Is content marketing the new trend in SEO?
Once upon a time in the land of search engine optimization, a company could put together a mediocre website full of sloppily written content, add a ton of meta keywords and tags, create a few links and… WOW… they would enjoy the instant ranking in the search engines!
Those days are gone.
As search engine optimization evolves, different factors are being considered as to what makes one site worthy of a higher ranking than another. Updates to Google’s Penguin and Panda algorithms are eradicating anything that looks like spam or keyword loading. The days of the old SEO schemes are over and the time is coming for new and stronger internet marketing strategies. A recent survey of digital marketers by Econsultancy indicates that there is a consensus that content is increasing in importance as a marketing strategy.
Consider this notable information from the Econsultancy Content Marketing Survey Report:
• 90% of respondents believe that content marketing will be more important in the next 12 months.
• Nearly three quarters (73%) of digital marketers agree that ‘brands are becoming publishers’.
• 64% of internal marketers agree that content marketing is “becoming its own discipline.”
• 38% currently have a defined strategy.
• Of internal respondents, 55% say they (or their clients) are working on a strategy, as do 58% of agency respondents.
Neil Patel, co-founder of two Internet companies, Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics and one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top Entrepreneurs in the Nation,” understands the importance of content marketing:
“I’ve always built my organic search traffic through content marketing. Why you may ask? It’s cheaper and gives faster results… We were able to launch KISSmetrics and get over 100,000 monthly organic visitors in less than a year. …just through blogging and creating infographics. We don’t build a link manually…we just spend our time and money on content marketing.”
For a small business owner, this type of strategy is a worthwhile investment of time and resources. Some of the most popular and effective methods used by marketers are:
• Blog posts
• Articles and guides
• Press releases
• Electronic newsletters
• Infographics
• Social media content (tweets, updates, etc.)
The impact of such a strategy can be substantial. Good content has a proven correlation with conversion rates, as shown in a survey conducted by digital social media agency, Sekari, in which:
• 52% of consumers surveyed said that blogging has had an impact on purchasing decisions.
• 57% of marketers surveyed acquired new customers through their blogs.
• 61% of surveyed customers said they would be more likely to purchase products from a site with personalized content.
Additionally, creating and promoting quality content encourages sharing on social sites like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. These “likes”, “+1’s” and “tweets” are gaining importance as search engine ranking factors. It’s the new trend in SEO! But there is one more thing that differentiates content marketing from traditional SEO methods, and it is very important: content marketing is not affected by algorithm updates! While an SEO agency may promise you a ranking boost, the results, if any, may be short-term at best. They will be subject to the next search engine algorithm update when the next Penguin or Panda (or Possum or Parakeet or whatever the next one is called) is released. The wise tactic is to invest in producing high-quality content for a carefully planned strategy that is financially profitable and supports changes in search engine ranking factors.