All Rights Reserved. (C) Lord Vincent Van Mendoza
Content marketing + SEO = winning in the organic digital scene. Would you agree?
— Lord Vincent Van Mendoza (@digitallourd) February 12, 2021
Let me ask you this: “When was the last time you Googled about something?” Was it a month ago? 2 weeks ago? Or just 1 minute ago? If it’s a yes to any of these, then this is the point of this blog. Digital marketers like me are obsessed with making it on page 1 on search engines! Take a look at this:
Strong and optimized written copy is the most critical part of any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) initiative. However, before anything else, you have to put yourself in your target audience’ shoes. Make sure to identify those keywords and key phrases your target audience is likely to use when searching for your website, articles, blog entries, or other content initiatives. For example, if they’re planning to get married, and if they’re looking for an MC for their wedlock party, they could type in “event host”. Specifically, for instance, if they reside in Davao, they could type in “Davao event host“. Also, see to it that you do the same for individual pages or specific pieces of content within a website or blog — or whatever have you.
Overview:
In this blog, I have answered the question, “Is content marketing the key to SEO?”. I started by pulling in a screenshot showing that I’ve ranked #1 on Yahoo! search recently. I then included practical tips on how you can optimize your content in your digital marketing hustle. I have illustrated authentic examples to clearly explain my point. Lastly, I have included free SEO tools you can maximize for optimizing your content.
Keywords are the words and phrases searchers use. Perhaps you’re a digital marketer in Davao city who offers services such as social media management, content marketing, e-mail marketing, CRM, SEO, among others. The normal searcher is more likely to seek information by typing in the search box: “digital marketer in Davao city“.
The primary step in the keyword research process is simply to brainstorm a list of the words and phrases a searcher might use to find your site or business. Again, think the way your target audience may think. The trick here is to be very specific. Forget broad terms like “events.” Focus instead on “event planning” or “wedding hosting” or “wedding MC in Davao” or “male wedding host in Davao city”. It can be helpful to ask outsiders such as your beau, friends, family, clients, or colleagues what terms come to mind.
Once you have the initial list is in hand, the next step is to determine how useful these terms really are. That’s where keyword research tools come in place. In running the list of proposed keywords through a keyword research tool, you’ll learn how many searchers are actually conducting searches for a given word or term every day, how many of those searches actually converted into sales. These tools can also make you aware of words not on the list, or synonyms (which are important, too).
What are some of the FREE keyword research tools?
You should then narrow down your final list of keywords. You may write these on a piece of paper and have them on a cork board, or into a spreadsheet that helps you visualize at a glance each word or phrase’s conversion rate, search volume, and competition. This list helps narrow your focus and concentrates on the most important terms for your content. Don’t completely eliminate broad terms such as “marketing” because these give searchers a taste of an apple for what you’re offering. However, it’s the specific, targeted terms like “digital marketer in Davao city” that attract the targeted traffic at the bottom of the purchase or conversion funnel.
What are the characteristics of the best keywords (Que Publishing, 2012)?
- Strong relevance — terms for which you have content to support.
- Relatively high search volume—terms people actually search for.
- Relatively low competition—terms with a small number of search results, that is other pages on the Internet that search engines have indexed as containing a specific word or phrase.
When I started my SEO initiative, I really had in mind to be very specific so that I can gain authority and dominion on a certain keyword. Hence, instead of driving into the bandwagon of using “digital marketing in Davao city”, I first started with keywords “Davao event host & content marketer”. After some time, I’ve noticed that I’m relatively ranking on search engines (but not really on the very top back then). Over time, as I have grown my knowledge in digital marketing, I began to push landing pages or funnel pages with different keywords like “Davao affiliate marketer” and “CRM specialist in Davao city”.
After you’ve determined which keywords to target — both for an overall content marketing initiative as well as for very specific — that’s the time to build content around those terms. If you’ve been following my blogs, I keep on curating what Seth Godin said, “Content marketing is the only marketing left”. Remember this: Search engines favor high-quality and original content, so don’t fall prey on just copying and pasting content that is made available on the internet. Anyhow, content aggregation is fine and can really be relevant. It can be regularly supplemented with well written and researched original content. (Please don’t forget to attribute sources. Give credit to whom it is due.)
A major way that search engine algorithms to determine quality content is by examining how many links there are to specific pieces of content. (Please note that this algorithm rues may change from time to time.) Links are somewhat considered “votes” vouching for quality content. One strategy for getting people to link to you is, of course, to link to them. Another way is to follow relevant sites, blogs, online video channels, and social networking presences in your particular vertical and to comment on them, with appropriate and relevant links back to your own content. Quora is one good example where you can answer to questions related to your industry and then provide useful content answer linked to your own. Internal links are also highly valuable because links are what search engine spiders follow to find content in the first place. Guest blogging for third-party sites is also a valuable link strategy as most of which have an “about the author” blurb that creates a link back to your own site or blog.
Sharing your content across various social media platforms is another valuable link-building strategy. It’s why so many sites contain those small icons encouraging visitors to “share on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn”. This has mutual benefits on my end and on the end of my link-building affiliates as I also do backlinks for them.
While most people believe that “content is king”. We should never underestimate the power of community. Building a community through a Facebook Group or Messenger Group can be a great way to have a support system who will help you gain more shares and traffic.
Content marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) both promote mutualism in digital marketing. Content is what people look for; SEO is what makes content a priority on search engines. Put your best foot forward for these 2 powerful and amazing pillars in online marketing.
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