With so much different advice out there, you may wonder what is actually essential. What is actually necessary to achieve your goals with search engine optimization? Is content marketing really that much of an important part of it all?

The answer to that last question is absolutely, a one hundred percent yes. 

What Content Marketing Is: the creation, publication, and distribution of content. It’s a marketing strategy that uses content to bring people to your website and grow a connection with the visitors. 

So, why exactly is content marketing so important?

1. Content Marketing Introduces Your Brand

The first thing that content marketing can provide is an increase in the amount of people coming to your website and discovering your brand. Prospects may easily be brought in by sharing a link to your new published piece of content on all your social media channels. 

Of course, if a content strategy is done right, you should also be getting discovered on the search engines. 

Most successful marketers know that content is an essential component of any good SEO strategy. Truly, most search engine optimization really is content optimization, and there’s more to it than just nailing keyword density. If you have high quality content that readers enjoy on your website, Google recognizes this and rewards it. If high quality content elsewhere on the internet links back to your website, Google notices this as well. 

Having reputable content associated with your website is the number one way to rise up the search engine rankings. And of course, the higher you’re ranking, the higher your chances are of people clicking onto your site. 

If your content really is what readers are looking for, it won’t just end with that first click either. Content that meets, or maybe even exceeds expectations, will get site visitors returning again and again. Even if you don’t come close to a sale on first visit, if you have good content they return for, you have what you need to build an audience. 

2. Content Marketing Creates an Audience that Converts

Content does an excellent job at luring new visitors in. Then, with content they want and enjoy, you provide plenty of incentive to keep them coming back again and again. Good content creates a dedicated audience out of those that were previously just casual visitors to the site. 

It happens through a very simple process:

• You put out informational articles as an expert in the industry and readers come for your expertise. 

• You educate with the answers and solutions that they need and give them all the reason needed to stick around. 
• You connect with readers through the content and a trust in your brand begins to form. 

It doesn’t take long to build up the audience you can make into your customers. 

This conversion process can also be done through content. Most content should answer a question, educate readers, and provide actionable insights, and some content can also help push readers towards the sale. Service pages and conversion landing pages may be written specifically with this goal in mind, but these aren’t your only options. With a carefully chosen call to action (CTA), you can directly guide the next step that you want a reader to take on any page. 

Even without the right CTA, content on the website makes it much easier to earn a prospect’s purchase. If they’re already coming to the site for your expertise and benefiting from the solutions presented in your content, you have them. If you are there at just the right time for these potential customers, the sale will be yours. Website content drives the customer journey, taking them along every step of the way towards what is a success for you. 

3. Content Marketing Sets You Up for Success

Content marketing is not about one, or even several, conversions though. Once you start with content marketing, it just never stops giving more back. If you’ve done it right, content marketing will continue providing results for years to come. 

An article that’s particularly enjoyed will be shared without hesitation. Natural backlinks, which are one of the best things you can hope to come from a content marketing effort, can easily come pouring in this way.

Content on your website is great for SEO on its own, but these backlinks can be even more beneficial in many ways. Lots of links pointing back at you tells Google that your website is reputable enough for others to recommend reading it and that the content is of a high-enough quality to share. If you want more visitors showing up on your website, having this shareable content is sure to continue providing results in this regard, even bringing in an audience years down the line from initial posting. 

And it doesn’t end there either. Customers that return for your content may also return for repeat purchases. A certain group of supporters may even become your brand ambassadors. They have the brand loyalty that can help your audience grow even further by sharing your content, providing testimonials, and using word of mouth to bring more to your website. 

At this point, all content needs to do is continue to impress when the new visitors arrive. 

Too Important Not to Get Right

With optimized content and a solid backlink strategy, the impact on SEO that content marketing overall has is huge. In one way or another, a smart content marketing strategy shows Google that you’re what searchers want. In the end, many marketers would agree that content is your best bet to rank higher on the search engine results pages (SERPs), but only if you can actually get it right.

The people that you want to reach often come onto the internet specifically to seek content out. Your only problem is that internet users have a lot of content at their fingertips, a lot of options that can pull them away from yours. To pull your potential customers towards your brand, you have to stand out with excellent content marketing. It’s too important not to. 

So, how do you do it?

1. Create Consistent Content

To start with content marketing, you kind of just have to get into creating content. You can’t just write as you feel like it though. No, content has to be consistent if you want to see consistent results. 

Make sure nothing gets forgotten by creating an editorial calendar which takes every step of the content marketing process into account. With it all laid out like this, it will be much easier to stick to. 

2. Ensure Quality Content

Of course, another essential is that the content be of high quality. You don’t just want a headline that draws them in. You need a piece of content that they’ll enjoy enough to keep them coming back for more. To do that with all of the competition on the web, what you put out has to be truly outstanding. 

You won’t be able to get the message right every time, but if you strive towards quality, you can continue to bring in a satisfied audience. Make sure you’re meeting quality standards by always checking published content to see what you’re doing right and what you can be doing better. With incremental improvements, your content is sure to get where you want it to be. 

3. Get It Out There

Even the most incredible and impactful piece of content won’t make a bit of difference if no one encounters it. For this reason, how you get the content out is just as much an important part of content marketing as the actual content creation. 

Start with placement on your own website, but don’t stop there. Guest post, making sure it’s in the right places where your audience aligns with that of the publication. Also, announce the important pieces on social media. Carefully sharing in the spheres of your target audience will get all the right people looking towards you. 

Content, One of the Most Important Factors of Marketing

Done right, content marketing will not fail you. Through search engines, social media, and even word of mouth, it will bring more visitors to your brand. All those new members of your audience, captivated by your content, can then be driven to conversion. It only keeps going from here. Unless you want to throw away this chance of serious success, content marketing is too important to neglect. 

If you have any questions on getting content marketing right, get in touch with us at Regex SEO.