Content marketing is not explicitly used to promote a brands’ service or product, in fact, it is most effective when used to stimulate interest around the brand. Some major examples of content marketing right now are, videos, blog posts, long-form articles and social media posts. It is imperative that eCommerce and retail brands combine a strategic SEO plan with different forms of content marketing. We did some research and found interesting tips:
Content & SEO – like two peas in a pod
“SEO and content marketing are actually two personalities of the same person” This is a quote taken directly from Neilpatel, and we think it is a perfect metaphor to describe the close relationship between the two. Simply put, one does not work without the other.
However, as well as similarities there are differences:
- SEO is narrower and requires more technical knowledge
- Content marketing is broader, more creative and holistic
In even simpler terms, when you create content for your web site, alongside you need a good SEO strategy to optimize it so this will help your content to rank better in search result pages.
Keywords
Keywords are the fundamental backbone of SEO. Marketers need to research and use the keywords they know will work in the content. Keywords help companies to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs) However, brands need to avoid “keyword stuffing” at all costs. Google’s analytics are able to pick up on this easily when they scan your website. If they find a brand guilty of keyword stuffing, they can penalize your website and demote it in the rankings, or even remove it. This is why it is important for brands to create appropriate content that is keyword smart.
Search engine marketing (SEM) Leaders
On average 27% of the overall marketing budget is spent on content marketing. The three most popular forms of content marketing at the moment are video, blog posts and long-form articles. Here are some brand examples of smart and effective SEO / content marketing strategies:
Net-A-Porter
Is the world’s leading luxury fashion online retailer – they mainly sell clothing, accessories, gifts and beauty. They also specialize in posting an online weekly editorial, filled with images, articles and sometimes video. Their main focus is the fashion world and various topics that also influence that industry like eCommerce, tech and travel. The content is very engaging to its target audience, it doesn’t focus on just selling their product and it contains smart keywords through-out.
Patagonia
One of the leading retailers in outdoor/adventure clothing and equipment, Patagonia just like Net-a-Porter, combines great use of content with a strong SEO strategy. Patagonia’s approach has as a main focus video and social media content. The retailer tends to integrate video slide shows on their web site’s homepage, while also displaying Instagram content from its users.
IKEA
Their furniture eCommerce website has a great news section, where they share articles and new product launches. Their topics range from tips and tricks on how to set up their furniture, to décor trends for 2020. IKEA’s content and SEO strategy is delivered through the use of quality images, descriptive keyword text and integrated YouTube videos.
4 simple steps to improve your content and SEO strategy
Website loading time
There is a rule all online businesses should follow regarding their website loading time: ideally, it should be between 2 – 5 seconds. According to Spyserp40% of users will abandon the website if it takes longer than 5 sec to load. How does the load time impact your SEO and content marketing? If users are recurringly leaving your website, your bounce rate will negatively impact the search ranking of your site. On the other hand, your content marketing also has to be simple and to the point, so potential new customers can easily scan through your site.
It’s not just Google
This might come as a surprise to some businesses. Still, Google is not the only search engine you should take into consideration when it comes to optimizing your SEO and content marketing strategy. Although, Google has 76% of the global market share, other search engines like Baidu (15%), Bing (4%) Yahoo! (2%) and DuckDuckGo (0.1%) should also be considered.
Easy to read content
This rule applies explicitly to blog posts and long-form articles. When publishing new content to your website, businesses need to make sure it can be easily skimmed through. This means your content should include relevant headings and sub-headings when required, so your customers can quickly skip to the parts they are most interested in. Of course good content means improved SEO.
Backlinks
Another clever way to quickly improve your SEO and content marketing is through the use of backlinks. Basically, backlinks are a way to include more relevant links into your own content. Which, in turn, make your website more credible to search engine robots and online users. We recommend backlinking with reputable websites relevant to your brand. The better the links, the higher your web site will rank on SERP’s.
2020 Trends
Invest in SERPs
Search engine results pages (SERPs) have moved on from organic to paid results. With so many new updates like the answer boxes, featured snippets and the “people also ask” feature, the organic search results have been pushed further down. Organic search used to be at 50% in previous years, but according to Single Grain, all these new updates have decreased the share of organic clicks to about 10%.
Keywords search
Over the last couple of years, Google has evolved from the search engine to an answer engine. How many times per day do you hear the phrase “Google it?” This is why the basics of your SEO strategy should largely rely upon keyword search. We recommend using online tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs and Answer The Public.
Influencer marketing
Online engagement with your brand will not only increase your SEO but also improve your brand’s SERPs. To quantify how effective your content is, Google measures the engagement metrics of your website to evaluate the quantity of your content better. Some of the aspects that Google considers are bounce rate, dwell time, return visits, comments and social shares.
The urgency to develop an effective content and SEO strategy is critical to aid your business in developing new leads and increase revenue. Clearly, SEO is only going to be optimized if it has effective content alongside. We have mentioned various key tips throughout this article like page load time, backlinking, SERPs and keywords. Start applying these important techniques today, to increase your web site traffic and online presence.
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Aleksandra Michniewicz specializes in content for a variety of industries like tech, lifestyle, fashion and finance.
