Nov 30 2011

Exploring the Link Between SEO and Content Strategy

Most small business owners think that content is just another tool that will help their website rank better in searches. With this mindset, content is not fully maximized and its power isn’t truly unlocked. When it comes to the principles of content strategy, good content should be easy to find, read, understand, share and actionable.

For individuals who are torn between content strategy and SEO, they’d be happy to find out that the two actually intersect in more ways than one. So how exactly do these two concepts collide with each other? First off, business owners need to understand exactly what their consumers prefer and want to discover and share, information-wise. These preferences come in the form of keywords which are central in SEO. If consumers have a high likelihood of using certain keywords when they’re making searches on Google or Yahoo!, then chances are that these are the topics which they want to know more about.

Using the right keywords allows your content to be easily found. But writing something just for the sake of pleasing the search engines is a short-sighted strategy offering only short-term benefits. Aside from worrying about whether or not readers will find your content, it’s crucial that you also think about whether they will be excited to consume and share your content once they eventually find it.

Customers will find your content easy to consume and share if it’s written in a tone that empathizes with them and their needs. Think of it this way, searchers click on your website because they thought that your content title was interesting and promising. But when they read halfway through the first paragraph, they find out that the rest of the write-up will be nothing but re-hashed common sense ideas which aren’t particularly helpful or relevant to what they are looking for, and they move on. In the case, your content was easy to find but readers weren’t thrilled to consume or share it.

Part of a good content strategy is coming up with an editorial plan which should include content types, the general topics and the different keywords which they have been optimized for. At the same time, this plan should indicate if the content may and where they can be re-published or re-purposed. Finally, an editorial plan should provide the different channels of distribution which will be used in the promotion and sharing of content through the web.

The post author, Chris Marentis writes from years of experience building companies and closing sales. He currently runs Surefire Social and provides local internet marketing

7 Responses to “Exploring the Link Between SEO and Content Strategy”

  1. andy says:
    November 30, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    My big peeve is “content for content sake.” I have had many bosses in my day jobs in the past, just want to load as many pages as possible, often redundant. Saying the same thing on 5 different pages does not help the customer. The site should be made FOR the customer, not the business. It should be easy to maneuver and easy to find what they are looking for. There needs to be more transparency in business web sites.

  2. Anthem Country Club real estate says:
    December 1, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    Good content without good search engine optimization tools is not very useful. There is no point of writing a very good post but have no readers. Website owners should concentrate on both. This way they will be able to rank higher on search engines.

  3. Stephanie says:
    December 1, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    Great post! Good content strategy that creates an engaging user experience will not only deliver great SEO results, it will also help companies achieve their goals and create better relationships with their customers. Users feel better about companies that educate them and make them feel comfortable, while providing a great user experience. SEO and content strategy are inseparable.

  4. John Wilkerson says:
    December 1, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    I find that content falls into two realms. The first being the presentation of a white paper and the second being short conversational pieces.

    White papers take time to research and prepare. They are released less often and tend to be used as a control or education document.

    Conversational pieces are short usually about 200 to 500 words that bring to light more minor pieces of education or entertainment. When I write a conversational piece it needs to satisfy less in bulk key words but still enlighten the reader with some insight.

    A white paper might deal with the development of corn farming in Kansas pre 1940 while the conversational piece would discuss how to oil the bearings in the corn harvester.

  5. Worli says:
    December 4, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    Apart from the content i think title also matters. Unless you write catchy title it won’t grab people attention and unless they read it, they cannot discover how good is the content.

    Content that goes viral always has catchy title. what you say?

  6. John Wilkerson says:
    December 6, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    In my opinion the title is the most important part. Yes content will work for search engine ranking but if you can’t engage the user with a quality title they won’t open the link.

    I discuss a couple of rules I use for tile in a blog post if I you are interested.

    “The Art of Names”

    http://johnwilkerson.com/2011/10/14/the-art-of-names-%e2%80%93-how-to-title-label-and-identify-content/

    Thanks John

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