While it’s true that content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) are two different concepts, they tend to overlap so much that at times, it becomes hard to distinguish the difference between the two.
On one hand, search engine optimization is all about optimizing a website to register better and rank higher in relevant searches. In the same breath, content marketing involves a subset of inbound marketing techniques. This is to help move website visitors through a sales funnel by providing insightful, interesting and convincing content pieces.
Due to the enhancement of Google’s algorithms through the years, the focus is now on the tenets of a good marketing plan. Things like good keyword targeting on specific pages, and fresh content that spans a certain length, now take precedence.
At present, it’s impossible to develop an effective SEO campaign without integrating some elements of content marketing. SEO now involves much more than the technical aspect of things. To get real, organic improvements in search rankings, one has to build upon a solid content marketing strategy.
Blogging
As part of the content marketing techniques, blogging is an integral aspect of an effective SEO strategy for a number of reasons. Solid blog strategies can help one increase rankings all by themselves.
The beauty of the blog becomes much more appreciated once it starts to incorporate other facets like landing pages, social media, and content optimization.
The conventional school of thought is that the more web pages one has, the more doors one has to their online home. In a way, that’s is true because to rank highly, Google thinks of each page as a separate landing page.
The more visitors one can be able to entice through the multiple doors, the more likely one is going to rank highly in search indexes.
This is because Google likes websites with multiple pages since it tends to depict a website as an invaluable resource that needs to be shared with the masses.
Blogs are also essential because the more words you write, the more keywords you can include. Just make sure the article flows and doesn’t look too much like you’re keyword stuffing. Afterall, good blog posts are those that offer high-value content and answer questions the user is wanting to know. These articles are usually keyword rich, but, not overly optimized.
Naturally, blog posts need to be relevant to the topic under discussion, and at the same time, feature the keywords in a non-generic, forced manner. Since SEO likes images with alt tags, blog posts should ideally feature a few images that are optimized correctly. The images need to target specific keywords in order to show up in a search result.
Most importantly, blogs are essential to any SEO strategy because they offer the best opportunity for one to increase rankings that can be linked to. Each new blog post offers the opportunity for one to be linked to a particular keyword, website or topic of discussion.
Therefore, by creating great content, one can ably kill two birds with one stone. More people will find the content and they’ll probably link back to one’s website for referrals. The more links your article has, the higher they can rank on search results. However, this doesn’t mean you should go purchase backlinks. Google can easily find this out and will penalise you. Instead, you should identify some high-quality sites and submit a guest post with a natural link back to your site.
Social Media
In the previous section, we delved into the essence of keyword research in blogging. As part of the content marketing techniques, keyword research plays a big role in ensuring an effective SEO strategy. Social media is considered by many as the best way to grow your online influence and reach more of the right people. In terms of SEO, social media can also help you rank better.
Thriving businesses tend to be engaged in so many activities online. Most have search engine strategies already in place and content marketing strategies at the ready. They also have a habit of sharing content to the masses by making use of social media sites. To maximize the potential of social media, businesses will ensure their posts feature a link back to their website.
To really unlock the potential of social media, you ideally need to get the content right in front of the masses. People will tend to like, comment and share content that they consider insightful. Therefore, it’s important that your content provides plenty of value.
It is the sharing aspect of social media that propels content to a broader audience. The emergence of social media has changed the way we search content online. The transformation has been so rapid that it has forced Google to change tact in how it optimizes search results.
Google along with other search engines now take preference with articles that are considered highly shareable. The more social media shares an article has, the better the chance it will rank highly in search results.
Importantly, many people don’t just search for content on the traditional search engines like Bing and Google. Social media sites have carved a niche for themselves as the ultimate go-to option.
Today, social media sites are just as important as search engines when it comes to website visibility. Good digital marketers always consider the social media aspect of things as part of their SEO strategy. The blurring of lines between social media sites and search functionalities has prompted Google’s algorithms to factor social media hits as an integral element.
