SEO and Content Marketing – Create a Sustainable Strategy

SEO and content marketing are powerful enough when used separately but combined provide a one-two punch your marketing campaign needs. You can drive more of your goals forward, including a higher rank, better brand authority, and more conversions. How do you unify content marketing and SEO?

Combine SEO and content marketing by creating buyer personas, breaking down broad topics into clusters, mapping out an editorial plan, doing keyword research, writing briefs, optimizing content before publishing, inserting internal links, and monitoring  performance when it goes live. You should acquire high-quality backlinks that will increase your SEO rank.

This guide to SEO and content marketing will explain how to weave content around an SEO strategy, producing relevant content that appeals to your target audience.

What Is SEO?

Search engine optimization or SEO is the strategies businesses utilize to increase their website rank. Search engines such as Google continually update algorithms that determine which pages show up at the top of search engine results pages.

Those websites get the lion’s share of online attention. According to digital marketing resource Infront Webworks, the first result on a SERPs page generates 28.5 percent of all clicks that page will receive. The second result earns 15.7 percent, a respectable number but almost half as many.

Backlinko reports that the click-through rate of the first result on a SERP in 2023 is 39.8 percent.

What if you don’t end up on the first few results in the SERP? Your website has a decent chance of getting seen, although it’s clear you won’t receive as many clicks. Reputation911 data uncovered that the first page of SERPs gets 91.5 percent of Google traffic.

The second page earns only 4.8 percent of traffic, the third page 1.1 percent, the fourth page 0.4 percent, and the fifth page 0.2 percent. This makes it abundantly clear that internet searchers rarely bother to go beyond the first page to find what they need.

They don’t have to, as Google and other search engines have become so finetuned to what searchers want that the most relevant results shoot right to the top.

The Basics of SEO

SEO involves onsite and offsite measures like keyword research, link-building, SEO audits, content analysis, internal linking, and website optimization to inch up closer to the top of the SERPs.

Mediaboom are SEO specialists. We worked with bulk vending eCommerce company A&A Global to elevate its organic keyword ranking. Our partnership yielded an organic website traffic increase of 417 percent and an organic sales increase of 1,453 percent.

What Is Content Marketing?

The second component of SEO and content marketing is content, so let’s explore.

Content marketing is a digital marketing tactic utilizing content to reach leads, educate them, and increase their interest to the point where they convert. You can also use content for audience retention, increasing engagement.

Businesses must have a content strategy, which entails planning, creating, optimizing, publishing, and tracking  performance. The types   you’ll utilize in your campaign vary but can include:

• Blog posts
• Infographics
• Videos
• Social media content
• Case studies
• eBooks
• Email content
• User-generated content
• Checklists
• Whitepapers
• Webinars

Content marketing is a pillar of SEO, as it’s a valuable strategy for building internal links and generating reputable backlinks.

Mediaboom’s partnership with telecom marketing Spectrum created the company’s dream digital brand. Through our copywriting, strategy, and website design services, we increased their residential sales 4x.

7 Benefits of Combining SEO and Content Marketing

Now that we’ve reviewed the evolution of content marketing and SEO, it’s time to delve into the advantages of incorporating relevant content into an SEO strategy.

1. Improved Organic Search Rankings

While you have many methods for reaching the top of the SERPs, achieving the goal organically is a more reliable method. SEO and content marketing might take longer when done organically, but it will keep your reputation intact so you can continue growing your business.

2. Increased Web Traffic

How much traffic does your website generate now? As your site begins increasing in rank, it will earn more clicks. This boost in traffic shouldn’t be a one-time influx but consistent and reliable if you can maintain your top position.

Your website must be optimized to make the most of the increase in visitors. Now is a smart time for a site facelift. Improve the navigation, optimize your images, rewrite the copy incorporating keywords, and use internal links.

Your site should also have lead magnets and opt-ins to capture lead information, get them on your email list, and begin guiding them through the sales funnel.

3. Greater Audience Engagement

Combining SEO with content marketing can help your audience engagement soar. Your consistent publishing schedule of varied content keeps long-term customers interested in your company and your new products and services. You can expect to retain their loyalty and repeat business.

4. Enhanced Brand Authority and Trust

Consumers must trust a brand before forking over their money. According to Exploding Topics, more than 80 percent of consumers require brand trust before they’d consider purchasing. A high SEO rank makes you trustworthy, as search engines only reward websites with top ranks that follow SEO rules.

Content marketing can also build trust by establishing your brand as an authority. When you publish valuable content in your niche, your infographic or whitepaper could spread on social media or be cited in future industry reports.

This generates backlinks, which is already good for your SEO standing, but you also benefit from building trust among leads. Consumers seeing your brand for the first time as a trusted resource might be likelier to convert.

5. Higher Conversion Rates

A lower-than-average conversion rate hurts your company’s sales. Reduced revenue can hamper your efforts to expand your products and services as ambitiously as you want, further limiting your reach and giving your competitors an advantage.

By establishing your brand as a trustworthy authority, informing leads with educative content, and attracting more website traffic, your opportunities to convert increase. High-quality content can make a lead more confident in their purchasing decision and keep them eagerly coming back for more.

6. Cost-Effective Marketing

Marketing campaigns can be costly, leaving small businesses and startups feeling stuck. The intersection of content and SEO is a more cost-effective strategy to incorporate into your digital marketing campaigns that can pay off big-time with more leads and conversions.

7. Sustainable Long-Term Results

Increasing your SEO rank might take months, but the results don’t evaporate overnight. You can expect sustained traffic, lead gen, and conversions if you maintain your rank. However, that will take continued effort.

How to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy Supported by SEO

Are you ready to combine SEO and content marketing to stunning effect? This SEO-focused marketing strategy will help your business reap the above benefits.

Define Your Buyer Personas

No successful campaign begins without understanding your target audience. Which subset of your customers do you want to reach with your upcoming campaign? Create buyer personas to identify their common traits, including their interests, needs, pain points, and budget.

Buyer personas are amalgamations of traits based on real audience subsets that make sales and marketing more attainable.

Divide the Main Topic into Clusters

After determining your target audience, the next question to ask is, what kind of content appeals to them? You might focus on a broad main topic, such as vacuum cleaner sales.

Break that main topic down into smaller clusters. Expanding on the vacuum cleaner example, some clusters can include types of vacuum cleaners, how to maintain your vacuum cleaner, how to clean hardwood with a vacuum cleaner, how to know when it’s time for a new vacuum cleaner, and a buyer’s guide on vacuum cleaners.

As you create clusters, you might discover sub-clusters. Divide your main topic as much as needed to develop the skeleton of your content marketing strategy. 

Create an Editorial Plan with a Frequency You Can Sustain Over Time

You’ve got the topics; now, you must build them into an editorial plan.

Developing an editorial calendar requires forethought. Publish content at a frequency that works for your business. You don’t want to start off full of momentum and peter out a few weeks in, as this can confuse your audience.

Speaking of, you should also consider your audience’s preferences when building your editorial calendar. How often is too often for content? Some audiences are fine with once-a-week articles, while others might be hungry for more.

Search for Keywords with a Good Volume/Difficulty Ratio

SEO and content marketing are reliant on the selection of good keywords. The content clusters you created will help you decide which keywords to target.

What separates a good keyword from an okay one? It boils down to the volume-to-difficulty ratio.

Keyword volume refers to how searched a term is, while keyword difficulty is based on the keyword’s SERP qualities, median authority score for ranking domains, median do-follow/no-follow link ratios, and ranking referring URLs.

The keywords you select should have some search volume but not so much that every website in your industry has already covered the topic sufficiently. The keyword difficulty should be between 30 and 70 percent, which is moderately difficult based on the search volume.

Insert Your Keywords into the Editorial Plan

After selecting your keywords, combine them with the topics to create the skeleton for your upcoming posts. Build your editorial plan based on the content you’ve developed.

Create Briefs for Each Keyword and Send Them to Copywriters

The piece of content is coming to life. Next, it requires a brief, which is an overview or outline of an article to be written. The brief should include all the keywords and their required frequency, the word count, a title and subheads, linking requirements, and other pertinent information.

The briefs go to your copywriters.

Review, Optimize, and Publish Content

Review and make necessary edits once you receive the written piece, doing this yourself or working with the copywriter to finesse the content. Optimize the piece by adding meta descriptions, images and/or video, and alt tags.

Create Internal Links in the Content

You should also insert relevant internal links into the content. Using the vacuum cleaner sales keyword example, if you’ve previously written about vacuum cleaners, you should add links to your blog in the new post.

The postt is ready for publishing when you’re pleased with it.

Track the Position of Your Content on SEMrush

Your content is now live. Review its progress using SEMrush, monitoring its position. Your website might not rank overnight, even if you publish consistently good material. It can take three to six months to see results, so be patient and continue publishing.

Acquire and Analyze New Backlinks

In the meantime, building backlinks will help your SEO strategy. Backlinks tell a search engine that your content is high-value, as other websites have linked to it. Growing your backlinks will help your position in the SERPs.

How to Monitor the Performance of Your SEO Content Marketing Strategy

Tracking your SEO content marketing strategy is one of the most important elements, as you can’t determine your position without the right tools. Here are some to consider.

SEMrush

The aforementioned SEMrush is a great help for increasing the measurability of your marketing. SEMrush’s SEO toolkit has more than 20 tools to assist in technical SEO, rank building, link building, keyword research, and competitive research.

Its content marketing toolkit has AI to improve copy readability and quality, content optimization features, tips for writing with SEO in mind, and topic generation.

Google Analytics

The free web tool Google Analytics has many functions, from automation to advertising. You’ll use it for its analytics to measure your campaigns. Between engagement reports, acquisition reports, and data delivered in real time, you’ll have a full view of the performance of your campaign and your SEO ranking.

Google Search Console

You can also bolster your SEO and content marketing with Google Search Console. This free Google tool paints a clearer picture of the parameters Google uses to determine your SERP position.

You’ll get alerts if your site has an SEO issue. Use Search Analytics for content optimization, tell Google to crawl URLs and sitemaps, and improve problems that can keep you from reaching the top spot in the SERPs.

FAQs About SEO and Content Marketing

Do you have lingering questions about content marketing and SEO? Don’t miss this helpful FAQ.

Is SEO Considered Content Marketing?

SEO is not in itself a type of content marketing. However, it’s an integral part of any content marketing campaign. Without ranking well, leads will never see your content, hurting its performance.

How Do You Combine SEO and Content Marketing?

The measures discussed throughout this guide are a great means of combining SEO and content marketing. An SEO audit will reveal insights into your SERP position. After creating buyer personas, identifying clusters, and performing keyword research, you can begin publishing resonant content to increase your SEO rank.

How Do I Start Content Writing and SEO?

Content writing begins with understanding your audience. Selecting relevant keywords with a good volume-to-difficulty ratio will also help you get on your way.

Hire a Digital Marketing Agency Now

SEO affects the visibility and rank of your website and are worth prioritizing if you aren’t already. An SEO and content marketing agency like Mediaboom can help you achieve your desired results.

We’re a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO, content, and advertising. Our content services include copywriting, video production, animation, illustration, and photography.

You can also count on Mediaboom for campaign management, SEO, and content marketing. Contact us today to see what we can do for you.