Why Your Business Needs an SEO Content Marketing Strategy
Businesses should always be where the customers are, so they should be on the internet. After all, it’s where we find and pay for products and services. Companies should make sure they have a content marketing strategy for search engines.
If you own a business, your strategy should design your content for search engine optimization. That’s because you can do this even if you have a startup or a small business. Fortunately, this article will cover all you need to form a content marketing strategy.
We will start by elaborating on why marketing strategies should prioritize search engines. Later, you will learn how those work, so you can write material that lets you rank high on search results. Also, we will go through the other ways you can improve your content marketing efforts.
What is content marketing?
This article is about SEO and content marketing, but we’ll talk about the latter first. It’s much easier to discuss because everything on the internet counts as pieces of content!
This involves using online media to promote your products and services. Examples include videos, infographics, and even music. However, the humble blog post is the one that marketers frequently use.
This is because it’s a highly versatile component of any content marketing strategy. Here are the reasons why businesses often use content marketing:
It can fit almost any budget.
If you have a small business, it may seem like you don’t stand a chance in the current market. You will have to adjust in significant ways while trying to compete against companies from around the world.
Content marketing gives everyone a fair chance since it’s much easier to create online content nowadays. For example, you can find free websites that may feature your blog post.
You don’t even have to approach such websites since you can use social media networks for free! Later, we will discuss how SEO can empower small businesses even more.
It can take on many forms.
Marketing wants to attract as many people as possible, but it starts with a limited target audience. This allows a team of experts to craft the most suitable material for this demographic.
As mentioned, content marketing uses all sorts of formats. This means you have plenty of options to attract new customers while staying within budget and other constraints.
For example, you may want to use videos if your target audience includes people in their 20s. Believe it or not, TikTok is the best platform for this specific demographic!
More people are likely to see it.
Remember the days of old when advertisements dotted cityscapes? Sure, we still have billboards towering along highways, but ads were more widespread in the streets back then.
Your location limited your reach since only those who passed by your ads might see them. You may promote your brand on TV, but you will have to spend so much more.
Online content marketing boosts the reach and affordability of modern strategies. You can now promote to everyone around the world without spending millions of dollars.
Read More: Content Marketing Vs. Brand Journalism
Why does search engine optimization help content marketing?
Back then, businesses relied on traditional marketing materials like TV ads and billboards. As online content marketing became more prevalent, these methods eventually became ineffective.
People became glued to their screens whether at home or work. As a result, they’re unlikely to notice the advertisements around them. We’ve also gotten used to these methods.
For example, you can just change the channel if there’s an ad blaring before your show. That’s why businesses needed a new way to promote themselves.
As a result, they started to advertise on the internet. Most companies have profiles on major social media sites while the larger ones have separate websites.
More importantly, they have pieces of content spread across the internet. These businesses want to make sure that their target audience easily spots them online.
After all, roughly 68% of online activities begin with a search engine. If your brand is present on more websites, it’s more likely to show up on the search results.
How do search engines work?
However, relying on that still takes too long. That’s why you should take advantage of how search engines work. Do you remember how people sometimes call the internet the “World Wide Web?”
If we follow that description, wouldn’t it make sense for this “web” to have “spiders?” Well, the internet does have them, and they come from search engines.
They’re often called web crawlers or search spiders. You may not like them in real life, but you’d love to have them moving around your website!
That’s because they help search engine platforms like Google to make sense of your content. Search spiders analyze your content and classify it, so they can refer to it later.
Once a search engine receives a query, it will use the compiled information from the spiders. It will use that to match the user’s request with relevant content.
The web crawlers do this by finding certain keywords or keyphrases in the website. They rate them based on the types of keywords the websites have and how often they appear within them.
Those appear on the first page of search results, and 75% of people looking up stuff online don’t go beyond the first page. If you’re on the second page, you have a slim chance of getting discovered.
Note that these criteria are just the basic ones. Google and other search engines do not disclose all the details of how they work. Regardless, you earn the number spot with just these criteria.
How can I write content for SEO?
Businesses know that they need an online presence, so they also understand that they must find ways to get picked up by search engines. Fortunately, SEO can help with this!
The acronym stands for search engine optimization, and it takes advantage of how a search engine compiles its results. Remember what we talked about using keywords?
SEO mostly involves incorporating the right keywords into a piece of marketing content. What’s more, search engine optimization often requires organizing your content in a certain manner.
You want to divide your content into smaller headings as much as possible. They make it easier for a search engine to “read” the content, so it’s more likely to place it in the top spot.
As mentioned, SEO involves using the right keywords to increase the chances of a website to ace search engine rankings. This may seem simple at first glance.
Everyone can perform search engine optimization, but it would take a lot of effort. With enough persistence, you too can become number one on the results page!
Start creating content for SEO with the following methods:
#1. Begin with a content marketing strategy.
Your search engine optimization should have a goal. Specifically, that objective should fit your content marketing strategy. Look at the aspects like the target audience.
This will help you narrow down your keyword research. It would be easier for you to find competitive keywords. As a result, you’re more likely to get a solid SEO strategy!
#2. Proceed with keyword research.
You will have to find the words and phrases that get picked up by search engines. Start by looking for your company on the internet. Then, look for relevant terms and your competitors.
Let’s say you have a solar panel company like Tesla. Start by searching “Tesla” on search websites. Then, look for “solar panels” and similar companies like Rivian.
Look at the content from the first page, then jot down the words and phrases that appear often. You should have at least 20 keywords after checking up all those websites.
#3. Apply the keywords to your content.
It’s up to you to incorporate these words and phrases into your websites. You can’t just place that list of keywords at the bottom of your content, though.
Search engines have improved so much over the years that these websites can notice that you’re just padding your content! Instead, they should look like a natural part of it.
This is more effective when used in a blog post compared to other online media. That’s why we will use it as an example for applying keywords naturally.
You should write your online article in a way that uses those words as a natural part of its text. This may sound simple, but you will need a certain level of grammar skill for this.
You may have noticed that this approach to keyword research takes too long. Fortunately, you can find numerous websites that can facilitate this process.
You can find a free keyword research tool, but they often lack all the necessary features. Look hard enough, and you can find a paid option that fits your needs.
How can I improve my SEO?
Let’s say you just optimized your content marketing strategy for search engine rankings. You can’t just sit back and watch your company gain customers and sales.
You’re not the only one competing for the top spot. An SEO strategy is a must for modern companies, so one of them will eventually overtake your position.
This doesn’t mean that creating content for search engines doesn’t work. It’s just that you will have to frequently update your materials, so you can maintain that top search engine ranking.
Here are the ways you can improve SEO for content marketing:
Prioritize long-tail keywords.
Your SEO content may have trouble ranking if it’s targeting words closely related to major firms. For example, using “Google Chrome” as your main keyword might not be a great idea.
One of the biggest companies in the world owns it, and it’s popular around the world. Also, billions of websites refer to its products and services.
At the time of writing, only TikTok challenged its position as the most visited website in the world. Unless your company matches their scope, it would be best to rank for similar words and phrases.
Optimize content for topics that are relevant to “Google Chrome” or similar terms. For example, you might want to discuss the pros and cons of this web browser instead of talking about it in general terms.
That way, you’ll have a long-tail keyword, one that is made up of several words instead of one or two. Following the previous example, you could use something like “Google Chrome pros and cons.”
This would narrow down your competition, so you’re more likely to top the results pages. As a result, your content marketing efforts are more likely to benefit from SEO.
Avoid overstuffing your content.
As much as you want the right keywords on your website, you don’t want to go overboard. If a keyword appears too many times, Google may assume that you’re trying too hard to rank on results pages.
You see, Google wants to make sure that it provides the most relevant content to its users. It knows that websites may take this blunt approach to SEO, so it avoids websites that use such methods.
This makes sure that people find the best websites that have what they need, not ones that only aim for rankings. Check your existing content if you have such errors.
Your main keywords should appear around 10-15 times while the others must show up around three to five times. You will need online tools to get more accurate numbers.
Fix the other aspects of your on-site SEO.
Your content isn’t the only one you can adjust. Your website has other aspects that you can optimize such as its meta title and meta description.
You can access those from your website builder. Make sure to mention the exact main keyword and its synonyms on these meta aspects.
If you’re using WordPress, you can easily add an SEO tracker. This will note other ways you can improve search engines. For example, it could tell you to add images to your website.
It knows that people are more likely to stay on your website if it has pictures. You may also add keywords to those photos as well. You could add at least five images that have those terms.
How can I fix my technical SEO?
If you want to get the best results from your search engine optimization, you will need more IT skills. Specifically, you will need people who know how to design and build websites.
You will need to make sure people can access your website from mobile devices. That’s because more people tend to use such gadgets for browsing the internet.
This means your website should appear properly on these devices. All the parts should show up in the right places and function as seamlessly as the desktop version.
What’s more, your website should load quickly. Every second that your site loads are another chance that people would leave your online page.
Google and other search engines consider that when recommending results. That’s why it’s especially important for online content marketing.
A content marketing strategy isn’t enough.
Believe it or not, content marketing alone won’t be enough to improve your standing on the internet. As we’ve mentioned, you’re not the only one using this method.
The internet has billions upon billions of content, so it’s easy to see how hard it is to stand out. This is especially true if you only use a few channels or media for your SEO content strategy.
For best results, you should use various methods for your content marketing. Remember that we mentioned other ways to advertise on the internet?
You will have to use everything you can for the best content marketing results. Let’s look at the ways you can proceed with content promotion:
#1. Share on social media.
Facebook and Twitter are the most accessible content marketing methods because you can use them for free. What’s more, they let you reach so many potential customers around the world.
Start content marketing on them by creating accounts. That’s where you’ll promote your products and services. Along with your other content marketing tactics, you can reach more customers.
Also, those will allow you to communicate with your customers directly. That way, you can improve your relations with them. In turn, they’re likely to recommend your brand to more people.
#2. Work with online influencers.
Nowadays, you can become a celebrity by posting high-quality stuff on the internet. For example, you might go viral by posting funny videos or releasing great music.
They can eventually gain millions of followers until more people recognize them as online influencers. Imagine all those people becoming your customers!
Other companies try that by asking for help from these internet personalities. They could promote your brand to their followers, so they’re likely to try your products and services.
This is called influencer marketing, and it’s a common content marketing method nowadays. Note that you should select the people that fit your brand image.
#3. Turn your old content into videos.
As you go through content marketing, you’ll notice that some of your materials don’t provide optimal results. You could readjust them for SEO, or you could convert them into other media.
Specifically, you might want to turn it into a series of short-form videos. These are as long as the clips you find on TikTok. Most people prefer this type of content nowadays.
These videos can be as short as 15 seconds, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to make. Do it right, and it might turn into one of your most effective content marketing materials!
#4. Start an affiliate marketing campaign.
You don’t have to rely on these types of people for better SEO and content marketing. Nowadays, even regular folks can help you too!
You could invite people to work as your affiliate marketers. They will ask people to try your products and services using the promo code you’ve provided.
As more people use that code, they can earn much more. Of course, this also means better results for your SEO and content marketing.
This is just the most common approach to affiliate marketing, but there are others. If you need a great example for your content marketing strategy, check out the LeadAdvisors Affiliate and Partner Program.
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#5. Promote your brand via email.
The early days of the internet didn’t have instant messaging or live stream videos. Instead, it used email as its only communication method. Nowadays, it is still reliable for content marketing.
You might not consider this since most people remember it for junk mail. However, you can prevent people from trashing your mail by optimizing it for the right demographics.
Tailor your messages based on the needs of your target audience. You may even want to create content based on certain customer actions, such as completing purchases.
That’s easier nowadays because you can automate the process. You can find several online tools that can automatically send emails to the right people at the appropriate times.
Final thoughts
We just talked about all the ways you can perform SEO and content marketing. As you’ve seen, you have numerous options for your efforts. These can be overwhelming, though.
Content marketing is important, but it’s not easy to create the right strategy. You have so many choices, but you have a limited time and budget.
Fortunately, LeadAdvisors has helped digital marketing campaigns over the years. Click here to learn how this digital marketing agency can help your brand.
