SEO and content marketing should go hand-in-hand for the best results. Combining these two tactics can significantly enhance your online visibility and engagement. This article explores integrating your SEO strategy with your content marketing efforts to create a seamless and effective plan.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a method of planning, creating, and distributing valuable content to attract and engage a specific audience. Julia McCoy from Search Engine Land defines it as “planning, creating, and distributing relevant, valuable content (like blogs, videos, podcast episodes, ebooks, guides, and more) to attract and engage a specific audience.”
Your content can serve various purposes, from helping your audience with practical advice to entertaining them. Take Red Bull, for example. They excel at entertaining content marketing, especially with high-adrenaline sports events like Red Bull Stratos, where Felix Baumgartner parachuted from space. This aligns perfectly with their brand image.
For most businesses, content is more practical and related to solving the problems your target customers face. If you run a kitchen company, you might publish articles on measuring your kitchen or the types of units available. This positions you in front of potential customers early in their buying journey, starting a dialogue with them.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimisation, improves your website to increase its visibility in search engines like Google and Bing. It involves various tactics, from on-page optimisation to link building, to make your site attractive to search engines and users.
In 2024, SEO will encompass a wide range of strategies. What’s right for you depends on your audience, business, and goals. The general idea is to make your site appear when people search for your products, services, or information.
Using content marketing and SEO together can help you create helpful content for prospective customers and ensure it appears correct when they search for it. This contrasts with promoting content through social media, email, or native advertising, where you hope to catch the eye of a scrolling user.
Getting your content found by prospective customers on Google is the ultimate goal. It places your content in front of them at the right time without charging per click. Here’s how you can achieve this:
How to get your content found on Google
You have two options:
- Publish on a highly authoritative site where the content will naturally rank well.
- Build the authority of your site and its content.
Publishing on authoritative sites is straightforward. For example, an article comparing SEO and PPC naturally ranked well because it was on a reputable site.
Building authority on your site is more challenging but rewarding. You must create engaging content that deserves to rank, have an SEO-friendly website, and build authority through links and other signals.
Both approaches have merits. Publishing on third-party sites lends credibility and is faster, while driving traffic to your site boosts brand awareness and gives you control over the user journey.
When your content ranks well organically, you get free exposure in search results, improving brand awareness and driving engagement. Your content appears at the right place and time without cost per click, making it a powerful marketing tool.
Quality content often naturally attracts links. When you create valuable, engaging content, other sites will likely link to it, enhancing your SEO. Outreach, guest posts, and digital PR can further amplify your efforts.
The best approach is to identify well-linked content in your industry and create an improved version. Then, reach out to those who linked to the original content and promote your enhanced version.
Digital marketing often pits tactics against each other, but savvy marketers know integration is critical. SEO and content marketing complement each other perfectly.
- SEO helps get your content and business in front of more people.
- Content marketing builds authority and improves your SEO.
Think integration rather than silos for a more effective marketing strategy.
To summarise, here’s a strategy to drive more traffic to your site’s content:
- Create great content using strategic frameworks like the Value Proposition Canvas and SCAMPER.
- Promote that content through outreach, digital PR, and guest blogging.
This approach requires patience and consistency but can yield significant rewards.
This strategy might only suit some businesses. Other tactics like PPC and local SEO might be more effective if you’re a small local business. However, a combined content marketing and SEO strategy can drive extensive awareness and engagement among scalable firms without escalating costs.
In conclusion, while only suitable for some situations, combining SEO and content marketing can be highly effective. If done right, it can outperform other strategies, making it worthwhile.
