In the last few years, our reliance on search engines like Google, Bing, and others has increased.
From finding the best Italian restaurant to checking out the highest-rated salons, we have come to depend on search engines.
Most of us will also attest to the fact that we find almost whatever we are looking for in the first ten search results.
This means that the algorithms of search engines have gotten darn good in terms of ranking quality content.
For brands, this presents a unique opportunity in the form of SEO and Content Marketing. A brand that is looking to amplify its digital presence, sales, and credibility needs to have a solid SEO strategy in place.
Additionally, they need to have the skills and acumen to build a performance-oriented Content Marketing strategy.
In this article, we try to address a question that most marketers and brands have a lot of trouble answering. We explain how SEO and Content Marketing are both required for digital success.
In this article
Search Engine Optimization: What you need to know
SEO is the process of optimizing every aspect of your digital presence according to the best practices of search engines. The intent of search engines is to provide users with the best possible results. This means that at the core of SEO are recommendations of what search engines find best.
If you want to understand search engine optimization and how it works, you need to pay attention to-
- The technical structure, security, and arrangement of your website. This has fundamentally been referred to as the field of Technical SEO.
- Search engines prioritize websites in rankings that have trust signals and recommendations. This is where Link Building becomes an invaluable part of SEO.
- Lastly, search engines look for On-Page optimizations, which include site and page loading speeds, URL structures, address, mobile responsiveness, and so on.
Taking the above-mentioned three factors into consideration, the algorithms of search engines rank websites on results. The goal of SEO is to pay attention to all three factors and optimize them to the best fashion.
In the last few years, SEO has evolved from its traditional role and grown or evolved into different spheres. Part of the evolution was because search engines started prioritizing the intent of the content.
This is what made Content Marketing such an important aspect of the broader field of SEO. The intention of the topic and how it best addresses the expectations of the users is what algorithms went after.
Content Marketing: Why is it so essential for Digital Success?
You must have heard about how Google considers quality content as one of its top three ranking factors. For a very long time, smart SEOs were able to bypass this by focusing on the sheer link-building numbers!
However, with Google and other search engines prioritizing user intent, content quality has become a defining marker for digital success.
Everything website related that you put on the web can be considered a part of your overall Content Marketing-
- The blog section of your website and your blogs are considered to be part of content marketing.
- The guest posts that you publish on authority blogs with the intention to gain links are also content marketing.
- The website content that you have on your home, about us, products, and services pages are also the same.
In other words, any content that goes out from the brand becomes Content Marketing. As you can make out from the term itself, it refers to marketing the brand using content!
It needs to be pointed out that a successful SEO strategy that delivers results can only be possible on the foundation of high-quality content.
How do SEO and Content Marketing work together?
In this section, we are going to explore what you need to know about how Content Marketing and SEO work together- Creating Content according to what search engines like-
Gone are the days when stuffing focus keywords was the only strategy you would need to rank on Google. In 2021, Google and other search engines want you to craft content that best suits the queries and expectations of users. The emphasis has shifted from keywords to search intent and quality. This is one thing that agencies and brands need to keep in mind. Content needs to be updated and modified continuously-
Search engines love fresh content that is constantly published. This means that a crucial function of your Content Marketing strategy is to follow a publishing schedule. Posting content regularly and updating old content according to new trends is what search engines love. This will help your SEO efforts drastically. Quality Content and Excellent Links are essential-
SEOs need to realize that every time they place backlinks they should be packaged in the highest quality content. You need to understand that if your backlinks are placed in poor-quality content, they will not aid you when it comes to your link-building expectations. This means guest posting articles need to be of a very high standard and quality.
The Bottom Line
One of the many questions that are often asked is whether one can be substituted with the other. The direct answer to the question is No!
For a very long time back when search engines were not so advanced, SEOs could get away without quality content marketing. Not anymore. With search engines prioritizing content quality, content marketing has to walk hand in hand with SEO.
If you have any other questions, you would like us to answer on SEO or Content Marketing, let us know in the comments below. We will try our best to address your concerns.
