One of the most enduring trends in online marketing over the last decade has been Content Marketing. Content marketing is a crucial component of digital marketing, enhancing a brand’s overall online strategy. Although there are many creative variations for reaching audiences online via specially-designed marketing content, there are a few core principles that have made Content Marketing a winning strategy for any business looking to connect with their customers online.
Here’s a short guide to Content Marketing, along with insights relating to its role in successful SEO, improving rankings and increasing the right kind of traffic to your online presence.
What is Content Marketing and its Target Audience?
Content Marketing is the practice of content creation and sharing valuable, informative, and engaging content online, with a view to nurturing an audience and ultimately converting that audience into paying customers.
There are many types of content that fall into the category of Content Marketing. Some of the most popular and effective ones from recent years include;
• Blog posts
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Social Media posts
• Infographics
• Webinars
• Emails
• Newsletters
• Graphics
• Online courses
• Books
• Ebooks
Content marketers play a crucial role in leveraging these various formats to engage with target audiences and establish brand authority.
All or any of these types of content formats can be used as part of a Content Marketing strategy.
How does Content Marketing help Search Engines and SEO?
Many of the above content types lend themselves well to SEO practices. Text-based content is perhaps the most effective type of Content Marketing for helping SEO, as search engines work primarily with words and text (although image search technology is improving rapidly).
Text-Based Content
Written content can boost your SEO in a number of ways. Firstly, the sheer volume of words used in text-based Content Marketing provides more clues to search engines about your business and offers. This alone can help your material to perform well online. When written content is optimised, i.e. crafted in a way that makes the most of the right keywords, this is a powerful way to increase the chances of your content ranking well in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
For example, if you have a business selling Specialist Coffee, an effective way to boost your SEO would be to write a blog about your topic. Over time, the growing library of valuable, informative posts about coffee are likely to start ranking for various keywords relating to your market. This is how blogs, which are just one type of Content Marketing, can drive traffic to your site. Once people land on your blog posts or content, you are then able to nurture or sell to that visitor. This is the essence of how Content Marketing works with SEO to create success in your business – and it’s a powerful strategy that is working for millions of people online. High quality content is essential in this process.
Valuable content not only helps attract and retain a clearly defined audience but also differentiates your brand from competitors.
Video/Audio Content
It may seem as though video or audio content might not be as effective for SEO as text-based content, but there are many ways you can optimise your videos and audios so that they rank well and drive customers to your site.
Firstly, search engines tend to love video content, so there is already an SEO advantage in creating online videos. Secondly, it’s possible to craft metadata for your video or audio content that will enable search engines to find, index, and rank relevant creations in the SERPs. Thirdly, you can create transcripts of your videos and audios that can be posted alongside the content, and this will give the search engines a clear signal of what your material is about and how it should be included in search listings.
Image Content
In a similar way to video content, image-based content can be optimised to take advantage of SEO potential. Image Alt Tags are a great way to boost the possibilities of ranking well for your business topic, especially if you tag your images in line with good Keyword Research, as well as SEO best practices.
Even without metadata, Image Search is becoming so sophisticated that search engines can process the content of visuals and use these to make decisions about ranking your content. In some cases, images can perform so well that it’s the image rather than the post or page that ranks in the search listings. Pinterest is a classic example of how images can be a powerful type of content for getting discovered online, especially when coupled with good SEO strategies.
Whichever type of content is appropriate for your business, the essence of Content Marketing is to create high quality, relevant content that provides value to your potential customers, as well as tapping into the powerful benefits of SEO.
How to execute a Content Marketing Strategy effectively
To be effective with your Content Marketing, it’s helpful to have a well-developed content strategy and some basic skills in a number of marketing disciplines. These include;
• Copywriting
• SEO
• Email Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
Being skilled in these areas will give you the best chance of using content to connect with your audience and convert them into paying customers. An effective content marketing strategy is a customizable approach tailored to your brand’s specific needs and goals.
However, the best way to get started with effective Content Marketing may be to focus your initial efforts on creating good quality material that is optimised for search engines. SEO is a long-term strategy that can help generate leads, so the sooner you get started publishing your optimised content, the better. Then you can brush up on your Email Marketing and Social Media efforts once your content is starting to rank well in the SERPs.
To create well-optimised content, begin with Keyword Research that will help you design a content plan and strategy in line with your marketing efforts and business goals. Combine your Keyword Research with some simple On Page Optimisation practices, such as Meta Tags, and begin looking into potential Backlinking opportunities.
A strategic marketing approach focused on high-quality content can enhance lead generation and customer engagement. Ideally, stick to a regular schedule that creates a good volume of quality content over time. Consistency is something that search engines tend to reward, so it would be better to publish a blog or video weekly or fortnightly, rather than publish a large batch and then nothing for months.
These are some basic steps for getting started with Content Marketing and harnessing the powerful SEO benefits of publishing content online. When you do the work of understanding your target audience, researching the right keywords, optimising your content and being consistent, you can look forward to the power of Content Marketing working for you and your business.