Sophie Porter: Content Specialist

Here, I’ll explore the relationship between content marketing and SEO

Content marketing and SEO go hand-in-hand; complementing each other as perfectly as peanut butter & jam or chocolate & peanut butter or… cake and ice cream for anyone not as much of a peanut butter fanatic as I am! 

Practically, to get the very best results from your content; reach new audiences, increase traffic to your site, and improve conversions, you need to be doing both – promoting unique, optimised content to a variety of audiences in a variety of ways. 

But why shouldn’t you have one without the other?

Content marketing and SEO

Search engine optimisation (SEO) largely relies on the regular placement and adjustment of content; rich content, cornerstone content, appropriately named images, and well-structured meta descriptions being just some of the elements necessary to help your website rank for relevant keywords.

If you: 

• Update your blog or news/article section regularly
• Refresh/add to your product or services pages semi-regularly
• Post regularly on social media platforms

You’ll eventually start seeing an increase in organic search results. 

“Great!” You’re probably thinking. “So where does content marketing come in?”

Well, the most powerful of content marketing efforts encompasses all of this SEO work – recognising and appreciating the importance of organic search in elevating content online. 

If a content marketing strategy doesn’t include a section on SEO, is it even a content marketing strategy!?

I would say “Nope!”. 

SEO should be viewed as the foundation of any online content work undertaken; a well optimised site paving the way to successful – 

• Google Search Ads & Google Shopping Ads
• Social media advertising
• Organic social media activity
• Online PR & media outreach
• Lead & enquiry generation

Why?

If you launch a content marketing campaign around a specific subject, service or product, but your website isn’t optimised for keywords related to that subject, service or product – it doesn’t clearly state that your brand is a specialist in that area or sells that product or even mentions it/them in any way, no matter how hard you push new content out there – like new blogs or organic social media posts – users will quickly notice the glaring absence of subsequent information and/or reassurance in other areas of your website, and bounce off – confused and frustrated. 

What’s more, in order to successfully run Google Search Ads and Google Shopping Ads that don’t completely suck and aren’t a waste of time & money, the landing pages those ads link to must be appropriately optimised for relevant keywords – Google must be able to see a clear and decisive link between the content in your ads and the content on your page(s) for those ads to run at maximum capacity. 

Even more with Google Shopping Ads, though, due to the fact you have much less, if any, control over the keywords those ads run on. 

Plus (oh yes, there’s more! I can wax lyrical on this subject!), how do you really know how to write around the subject, service or product you want to promote online if you don’t know how users are searching for it online? Or if, indeed, users are searching for it at all!? Of course you’re an expert in your chosen field and I’m more than certain you can write, talk, and create numerous amounts of intelligent content around your expertise, but really, content created for an online landscape really does need to take semantics into account. 

Especially if your goals are to: 

• Increase sales
• Increase enquiries
• Increase inbound leads

Which, if you have a website or any kind of online presence at all, you’re most likely hoping to achieve at least one, if not all three of these! 

For example, there’s a huge, huge difference in intent and therefore the content created, between a user searching for the term “What is peanut butter?” and “Peanut butter for sale”. 

A user searching for the former is hoping to find helpful information on what peanut butter is and what it’s made of, whereas a user searching for the latter already knows what it is and has decided they want to buy some, they just need to know where they can buy it from. 

And, before I end this piece, I’d be doing a disservice to my fellow SEOers and digital marketers if I didn’t quickly make this small but important point: 

A website that’s already achieving healthy amounts of traffic and already ranking for relevant keywords and terms relating to the product or service a brand offers is so, so much easier to work with and see results from. 

If a site is not optimised, any new content added to it will be starting from nothing and have to work much harder for much longer in order to see results! 

To sum up, content marketing and SEO really do breathe life into one another – SEO providing the foundation to any content promotion you choose to undertake. Optimised, well-placed, well-structured content being easier to work with, easier to promote, and achieving much higher conversion rates. 

Finally, if you’d like to discuss anything written in this piece; your own content marketing and/or SEO needs, or find out more about how I can help you grow your business online, please contact me. I’m happy to help!