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In more ways than one, SEO and Content Marketing are two sides of the same coin. In this evermore digital world, content could not properly function without SEO and SEO would not exist without content.
For most non-marketing businesses, understanding (or even caring about) what SEO is or how it works in collaboration with your content may not rank high on your list of things to learn. And while you don’t need to become an expert, a basic understanding can help inform decisions around your content strategy.
After all, if you are going to use resources to create content, you might as well make sure you’re creating with purpose. Here is a super simple definition of SEO in a nutshell.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an algorithmic process used by all search engines such as Google or Bing to determine the order in which websites are presented on their respective results pages.
In other words, search engines use SEO to determine which websites are the most relevant and useful for certain search terms based on a number of factors. Google doesn’t reveal exactly what goes into rankings, but we know things like keywords, site structure, site speed, time users spend on a site, the number of inbound links to a site and their quality certainly play a significant role.
For many of my financial advisor clients, this actually couldn’t be better news. The financial industry is always relevant and you have plenty of useful information to share as it pertains to people’s personal finances. There is no shortage of topics you can cover with your business blog.
How to Create SEO-Minded Content
The way you structure your content and implement your content marketing strategy revolves around SEO (even if you’re not being intentional about it). A good understanding of this process will help drive organic results and raise your website’s overall ranking in the process. Your content is there to attract and retain an audience, and SEO is used to bring that content to the right audience in the first place. They work together.
Your content is there to attract and retain an audience, and SEO is used to bring that content to the right audience in the first place. They work together. The more people that like your content, visit your content, share your content, the better its ranking will be and the higher up it will go on the results page.
Related: How to Promote Your Content over Social Media
Evergreen Originality
To have a successful content strategy, create quality content that is both timeless and unique so that it sets you apart from your competition. Cover topics in your own original way. Pay attention to what your industry isn’t talking about, rather than echoing your peers. Not only will this attract and maintain your audience’s interest but it will also allow for a better indexation of your content and a potentially higher ranking overall.
And while proper SEO indexing takes some time, it is worth paying attention to as you create and publish new content on your website. The “index” includes not just the terms used in your website URLs, but also all of the content you publish on your website, including texts, images, videos, and basically everything within the HTML code of your URL. So make sure you’re titling everything according to the keywords in your content.
Valuable, evergreen content should see a constant influx of viewers over its lifetime, allowing your website to gain more traction long after you first publish it. If you’re keeping an eye on your website’s analytics, you’ll probably notice certain content remains the most visited. Creating timeless content that helps answer questions or contains searched keywords by your target audience is not just smart business, it’s essential for an effective content marketing strategy. Creating timeless content that helps answer questions or contains searched keywords by your target audience is not just smart business, it’s essential for an effective content marketing strategy.
Do you know what your ideal client wants information about as it relates to your area of expertise? If you don’t, diving into Google Keywords should be your immediate “to-do” item before you start or continue creating content.