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Uniting Content Marketing and SEO …

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What happens when you combine content marketing and SEO? Simply answered … increase in relevant traffic!!!

Your Goals: 

If your goal is to increase traffic based on relevancy, you should be seriously considering combining this complementary duo. Content marketing should be part of your SEO strategy rather than trying to run separate campaigns for each.

3 Ways To Combine & Structure Your SEO Program:

  1. One Designated In-House Department
  2. Employee or 3rd Party to Train on SEO
  3. Hire Full Time SEO Staff

7 Methods To Merge SEO and Content Marketing:

1. Create Appealing Content to link with Wikipedia

Wikipedia is ranked one of the best sources to gain relevant traffic. It is one of the most popular sites and it ranks for almost every search term on Google. Linking with Wikipedia will also enhance the advantages of generating backlinks from other sites.

Wikipedia broken-link building will be the easiest way to get linked. Discuss this with your SEO and Marketing Managers.

Creating pages that are highly relevant from a keyword and visitor perspective needs to be the main objective. Whatever you do, do not become overly eager and fall into the greed trap of broken link building because it is easy! The last thing you want to do is flood the web with irrelevant pages just to access extra links. Relevant content is the key focal point!!!

Summary:

  • Gain quality traffic
  • Backlink Generation
  • High Relevancy

2. Blogs: Focus on Keyword Data while Writing

Blogging is important, but it is important to keep topics to what your visitors want to read, while concentrating on the keywords you want to target.

The SEO and Marketing Manager can help identify the keywords that drive traffic to your site. Construct a list of desired target keywords. Once the list is done, you can then move on to writing content centered on the keywords -- as long as your visitors will benefit from and have shown interest in the topics you select.

Cross reference keywords in topics that are trending and on the up-swing. Writing about dying topics will only cause a decline in visits. Keep it fresh and interesting. Writing classic articles will have longevity for online searches to gain future traffic. Trendier articles can have a bigger boost initially. Either way, update your old blogs unless your industry calls for all trendy blogs such as a fashion magazine.

Summary:

  • Interesting Topics
  • Update Blogs
  • Use Focus Keyword Throughout
search-engine-optimization-content-marketing

 3. Quality Content Before Quantity

As Google grew up, so did their algorithm that now only shows high quality content.  Because of this, focus needs to be on writing high quality, in depth, content. 

Pages page should have 300-600 words or more than your competitors. The quantity of words can help force you to write more, which gives more page content for readers to look at. In turn, readers spend more time on the page and now Google knows your page contains high quality content. 

Consider writing in-depth articles!  Why?  Because there is definitely a direct correlation between word count and the number of backlinks that increase search engine rankings. In-depth articles can get you ranked for longtail, more specific keywords while gaining niche traffic.

After you have been able to write detailed articles of high quality, you can then shift focus to increasing the quantity.  More detailed content has to come first!

Summary: 

  • High quality content
  • Meet minimum word counts
  • Go Niche & Specific

4. FAQ’s are a Must!

Establish why some of your visitors are not converting to customers by asking!  Their input will provide you with insight and help the conversion rate to improve!

Questions you can ask are:

  • What else would you like to see on this page?
  • Please explain why you did not purchase a product/service?
  • What concerns do you have about our product or service?

By asking these questions, you will be able to determine what is hindering your efforts.  And, it gives the consumer the idea that you care.  This method will make if feel a little more “personal” for users. 

Once this information is collected, consider creating a FAQ section on your site to address the more common concerns.  This can help you rank for long-tail terms related to your brand.  This will not increase your traffic tremendously, but it will provide relevant traffic that will more than likely convert to devoted customers. This is an area where your support team is crucial.

Summary:

  • Collect FAQ
  • Answer FAQ on site
  • Gain credit on search engines & answer real customer questions

5. Target Guest-Posting Opportunities

The more links you have, the higher your rankings.  Having your content marketing team target industry-related blogs, you can build relevant links that drive the desirable traffic.  It’s that simple…

  • Guest-post on relevant sites only
  • Do not try to manipulate search engines!  Only link to your site when it benefits your visitors
  • Avoid using rich anchor text

UPDATE: Guest posting is considered low quality linking. This is because they are easy to obtain. Some guest posting is good for your online reputation, but may not contribute in the most effective and efficient way for backlink building. Try other methods such as: press releases, local online newspapers, reaching out to industry specific sites, and more backlinking strategies.

6. Remain Indirect Conversion Focused

Avoid being focused only on SEO efforts to drive traffic from keywords that convert.  By shifting focus on helping your customers with their problems with a blog, you will gain traffic from random search avenues that are industry related. 

Do not get discouraged if the random traffic does not convert immediately. Be patient, and persistent.  The more trust you gain by being a reliable source, the more you will benefit in the long run!

Summary:

  • Remember the human side of SEO
  • Don’t write for only the sake of ranking
  • Build your online reputation over time

7. Remember to Cross-Link

Adding content on your site is not enough.  Cross-linking content will increase search traffic.  As your pages grow in numbers, it will become impossible to get all of your pages indexed.  This is why it is imperative that you cross-link your pages. 

Just be careful, avoid making links rich in anchor text -- they can be more damaging than good. If you are unsure what to use as anchor text (that blue underlined, clickable text in articles), then just link to your brand name as a safe bet.

Rich SEO Anchor Text Examples:

  • Best used cars in Kansas
  • High quality used cars
  • Best low priced used cars
  • Super used cars at affordable prices
  • Best used cars – can be interpreted by Google as a brand name as well

SEO Brand Name Examples:

  • bestusedcars.com
  • com
  • Best Used Cars
  • Best Used Cars, Inc.
  • Best Used Cars Inc

Your Marketer and SEO should work close together in combining your content marketing efforts with your SEO efforts.  You will find that your qualified traffic will increase at a faster pace.  Discuss this with your team today!

Resource
QuickSprout

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