Brands prioritize content more than ever. For The Drum’s Content Marketing Weekhere Connor Cohen (SEO and Content Executive at The Drum) explores why SEO is such a key component of content and how it can be incorporated into a brand’s content strategy.
Content marketing has seen significant growth as brands produce creative content strategies that drive traffic, leads and conversions, while growing their brand in different countries, through different channels, on different platforms.
One of the key pillars of build a content marketing strategy for the future, is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is crucial to a content marketing strategy because it helps people find your content in search engines, increasing its visibility.
Here we look at why SEO is important, how to combine it with your content strategy, and our top five tips for building a strong SEO strategy in 2023.
What is SEO and why is it important?
SEO is the process of optimizing a website to improve its ranking on Google and increase the quantity and quality of search engine traffic. This process is multifaceted: it involves multiple elements such as technical audits, link building, keyword research, content optimization and more
The goal of SEO is to improve the visibility of your site; therefore, it is more important for brands looking to increase the amount of traffic to their website or those who want to position themselves as authoritative and trusted sources in their field or industry.
Why you should combine your content and SEO strategies
While SEO itself is an important distribution channel, it also plays a crucial role in improving content visibility in other channels. Here’s how some key elements of SEO can fuel your overall content strategy:
Keyword research
Before you create content, you need to recognize how a user will find your content. Keyword research is critical to understanding what terms your target audience is searching for and how often.
Combining your SEO and content strategies can provide you with a list of keywords that you know your target audience is using to find similar content. You can then include your research keywords as hashtags on social media, in your video content descriptions, or in the copy of your long blog posts.
Search Intent
In addition to understanding which keywords are being used, incorporating SEO into your content strategy also allows you to determine the intent behind the keywords.
By understanding the user’s search intent, you can position your content to be the most relevant.
For example, for informational content such as blog posts, finding the most relevant keywords with the right search intent can give you an edge over less optimized content, as Google’s goal is to present the user with most relevant result for the query.
Content format and structure
Creating content in an optimized format and structure is another reason why you should incorporate SEO into your content strategy.
SEO not only gives you an idea of what content format is likely to yield the best results, for example guide, review, video, etc., but also gives you structural guidance to help you deliver the best experience of content and the best possibility. of your content that is seen.
5 Key Tips to Create a Successful SEO Content Strategy in 2023
with 90% of marketers leveraging a content marketing plan, brands are finally starting to prioritize content marketing and spend more on content creation across multiple channels and platforms. With more competition, brands will need to optimize their content for maximum exposure. This is why SEO optimization is essential.
Here are five tips that brands should consider when creating their SEO content strategy and getting more eyes on their brand.
1. Create video content
There are a number of reasons why video rules content marketing and how it has become one of the most effective forms of content to engage your audience. Short-form video is extremely effective on social media platforms and is one of the main ways people consume content. That’s why short-form video has the best ROI compared to all other media formats and why social media platforms are focusing on the medium and investing heavily in it.
Consumers are using video platforms as a source of education and entertainment and as search engines. Consequently, not only must brands be creating video content that resonates with their target audience when they watch, they must also prioritize SEO optimization to ensure their content is easily found among a sea of other videos
2. Optimize voice search
The introduction of Siri and other voice assistants has forced brands to adopt innovative strategies to take advantage of new opportunities. with 27% of the world’s online population using mobile voice search and more 4 billion With voice assistants in use on devices around the world, brands that refuse to optimize their content for voice search are leaving significant opportunities on the table.
There are several key aspects to voice search optimization, but one of the most important SEO elements when optimizing for voice search is featured snippets; a search result displayed at the top of the search results page, specifically chosen by Google as the best answer to the user’s query.
Optimizing snippets is a good SEO practice in general, but the added importance of snippets for voice search means that brands that don’t optimize their content in this way are missing an opportunity because their content be more visible in homes and people. the-movement
3. Reuse your content for different channels
Content reuse involves recycling content and transforming it for use in different channels. For example, converting a long video into short videos or snippets for social media channels. It’s a creative way for brands to create new content and helps reach different audiences who prefer different formats for consuming media.
Other ideas for repurposing content include turning a blog post or article into a video or social media thread, transcribing podcasts into blog posts, turning presentations into infographics, and more. Because there are so many options, brands need to make sure they adapt the content. style in the channel they want to use.
Some best practices when reusing content include:
Prioritizing popular and perennial content.
Time the release of repurposed content with trends, news and events.
Use visuals to give your content the best chance to be shared.
4. Optimize your site and improve user experience (UX)
Creating a successful SEO content strategy is based on the fundamentals of SEO, which is why it’s important to optimize your site.
Some of the most important SEO optimizations that brands should consider include:
Metadata optimization Updating canonicals to avoid duplicate content Optimizing page speed and load time Creating mobile-friendly page layouts Implementing structured data
Two key SEO principles derive from these optimizations to ensure a good user experience on your site and to make your content as accessible as possible on mobile devices.
The mobile represented almost 60% of global traffic in the first half of 2022 and is expected to be more popular than desktop for the foreseeable future. With social media and entertainment so mobile-centric, people are now consuming media on their mobile devices more than ever before. So, as the use of mobile devices continues to grow, providing a seamless mobile experience will be crucial in 2023.
5. Stay up to date with Google algorithm updates
Google is constantly updating its algorithms to provide the best results for a search query. Most of these updates are minor, but major updates can have a significant impact on SEO and content strategies.
Google’sUseful content update‘, published in September 2022, is a good example. Over the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) content has been growing in popularity as it has allowed brands and writers to streamline the content development process. Google’s response to this was the “Useful Content Update” designed to devalue automated content and prioritize content first.
We don’t know what algorithm updates Google has planned in the future, but be sure to stay up to date as it can help you understand why your content isn’t performing as you expected.
key points
SEO is a critical component of a successful content strategy, especially key elements like keyword research, page speed, and mobile optimization. Both SEO and content should work together to increase the visibility of your brand and content across multiple channels and platforms. Video content is extremely popular and is one of the most effective forms of content to engage your audience. Voice search is more important than ever with the growth of media consumption on mobile devices. It’s a great way to make your brand visible at home and on the go. Content reuse helps reach different audiences who may consume media in different formats, although content will need to be optimized based on channel and platform. Optimizing your site and improving the user experience is crucial for Google to rank and prioritize your content. It is equally important to meet Google’s key principles of ensuring a good user experience on your site and making your content mobile-friendly. Keeping up with Google’s algorithm updates will help you understand changes in how Google evaluates and ranks your content, and how you can avoid potential setbacks in your content’s performance.
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