Recently, a client approached us with questions about search engine optimization (SEO), wanting to know the science behind selecting the right keywords and how to rank ahead of his competitors on Google.
This was our response:
Sure, SEO is important—really important—for increasing brand awareness on the Web. After all, the top few spots in Google Search are prime real estate in the competitive world of digital marketing. In light of this, we worked together to select keywords that align with his brand’s specific needs yet also fit organically with the subject material he wanted to produce.
We went on to explain, though, that SEO is pretty far down the list of things you need to worry about when producing content on a daily basis.
Consider this year’s benchmark report from CMI, which ranked the most important B2B content marketing metrics. On one hand, 67 percent of content marketers claimed that SEO ranking was “important” or “very important” for their organizations. However, SEO ranked below brand lift (69 percent), website traffic (71 percent) and sales lead quantity (71 percent) for the most important metrics that B2B content marketers use. The top three most important metrics were higher conversion rates (82 percent), sales (84 percent) and sales lead quality (87 percent).
So, why are marketers weighing SEO behind other critical content metrics? One reason could be that pushing too hard for better SEO (obsessing about using specific keywords in an attempt to pump up your rankings) can be distracting for readers and can even cause your business to plummet in search engine rankings. It’s very easy to tell, in other words, when a business is engaging in “keyword stuffing.” This type of content can be very clunky and hard to read as keywords can stick out. Plus, marketers will often attempt to tweak their websites to perform better, in effect doing more harm than good.
Our advice is to leave the hard work of SEO up to your Web development team and focus your efforts on providing multimedia content that is relevant, accurate, helpful and interesting to your readers. If you produce strong content, the search engine “spiders” that constantly crawl the web searching for the best material will find it, and your efforts will be reflected accurately in the search rankings.
Remember: SEO is just one piece of the complex puzzle that is content marketing, not the whole picture. Content Boost will work with your marketing department to build a creative and holistic strategy that aligns with your readers’ core needs, giving you a steady influx of marketing assets you can use to accomplish a wide range of goals.
To learn more about Content Boost’s approach to content marketing, contact us today.
