It’s been around for a while, but content for SEO remains a popular and powerful strategy for businesses of all types and sizes. Learning how it works can help you better understand the kind of results content-based SEO can have and what it takes to realize them. If you’ve spoken with us about SEO, we may have mentioned that for many companies, it is an intermediate or longer-term strategy because of the time it takes to build credibility online and stand out in search rankings.
First, a quick overview of what “content for SEO” is. Content for SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of creating a website or blog content that is discoverable by search engines like Google. The goal of this SEO strategy is to attract what’s called “organic” website traffic, and in many cases, generate leads.
But it isn’t just about Google. As we’ve detailed here and here, the goal of an SEO strategy is also for customers to see you as an industry expert from the moment they discover your brand. Well-written, informative content can help convert first-time customers and establish long-term relationships with them.
A good blog post should inform the reader and help persuade them to take an action. You may want them to join an email list or think about purchasing your product or service.
Making the Most of SEO
To be successful at SEO, you need content that performs well in Google’s search rankings compared to your competitors. The basic strategy is to write content using search terms being used to find information related to your product or service. Content that incorporates those terms while answering the reader’s questions appears higher in search rankings, making it more likely that customers will find you and click to your blog.
While it takes time for the team at Parkway to create content that performs well on Google and is relevant and topical to customers, we can work together to find ways to generate results in the shorter-term.
We will generally start the process of creating the content for your blog as soon as you sign-up for SEO services with us. You can begin using it immediately through additional marketing channels that are managed by you or Parkway to build your audience.
This short-term strategy delivers a return on investment (ROI) on your content sooner. It can also help maximize the content’s value over time as Google starts ranking your content in its search results.
Below are some ways your new content can build an audience and attract customers. Applying them to your business can create a digital marketing foundation that pays off in the short- and long-term.
Organic Social Media
Social media is a great way for customers to get to know your business. But to be an effective tool, it needs to add value to the customer experience. Some brands are entertaining, some are insightful and some go as far as delivering the majority of their services directly on social media.
One way to establish your brand’s value is to share your informative and interesting SEO content on social media.
We can even help you make it more relevant to customers with optimized thumbnails, creative titles and attention-grabbing descriptions.
Gated Content
A less known benefit of creating content is that it helps hone your message to customers. The act of putting words on a page can bring conciseness and clarity to your pitch, helping them better understand why they should choose you.
If a post contains content you think is especially informative or interesting, it can be repurposed. Two common examples are a case study and a whitepaper. This is especially true if your business provides a specialized product or service. This content can be delivered to audiences after they’ve completed an action like clicking, signing up or purchasing, acting as an incentive to engage with your company. You might even modify it to include visuals to provide additional value for the reader.
Paid Social Media
Similar to advertising in search results with Google Ads, you can pay to promote posts on social media. Whether it’s a “Boosted post” on Facebook or LinkedIn or a “Promoted post” on Twitter, this can be great to have a post appear in more users’ feeds.
This strategy can be particularly useful if the original organic post is performing well or you want to share the information quickly before you’re able to cultivate an organic following on social media.
As we get to know you and your business while building your blog, we can craft post ideas that are likely to perform well as paid and unpaid posts on social media.
Optimize Your Website
Disclaimer: We love building spectacular websites, so it should come as no surprise that we’d suggest this step for just about everyone.
We can help you optimize your website content and design to promote further engagement while the Parkway content team works on your ongoing SEO strategy.
One way to do this is to optimize your site to promote targeted customer actions such as email sign-ups or product purchases. We can also add a pop-up that looks great and runs smoothly to capture customer information and highlight promotions. In many cases, we can also add ecommerce functionality to allow purchases directly on your site.
These steps can improve the value of your new content by converting more of the traffic it eventually attracts to your website.