Meet Ashley, a chocolatier and the sole proprietor of The Chocolate Tuck Shop located in Uptown Manhattan. Her distinctive chocolates, gourmet cookies, and unique flavor combinations make her the talk of the town. As one of the top chocolatiers in the city, Ashley would want The Chocolate Tuck Shop to rank for luxury chocolate-related keywords. But it isn’t getting the recognition it deserves in Google searches. Ashley is rattled — after all, she has invested considerable time and money building an SEO-friendly website. One that offers all it takes to achieve the desired ranking and search traffic. Then, the million dollar question is: why isn’t her effort paying off?
For starters, Ashley should consider adding a healthy dose of content marketing to her SEO strategy.
Today’s SEO standards are notably different from the generous splashing of substandard, keyword-rich sentences of yesteryear. Irrefutably, keywords are still relevant to ranking well in search engines, but the focus has now moved from a liberal addition of keywords to creating meaningful content that cover your products/services and the industry at large.
Over the years, content marketing has gone beyond being a mere buzzword to an industry must-have. When done well, content marketing can help you build your brand’s awareness and develop relationships with your target consumer and online influencers. And that’s why content marketing is the smartest approach to SEO.
Foes turned friends, and how!
For the longest time though, SEO and content marketing were considered to be at loggerheads with each other. Some marketing proponents even claim that content marketing will soon overpower SEO. That’s a bit far-fetched, given that there is a good bit of overlap between these two titans of modern marketing. Although different in concept and approach — SEO is constricted and technical, while content marketing is broad and well-rounded — the two converge quite seamlessly. The technical methods of good SEO can help drive your content forward where consumers can easily see it. And well-written content that’s relevant to your brand can help shoot up your SEO results. It’s a match made in heaven!
Let’s dig deeper to understand how these two concepts complement each other.
- Leverage the power of words to advance your reach: When you think of SEO, you think of words, articles, phrases, and keywords. In essence, content marketing is a practical application of SEO in the form of content. SEO is all about ranking high on search indexes, which cannot happen without you creating new, valuable information. And as you create new information, you create opportunities for new rankings and a wider reach, subsequently creating more keywords you can rank for.
- Reshape keywords with relevant content: When you want to drive more traffic to your website, you want to close the gap between your existing content and the search terms associated with your business. But that doesn’t mean pointlessly adding keywords wherever you can. Search engines often register keyword overuse as spam and may downgrade your page. So instead, focus on developing interesting and engaging content that is easily accessible and delivers relevant information to your audience.
- Earn the coveted backlinks: Backlinks — incoming links to a webpage — are perhaps one of the most important aspects of SEO. Engaging, immersive content can build your brand’s visibility and lead to backlinks that increase your site’s authority. In a nutshell, with the right content, you’ll start to see improved rankings and more traffic even before you know it.
Clearly, both SEO and content marketing bring unique elements to the table, and neither can replace the other. So, when you integrate your content marketing plan with your SEO strategy, you’ll see the two drive each other forward — and yield better results in the long term.
To sweet endings and even sweeter beginnings
Coming back to Ashley’s visibility and ranking woes: could integrating content marketing in her SEO strategy offer a solution? Maybe. But with low upfront costs, content marketing is certainly worth a try. By creating content that consistently communicates the brand’s promise, Ashley can help her patrons develop expectations for the brand and become loyal to it. And loyal customers talk about their favorite brand — that’s any business owner’s dream come true!
