Often when we’re approached for our SEO services, we’re asked if content marketing or blogging is necessary. Our answer is: yes. Search engine optimisation and content marketing absolutely go together like a horse and carriage. We’ll explain why.
SEO and content marketing depend on each other to deliver best results.
You can’t really have one without the other. Well, you can, but your efforts wouldn’t be terribly effective, and that would defeat the purpose of search engine optimisation, which is ensuring that your website is at its most effective to rank as highly as possible in search engines.
SEO is quite technical and requires certain criteria to be met by your website, including keywords, backlinks, on-site optimisation (sitemaps, meta data, tags, etc) and consistent output. That’s right; Google likes websites with regularly updated content.
That’s where content marketing comes in.
It involves the creation and sharing of valuable content to acquire and retain customers. Content can take the form of blog posts, articles, and even social media messages (LinkedIn articles, tweets, YouTube videos, etc). Many companies do this with a blog on their website.
Good content on its own isn’t enough – you could hire a Pulitzer prize winner to write the best articles in the world about your business, but if they aren’t search optimised, who will see them? It’s a bit like the age-old question: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Content marketing helps your website to be found organically.
Let’s say you sell cookies, and you want to be found for the search term “cookies”. Simply having a website with a few lines of company information and contact details won’t help you be found because competition for “cookies” will be most certainly be high.
Your website faces search competition from other companies selling cookies, baking websites, news sites, food bloggers, etc… all offering up searchers content about cookies. (Actually, the top search results for “cookies” have to do with cookie files and how to delete them.)
Search engines like Google have to decide what content (links) to show in search results, and this is down to a huge number of variables, including relevance and popularity. This means that links that are more relevant to search terms and are better linked to from other websites should rank higher.
Even if your business offers a specialist technical service, such as plastic recycling or biofuel management, there are probably already plenty of links ready to rival yours for the #1 spot on Google.
Having great content on your website is extremely useful because you’re essentially giving potential customers more reasons to visit your website. Think about the many possible search terms related to cookies as questions. The more useful and relevant content you have that answers these questions, the higher the chances of your website turning up as a search result.
Chocolate chip cookies? Check!
Cookie recipes? Check!
Cookie decorating tips? Check!
Have you considered SEO or content marketing? If you already have a blog, have you had much success with it? Let us know in the comments below, or get in touch with us if you have questions.
