Many people believe that all you have to do to show up in the top search results is to frequently use the proper keywords in your texts. Yet this does not suffice anymore. This does not mean that the aspect of keywords should be neglected, but that great content is much more important to successful marketing. So do yourself a favor and stop boring you audience with texts that could have been written by robots.
Like any other search engine, Google is constantly working to optimize its services, which is to provide users with helpful search results. For a long time, keywords were considered paramount to relevancy and many companies took advantage of this. Meanwhile, Google does not provide the keywords that lead to a page visit anymore. This is so because Google does not want this to be the determining factor for creating content. Why, you ask? The answer is simple: Everyone can find out which keywords are relevant and create generic content around them. However, keywords alone do not say anything about the quality of the content and whether it is actually providing the information a user is looking for. But this is exactly the service Google wants to provide: helpful search results.
However, this does not mean that the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) have become irrelevant. Keywords, meta descriptions and URLs still matter – albeit to a lesser degree. By themselves, these classic SEO measures will not bring the desired success, i.e. more traffic, more leads and more revenue. Technical aspects like web programming aside (e.g. responsive design), content has become paramount to assessing the search-related relevancy of a website. This is a good thing as this is actually the reason why websites exist in the first place: to make valuable information accessible. And this should be done in an appealing manner. Content created solely with an eye on SEO criteria often appears generic and interchangeable. Content should be original and authentic to be of value in order to enjoy they following benefits:
- visitors are more invested in your content and will have positive associations with your company
- visitors return to see if there is new content (customer retention)
- visitors will think of your company as authentic and competent (brand awareness)
- visitors will share your content online and increase your reach
- visitors interact with your content and reveal valuable (contact) data (e.g. by filling out forms to access exclusive content like case studies etc.)
- you climb up the search engine rankings
We have created an infographic containing some interesting content marketing stats and the 6 essential W4 writing for the web tips. Make sure to check it out!
Compelling Content – But How and for Whom?
There are many types of content and they all require different channels for distribution. While social media like Twitter and Facebook are great to interact with audiences and are perfectly suited to distribute content you have published elsewhere, a corporate blog is the perfect tool to provide insightful content. A corporate blog is not a platform you should use to publish press releases and product information. A blog should be focused on knowledge. Use it to present solutions your target group might encounter and/or to write about industry news or to allow customers a peek behind the curtains.
A mix of topical content and evergreen content should make up your blog, which should publish regularly new posts (at the very least once a week). The latter describes content such as tutorials and best practices reports that stay relevant for a long period of time and therefore will continuously draw traffic to your site. Topical content refers to news such as new developments in the industry or reports on events. This type of content brings short-term traffic.
Not only blogs benefit companies that want to increase the ROI of their marketing activities. Case studies and white papers offer added value to prospects and clients for which they will regularly visit your site. Such content should be made available after users have completed a contact form. The data they reveal will be very valuable to your sales team and will furthermore help you to continue to optimize your marketing activities.
Still, before you start producing tons of new content, you should also ask yourself for whom you create it. High quality content does not only refer to originality, but most of all to usability to your target group. Who are your clients? What interests them and which online channels do they prefer to use?
If you do it the right way, content marketing will benefit your company in the following ways:
✓ Marketing will be able to assist the sales department with client data
✓ Raise brand awareness
✓ Generate more traffic, more leads and more returning customers
✓ Be recognized as a thought leader
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