Content marketing has been a hot buzz word this year and is a verified inbound marketing tactic. The concept is simple – frequently publish unique, problem solving, entertaining and/or thought-leader type content. The content can be in the form of a web page, blog post, download, slides, video, image, widget, audio and anything else that can be published online and provide value.
For years Google’s webmaster guidance has recommended to webmasters to focus on unique value-added content. Unfortunately, many webmasters choose to game Google’s algorithm by manually building backlinks in lieu of creating quality content consistently. There’s nothing wrong with building backlinks, but by ignoring Google's recommendations and guidance completely the webmaster is gaming the system. Ask J.C. Penney what happens when Google’s webmaster recommendations are ignored. If a webmaster is caught the consequences can be devastating to a website’s rankings.
Advantages of Content Marketing for SEO
- Branded Search – By frequently publishing quality content and distributing it via social media it can potentially expose a brand to many more people. If the content is valuable it may compel the consumer to bookmark it or share it with their network. If the consumer doesn’t bookmark the content they’ll probably do a search for the brand name if they need to access the content in the future. It is quite possible for a webmaster to see branded searches double, triple or quadruple within six months of deploying a content marketing strategy.
- Google Panda/Farmer – Google’s recent algorithm update was designed specifically to reward those webmasters which follow their value-added content recommendations. It was also designed to punish those webmasters who publish content which does not add value to the visitor (i.e. duplicating other’s content, utilizing content farms, keyword stuffed content, fluff/filler content, etc.). Utilizing content marketing allows the webmaster to take advantage of the new Google Panda/Farmer search algorithm update.
- Social Media Optimization (SMO) – The major search engines have infused social signals into their search algorithms. When content is shared, liked, retweeted, etc., Google will see the activity around that particular link. Social media activity around a webmaster’s content will increase the likelihood of that page ranking higher. The more content a webmaster has to share the greater the number of pages for social activity to occur and the likelihood for more social signals increases. Content marketing is the best way to ensure a steady stream of strategic content is distributed via social media for the purpose of maximizing social signals and building social media brand clout.
Content marketing is not easy and requires time and effort. However, over the course of a few months it becomes easier and the level of efficiency increases. Also, consider strategies such as content repurposing and inviting guests to blog or do webinars. This takes some of the burden off of daily content production. In addition, leverage employees and their expertise in order to create a constant stream of content. Six months after the content marketing campaign is deployed do an organic search comparison between day one and 180 - the results make the hard work worth it. For additional help with search engine optimization feel free to download our SEO cheat sheet.
Image Credit: jjpacres
