Nowadays, with millions of websites active all over the Internet, trying to get attention, creating a unique online promotion strategy for the company is crucial. This is where the synergism between SEO and content marketing strategies comes to the rescue. SEO can be likened to a map that leads the potential customer to the doorstep of the business while the content is the person who takes care of the visitor and offers him/her a good deal to come on a return visit.
1. Understanding the Roles of Content and SEO
Let’s gain a clear understanding of the uses of contents as well as the performance of SEO to achieve the marketing goals and objectives.
Content is what you stand for and what you have to say to your audience, or what the audience wants from you.
Whether you are producing regular informative blog posts, videos, or dynamic infographics, top-notch content should always be the foundation of your work as the author to win people’s trust. Suppose that you have been assigned to write an article which would answer your customers’ questions and at the same time make your business well-known in the industry. To those who don’t know, that’s the beauty of content. Businesses that engage in content marketing, experience approximately 6 times higher conversion rates than those that don't (ABG Essentials).
SEO is the serious guide that offers your content the prospect it deserves. To achieve this, you need to add keywords to your website and actually also in the content that you post so that you can appear on the search engine results. It is sort of like a team of erkatzis – our digital scouts who lead potential buyers right to your door. 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine, and SEO drives 1000%+ more traffic than organic social media (BrightEdge).
When these two forces are combined, they work hand-in-hand, producing a multiplier like impact on your site which leads to higher brand awareness, improved traffic and overall better business output.
In the next section let us discuss further and provide insights on how to properly incorporate SEO and content marketing for your target business objectives.
Remember: Of course, SEO plays a critical role, but it is sort of a double-edged sword: it is indispensable to make content people want to read and share. Even when you come up with a well-optimized content, which you think will be effective; it may not trigger the expected result for the reason that it was not appealing to the audience.
2. Content and SEO: A Superb Relationship
In my view, content and SEO can be compared to two sides of a coin; this is mainly because they are complementary to each other. Each of them works well when utilized in conjunction with other strategies in an effective fashion. Think about creating a piece of content that has potential to be a worthwhile resource to the world and yet no one uses it. Well, this is where SEO comes into the picture. It is simply the beam that points towards your content to ensure they get a sight of it or just make a notice of its existence.
This makes sense since SEO ensures that your content gets to people who are in the search of services or products which your company deals in. When you tag your content with certain keywords that are targeted by the search engine, you can easily be ranked by the search engine. This implies a higher traffic to your website, more ways of interacting with the traffic and finally, the potential customers. Companies that regularly publish blogs, see 97% more links to their websites and have 434% more indexed pages (HubSpot).
On the other side, high quality content supports and reinforces your SEO strategy. They always reward useful information that you provide to your readers. The moment you write content that can serve as a reference to answer queries or provide solutions to users, the backlinks follow. These backlinks are endorsements that strengthen your website’s credibility and lead to an enhanced search position. 72% of marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic (Ascend2).
Let’s consider an example of a small business setting. They are also aware of the idea of vlogging [video blogging] and they want to produce a series of blog articles about their products. Having optimised these posts for keyword terms and having created a good number and well formed keywords, they begin to witness the gradual increase in the organic traffic. This leads to increased demand, increased sales, and overall business growth in the organization.
3. Designing Content for SEO Improvement
Hence, the question of what it takes to underpin SEO and content so that they can deliver their true potential. Keyword research is the first step to take when getting into this process. When aiming to rank well on the search engines, imagine what your potential customers would type in search bar about your business. Some of the tools, for example, Google Keyword Planner can also help you to know these keywords. Just so you know, it is far from writing articles with random lists of keywords or keywords phrases. Pages that satisfy the search intent of a keyword are more likely to rank higher, with 70% of marketers considering keyword research crucial for SEO (SEMrush).
When generating content, tailor the same towards its utility in creating value among target consumers. Respond to questions, provide solutions to issues and explain the problem, or tell a story. Apply the keywords naturally and also naturally into your content, but the main focus should be given to readability and users’ experience.
While formatting content, one has to consider that different formats are used for different goals. Blogs are suitable for providing detailed information, whereas, videos are useful for gaining an audience who loves visual explanations. Contrary to images, infographics are more suited for sharing numerous figures in a simple way. In either case, it is critical to ensure that all the content that you put out there is Search Engine Optimized without sacrificing its quality. 57% of marketing executives consider on-page content development as the most effective SEO tactic (MarketingSherpa).
4. Optimizing Your Website: On-Page SEO
On-Page SEO is nothing but a website optimization procedure that targets the pages of the website itself in accordance with target keywords and not the entire website.
On-page SEO is a process of fine-tuning your website to improve its chances of being liked by a search engine. It’s like washing a car to make it look shiny for the next occasion that one will use it for. To begin with, we must learn certain fundamental ideas.
Meta tags and descriptions represent a first impression of the website that most people will ever get on search engine results page (SERP). It is as if the search results are masked within them; as people see them first of all on SERP. Create appealing and accurate meta titles, tags and descriptions that will provide users with the exact content they are looking for and entice them to continue browsing. Pages with meta descriptions receive 5.8% more clicks than those without (Yoast).
URL structure is an obvious fact, which may look technical at first, but it is vital. Try not to use hyphens in your URLs to avoid problems with multipage documents(shorter URLs are better), and make sure to use meaningful and concise words to describe URLs while linking them to the content of the page. Companies often prefer clean and structured website that is easy to navigate. Shorter URLs tend to rank better in Google search results. URLs with fewer than 60 characters rank higher (Backlinko).
Internal linking is also similar to providing a guide for your website users when they are navigating through the different pages. When you link to particular pages or documents within your WWW site, it is easier for the search engines to catalogue and enhance the site’s navigability. Another need is that it is possible to utilize internal linking is to share page authority.
5. Building Your Online Reputation:
Off-page SEO is just as important as on-page SEO and this means that SEO is not only restricted to the site’s webpages alone but other web pages in the entire cyberspace.
Off page SEO is all about promoting the website through the different outlets that are available. It is actually as if you are receiving recommendations for a good restaurant from friends.
Backlinks: This means that backlinks may be thought of as the votes of confidence from a variety of websites. The more backlinks of high standards your website has the more legitimate it appears to the search engines. Creating backlinks might not be swift; however, it focuses on the right task to achieve the desired goal. Tactics such as guest posting and influencer marketing can assist you in getting ‘backlinks’. Backlinks remain a crucial ranking factor, with 58% of SEO experts stating that backlinks have a significant impact on search rankings (Search Engine Journal).
Social Media: One can say that promoting ones content on the social media platforms serves a very crucial role in extending ones brand. Although social signals do not affect the search engine index in a direct manner, they can shape the SEO in an indirect way through the driving of traffic. 76% of marketers use social media to support and boost SEO (Social Media Examiner).
Just always bear in mind that for SEO, it is always a continuous process. It entails time, commitment and basically doing things that will benefit the intended audience. Optimizing your on-page and off page SEO techniques, you will get the needed visibility of your website among the potential customers.
6. Tracking Your Success
To estimate your SEO and content effectiveness, you must stay vigilant regarding the numbers. There is also website analytics software like Google analytics and SEMrush that provides useful information about the website’s performance.
Select the main indicators of website activity such as organic traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate. These numbers really can speak a lot about the effectiveness of your content and the success of your SEO. 73% of companies use Google Analytics to track and measure their marketing performance (HubSpot).
Just remember that SEO is more of a process than a one-time activity, and as such it continues end to end throughout any given project you are conducting. Maintain a constant check on your analytic data so you are able to trace different patterns, achievements and things that require changes. The fact that it is centred on data means that you will be able to better fine-tune your approach and secure more effective outcomes. Businesses that actively monitor their marketing analytics are 1.5 times more likely to achieve above-average growth rates (McKinsey).
7. Avoiding Common SEO Pitfalls
Therefore, I find it is essential to understand that SEO is one of the most effective strategies out there but still comes with specific silly mistakes. However, they should not be overstuffed within the content as it can actually lead to negative effects. The key is to first and foremost write good, informative content in which key phrases will be embedded almost automatically. Keyword stuffing can result in a penalty from search engines, leading to a drop in rankings. 75% of internet users never scroll past the first page of search engines, highlighting the importance of maintaining good SEO practices (HubSpot).
Another weakness seen in most ads is the failure to avoid the rule of quantity over quality. While it is good to produce more content sometimes it is better to have one or two high-quality pieces than to have many low-quality pieces. Do not forget that a high quality of the content works for links and yes, for the audience too.
Lastly, SEO is the ever-evolving industry that needs to be tweaked regularly. The people should be aware of the current trends as well as recent changes in algorithms to keep the strategy relevant. When one becomes aware of the trends in the market and the best strategies to be adopted in the business, then such a person or business organization is able to leave its competitor behind. 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority (HubSpot).
Thus it can be concluded that in order to achieve success one has to create great content with the help of which good SEO performance can be achieved. Thus, if one strictly adheres to these guidelines and observe all the feedbacks he or she is receiving, there are high chances of creating good reputation and attaining the set business objectives.
Is there an area under SEO or content marketing that you would like to concentrate on? Contact Aarav Infotech and we will help you achieve your goals through our award-winning SEO Services.
Written by: Jitendra Raulo
Jitendra Raulo is the Founding Director at Aarav Infotech India Pvt. Ltd., a leading Web Design and Digital Marketing Company with 11+ years of experience and having headquarter in Mumbai, India, and Support Centre at Bhubaneswar, India, he is actively working with Start-ups, SMEs and Corporations utilizing technology to provide business transformation solution.
