The Content Driven SEO Strategy
Why focus on content marketing and not some other type of marketing or advertising? Content has always been, is, and will continue to be the number one source of organic traffic. It’s what Web users look for. It’s what search engines love. It’s what stands the test of time and helps you saunter through all those search engine algorithm changes that make your competitors’ SEO ranking plummet.
But great content without SEO is not so great for marketing. It will be hard to discover, and it will not attract as many relevant or interested visitors. It won’t bring you great conversion rates. It will certainly enlighten some people, or amuse them, or inform them, but it won’t likely increase your sales. That’s why you want to combine great content with good SEO practises.
Getting Started
First you need great content. For your website, for your blog, for your social media profiles. How will you get it? You can write it yourself, but that takes time, and requires some skill. Being an ace at running a business doesn’t necessarily make you a good content creator. You need a team to create content for you. You can use employees, or you can outsource content, or you can do both. It’s up to you.
Creating Great Content
To make sure your content is great…
- Do research. Focus on facts and statistics rather than on personal opinions or common beliefs.
- Chose engaging headlines and calls to action.
- Maintain the same consistent message in all your content.
- Don’t force a particular style, and avoid jargon and business talk. The more natural the content, the more it connects with readers.
- Promote individual authors by displaying names, titles, and bios. When the authors are your own employees this helps with branding.
- Sell stories. Every business, every author, every article, every product has a story. Don’t be afraid to tell it. It will not soften your tough business image. It will only make it easier for readers to connect with you.
And Then There’s the SEO…
- Focus on one main key phrase per article, sprinkling additional keywords as you see fit.
- Optimise headlines, URLs, image and video titles and tags, and first paragraphs.
- Stick to on-page, organic SEO. Forget about artificial link building.
