy them right on the first page of Google search results.
5. Freshness
Always keep your content as fresh as possible as to not just keep your audience updated, but to also attract new ones.
Let’s do a simple breakdown.
25% of searcher’s are returning customers.
75% are new customers.
This means that there is a bigger chance for you to have more people visit your website through your blog if you keep it updated. You can use the AIDA model on how to create freshness:
Attract: on-page elements such as images and links to other content and social media.
Intrigue: by creating a new and original post every month.
Deliver: in-line with the expectations of your audience.
Archive: in case you can’t keep up with the updates.
With all the different types of content you can create on your blog, here are some of the most popular ones:
1. How-to
Ahref’s how-to blog can show us how effective a blog can be in the online world. It’s a self-directed blog with a lot of valuable information for SEO purposes that its audience finds useful. In addition, the how-to blogging receives tons of backlinks from high-ranking sites like Moz, Yandex, and Alltop.
2. Authoritative blog post
You’ll want to have a blog post to serve as an expert opinion on a specific topic. It’s also nice to have a blog that includes studies and reports from other institutions. Your blog can be like an authority in the area where you’re writing about.
3. Video content
As per Hubspot, video content in a blog can have a 5X higher engagement rate when compared to having images in a blog post. It is an effective way to engage with your audience, and it drives a proper amount of traffic to your blog.
4. Listicles
Listicles are one of the more popular types of content out there. A listicle is a piece of web content that lists several different items, concepts, or topics in a bullet-pointed list. These popular types of posts also include infographics and white papers, which can be very useful for SEO purposes.
5. Short-form evergreen articles
It’s also vital to create short-form content, especially if you want to rank for specific keywords. Getting the right keyword strategy is crucial in order to rank your content for particular phrases.
6. Micro-content
Micro-content is short-form content that has a lot of value within its small amount of words. Micro-content can include infographics, picture posts, videos, memes, and other similar forms of online content that can help you promote your website or blog.
7. Data or complex information
Unique and factual data and complex information can be a great asset to your blog. This content can help you establish authority in your niche, and it can provide valuable information to your audience.
8. Multi-page guides
A good way to establish your ‘expertise’ in your niche is to create a multi-page guide. It is a valuable asset to your content because it can help you to earn organic traffic from search engines.
How to Develop an SEO Content Strategy
1. Research
Before you publish a page to your blog, it’s always important to research about what your audience is looking for. This will help you to determine if the subject of your post is appropriate to your readers, and it can also help you create a clear outline of an effective SEO content strategy.
2. Create a list of keywords
After you have found a relevant topic for your blog post, it’s now time to perform some keyword research. This will help you to identify the best keyword phrases to use in your post. By using the tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs, you can perform a detailed analysis of what your current organic ranking is.
3. Optimize titles
The title of your blog post can have a lot of influence over your post’s placement in the SERP. Your title should be unique to help increase chances for users to click on it when they are searching for content on Google. In this post by Search Engine Journal, they outlined some of the strategies to use when writing a blog title.
4. Create concise and informative meta description
The meta description is a snippet of text that you can use to not only give a summary of your post, but it can also be used to boost your CTR.
5. Create a properly structured and optimized paragraph
It’s important to create an SEO content strategy for each paragraph on your blog because it has the potential to rank you higher for specific searches. A paragraph is a good example of a format that contains an obvious and natural flow of ideas and relationships. You can use this format to:
6. Create effective headers and sections
Your blog posts should also be well structured and clear to your audience, especially if you want to improve your CTR, as well as to help you rank for specific keywords. When strategizing for SEO purposes, it’s important to remember that 1th or 2th line headings can really make or break your post’s effectiveness.
7. Write compelling content
If your content is boring or too technical, then it won’t be effective in the search engines. A lot of people just don’t have time to read through all of the complicated measures to optimize their blog, but if you have a good grasp of the SEO topic, then you can create engaging and helpful content for your audience. You can use simple tips like using bullet points or using adjectives for your title to help engage your readership.
8. Build links
Make sure you are building links to your blog posts. It’s one of the most important things for SEO, especially if you want to have a chance at ranking for specific keywords. A good strategy for building links is to create a guest post on another blog that is relevant to your niche. You can then use other resources which allows you to easily see who has linked to your current post, as well as getting other strategies for ranking your content.
9. Word choice and syntax
Not only is it important to create engaging and informative blog posts, but you also need to use the optimal wording and structure for how your content will be seen by search engines. It can be difficult to squeeze all of this information into 1,200 words. If you cannot think of how to phrase your post, then just organize it into multiple smaller paragraphs that can still tell your story or provide value to the user.
The SEO benefits of content marketing
The old adage that content is king” may not be entirely accurate. According to Forrester Research, crafting high-quality content that leverages the natural language of search engines can result in increased traffic, leads and sales.
Marketers can use content to communicate how their products or services align with the needs of their audience, increase brand recognition and even drive conversions. Its benefits extend beyond simple website rankings; businesses have real opportunities to derive real value from writing content.
These stats may speak how significant content marketing is to SEO:
* 15% of Google searches are new inquiries. In addition, Google BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) algorithm now takes intent into account, making this statement even more accurate.
This can translate to businesses getting the right kinds of customers.
* 95% of consumers use search engines to begin their product research. Therefore, businesses that can craft content that appeals to consumers’ needs online will likely see greater organic traffic for those keywords on specific search engines since their target audience is actively looking for solutions.
* 48% of users say they purchase only from sites that appear on search results page one. It means for businesses. If they can build up their site’s organic traffic with great content, they are likely to get more visibility, resulting in increased conversions.
Generate Your Unique Stand With A Research-Backed Content
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach to create and distribute valuable, relevant, and consistent content to a clearly defined audience to drive profitable customer action.
The strategy for content marketing involves creating quality content aimed at attracting your target audience, building authority and trust with your audience. It also aims to distribute your content effectively through channels that align with the needs of your target audience, measuring results, and improving effectiveness.
Hence, the need to develop a content marketing strategy for your business is critical.
Content marketing has evolved to become one of the most important ways businesses market their products and services. The power of content marketing is that it creates a measurable and sustainable return on investment (ROI) for your business.
With the right strategy and approach to content marketing, marketers can make measurable impacts with their online content. Content marketers can use a wide range of tools to help drive conversions, drive traffic and improve brand recognition within the digital ecosystem.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is an SEO content strategy?
-An SEO content strategy is a systematic enterprise approach to developing and publishing pages that rank well in search engines. To nail your SEO content strategy, you need to start by identifying content gaps. These are places where your competitors are ranking well but you are not. You may also check your search intent queries to identify what keywords you should target.
Once you have the data, the next step is to create an SEO content marketing strategy. Learn how it works, which key points to focus on, and why you need one at all.
Your SEO content strategy is your compass on how you will connect with your target audience. It contains an overview of your content marketing plan, the tactics you are going to use to implement it, and the timeframes you are shooting for.
Is content part of SEO strategy?
Why is SEO content strategy important?
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