Nowadays, these two disciplines – SEO and content marketing – go hand in hand when it comes to online promotion and the visibility of your website. We could even say that content marketing is one of the crucial SEO techniques. But to make it effective, it has to take SEO requirements into account. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
Suppose you run a website and you want to get higher in the organic search. What do you do? There are a few options to choose from, but many companies decide to opt for content marketing. It’s a strategy that uses various texts to promote online business. But not any texts and not in any form. If you want to succeed with SEO, every single piece of content that you produce needs to be tailored towards Google’s requirements. But let’s start with the beginning.
The role of content marketing in SEO
Not that long ago, Google algorithms were based primarily on keywords when they were indexing and displaying specific websites in the SERP (search engine result page). As a result, techniques like keyword stuffing were popular. That’s because they were efficient, obviously. Today, Google works differently. Of course, keywords are still important, but search engine bots also try to discern whether a specific website is a good source of information – is it useful, is the content it offers unique, and do people find what they are looking for there?
In order to adapt to this new approach, website owners had to make sure their websites offered high-quality content that allowed people visiting them to find answers to their questions. And that’s how content marketing became a fundamental part of every SEO strategy.
How content marketing helps SEO
First off, it’s the perfect way to increase the amount of information on your website. Websites with high-quality blog posts offer valuable knowledge and advice. They answer frequently asked questions, solve customers’ problems, compare possible options, or simply educate about a specific niche or sector. As a result, Google sees that your website is actively developed and that it’s useful from the users’ perspective. That’s a good sign!
Secondly, content marketing enables you to put more keywords and key phrases on your website and do so naturally. Of course, you can’t overdo that, but blog posts that are unique, valuable, and contain specific keywords can get you higher in Google in a short time.
Thirdly, content marketing is a perfect way of getting more precious backlinks. Website owners frequently get in touch with other website owners, news portals, and other online platforms and offer them to create content specifically for them in exchange for an active backlink. This way, you can benefit from a strategy called link building. And you have to know that the link profile is one of the major factors concerning the authority and reputation of your website in Google.
Always create SEO-friendly content
Content marketing is not about writing anything, just to fill your website with content. No, you need a well-thought-out strategy that takes several important elements into account. And these elements are as follows:
- The needs of your customers: What are they interested in? What kind of content do they need? What are they looking for on your website?
- Keyword research: What keywords and key phrases are often used to find your products and services? What are user queries when they look for your business?
- Google requirements: Especially concerning the structure of the text, its length, and additional elements that we will discuss in a moment.
Therefore, we can say that SEO-friendly content:
- Is compliant with Google requirements
- Answers to the needs and doubts of your customers
- Uses relevant keywords and key phrases to attract the right traffic
- Is produced, published, and promoted regularly using all available communication channels
COMPLY WITH GOOGLE REQUIREMENTS
To create texts that Google will love, you have to consider several essential commandments. For starters, write for your readers, not Google bots. Make sure your texts are exhaustive and useful from your readers’ perspective. There’s no room for art for art’s sake here. If you have a hard time deciding what to write about, use tools like AnswerThePublic. They will help you come up with ideas that can be turned into interesting blog posts and articles.
For example, take a look at this list of recommendations for the “content marketing” phrase. It’s a ready-made list of several dozen ideas. You’ll have something to write about for many weeks to come:
Image source: https://answerthepublic.com/reports/0cc0ce44-822b-45a0-a0f5-da2e7d908c07
The second vital issue is the text’s structure. Google values texts that have a clear structure and are easy to read. Use H1-H4 headings, exploit additional devices like boldface, bullets, checklists, underlining, quotes, colors, internal/external links, etc.; just like we do in this article!
Additional elements like graphics, charts, videos (even in the form of a YouTube video), and animations are always a good idea. Try to make your post easy to read and nice to look at. And, of course, don’t even think about copy-pasting. Google values only unique content.
IS YOUR CONTENT SEO-FRIENDLY?
Perhaps at this point, you’re thinking – ok, I know how to write SEO-friendly texts, but how can I find out whether my texts are ACTUALLY SEO-friendly? Thankfully, you don’t have to guess that. You can use SEO tools like Surfer SEO and RankMath to make sure the content you produce is SEO-friendly. Both these tools use a point/color scale to show you how good your text is. In both cases, you should aim at the green scale (around 70 points).
Now you know all the basics when it comes to SEO in content marketing. The best thing to do now is to start writing. Create a list of texts and publish them one after another. Measure the results of your efforts and be consistent. That’s the only way to benefit from both content marketing and SEO.
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