Utilizing Content Marketing For SEO As Well As Engaging Your Audience

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Content marketing should be a core part of your SEO strategies. Not only is it important for you or your business to be using it to help rank your website, but also to engage, inform and educate your audience, or potential clients.

Content Marketing is a CORE part of our marketing strategies as it provides great results for SEO and attracting new customers. We will cover a lot in this article, the frame work of your posts, overcoming writers block and the SEO aspects of content marketing.

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First of all, who is going to write the content to go on the site. There are a couple of ways to go about this.

1. You can hire someone to write for you on your blog
2. You or someone inside your company can write posts on your site

If you go with the first option of hiring a writer, or letting your local SEO agency write for you, they MUST understand your business. It is important that they have a full grasp of the services that your business provides as well as any products. This is important so that the writer can provide VALUABLE information to the readers.

If you go with the latter option of writing the content yourself or someone inside your firm to write, then you don't have to worry as much about the knowledge of the company services or products.

You do however want to make sure that you are writing valuable content that people want to read. The last thing that you want to do is to look at content marketing as a chore and to be just putting up content to add content. Sure it may help with your rankings, but then you are missing the other half of the equation of engaging customers and only getting half of the value of content marketing.

Content Marketing "Frame Work"

So you maybe saying to yourself - "I haven't written a thing since College, I have no idea as to where to start or how to structure my articles". Not a problem, I actually found a great article by Sonia Simone on CopyBlogger.com that lists the frame work of what makes good online content:

5 Remarkable Qualities of Effective Online Content

The framework: Education + Personality = Effective Content

1. Effective content educates

Over the years, you’ve heard us say: Don’t sell, teach.

Content that sells (whether you’re in the premium content business or you use content to sell another product or service) is content that makes itself useful.

Effective content teaches your audience something they want to know more about.

It might be fitness tips, parenting skills, or career advice. But it answers pressing questions and makes your readers’ lives better in some key way.

2. Effective content has personality

Aim to create a content-driven website that has personality, that’s reader-friendly, and that’s written to both educate and entertain.

Bringing a consistent voice and personality to your content is a lot of work — but it’s also highly rewarding, both personally and professionally. Continue Reading Sonia's Article Here...

That's a great article from Sonia, and we really like point number 2. Giving your content personality. To many times people write dull, boring information that they hash out. Sometimes it can be difficult to write so that it's not boring with some topics, but like anything else, the more you practice, the easier it will come.

It's also worth noting that later in the article she also writes that keeping SEO in mind is also important.

Over Coming Writers Block

So now you have the "framework" of making a good article. But what the heck do you do if you run into writers block? It happens to even the best writers. I'm sure Stephen King doesn't just sit down and blast out book after book without running into that wall every now and again.

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Over at HuffingtonPost.com we found a very useful article where they asked 15 different writers what they do to overcome writers block. One of my favorites from the article is #11 - Don Purdum that backs up our previous point of knowing your business inside and out -

There is one, sure fire way to overcome writer’s block and that is to have complete clarity about your business.

I have five questions that I use that on average create over 400 highly specific, highly targeted topics that can be used to create one piece of content, for one person; who has one need, problem or desire.

1. What are the “specific” problems you are passionate about solving?
2. What are the tangible values your customers experience and how do they feel about the experience?
3. What are the “specific” problems you solve for each tangible value?
4. Who are you “specifically” solve each problem for (in detail)?
5. How are your products or services “a” part of “a” solution?

When you have that kind of extreme clarity then writers block is never again an issue!

Read the full article "15 Expert Tips For Unblocking Writer’s Block"

That is a lot of great information, and can give you a lot to write about for sometime. I fully recommend you read that full article. There are so many different ways to overcome Writer's Block in that article from so many different people. It is kind of cool to see the different things that people will do to overcome writers block.

So now you have the framework, over coming writers block and what to write about. Now let's get on with the SEO aspect of it.

Content Marketing And SEO

A lot of marketers forget about how important it is to take SEO into account for their content marketing. The biggest point I want to get across here is that writing for the reader and the search engines overlap. You can actually look at the services you provide, then look at what kind of search that service receives, then analyze the top searches for variations of that keyword and write your article around the keyword with the highest search. Ya, I know that read a little confusing :), but it's really not if you just stop and think about it. Basically all you want to do is write your article around your service keyword with the highest search volume.

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Over at KissMetrics, Neil wrote a post that ties everything in this article together beautifully about why content marketing is so vital to your SEO and how it overlaps with customer engagement:

Why SEO Is Actually All About Content Marketing

SEO demands content. Content marketing is content.

There is no such thing as SEO without content. You need words, articles, substance, keywords, verbiage.

I wince whenever I have to say it, because it’s so cliche, but it’s true: Content is king.

We don’t argue about that anymore. It’s a truism of the SEO industry. Content content content.

And what is content marketing all about? It’s about content. The practical application of SEO (content) is the very substance of content marketing.

When SEO shouts, “We need more content!” content marketing responds, “Gotcha taken care of!”

SEO demands keywords. Content marketing means using keywords.

Here’s another feature of SEO: Keywords.

No one would argue that a fundamental component of SEO is keywords — researching them, utilizing them, and tracking your ranking of them in the SERPs.

How does one apply the use of keywords? How is all the research funneled into its practical application?

It’s called content marketing. The only way you can use your keywords is to be employing them strategically throughout your content. Content marketing consists of top-notch content, written for humans, and using the keywords that you’re targeting.

Obviously, Panda will nail you if you insist on stuffing your pages with keywords and over optimizing. But when SEO and content marketing do what they’re supposed to do — work in sweet harmony together — you’ll be fine. Read the full article "Why SEO Is Actually All About Content Marketing"

BAM! That is a FANTASTIC ARTICLE!  If you are doing your own content marketing, or even have someone doing it for you, YOU NEED TO READ THAT ARTICLE! It is full of a lot of great information and insights as to how content marketing is SEO and SEO is content marketing. And for the part that we referenced - "Content marketing consists of top-notch content, written for HUMANS!" is pure GOLD.

In Conclusion

If you aren't using content marketing to engage more new customers as well as helping your web properties to rank in the search engines, then you are missing a rather large and awesome tool. Basically you are fighting against your competition with one arm tied behind your back.