How to Build an SEO Content Marketing Strategy for the Ultimate Success

SEO and content – this guide is going to combine both these separate worlds. You will find here:

Why do you need to talk about SEO and content together?
Why SEO is important in a content marketing strategy
How content marketing boosts SEO marketing
What is the relationship between SEO and content
SEO content marketing best practices

After reading this guide, you will find out why you should stop taking SEO and content as two separate things and start to work on them as two sides of the same mirror that combine to complete the mirror.

So why wait…let’s kick our journey.

People often ask me:

SEO marketing or content marketing, which one is the best?

And I always say:

Why do we have to separate both of these compatible friends?

Why can’t we marry them and develop an SEO content marketing strategy that creates rankable content, which also engages well?

Table of Contents

Why Do You Need Content Marketing Strategy for SEO?

If you still see SEO and content marketing as two separate things, it is time that you start thinking otherwise.

With the paradigm shift in SEO, SEO is no more just about ranking your site high and getting more search visibility.

Previously, it was okay to work on just keywords, technical aspects, and backlinks.

Now, SEO has become a phenomenon to create a better experience for users.

It is also about:

Making customers stay on your page
Helping them to find the required information
Triggering them to take the desired action

Why?

Because the whole purpose behind SEO efforts is to make your business progress by getting attention and qualified traffic, not just to win the race on SERPs.

So even if you rank higher on search results, but your content doesn’t offer what your visitors are looking for:

Your organic traffic will not convert.

And when your traffic does not convert, all your efforts to rank higher are useless.

Content on your page is not just a prop you use to embed keywords on your page.

It has a significant role of its own in an SEO strategy.

It’s itself a ranking factor.

Even SEOs also consider content as the most important factor for creating an SEO friendly site.

In fact, a blog can single-handedly win traffic, links, Google’s attention for a website – everything you do in SEO.

This fact is enough to answer all your queries related to what is content marketing in SEO.

Now you know how content marketing helps SEO.

From feeding your blogs and hiring manual outreach services to do guest posting, content is everywhere, helping SEO thrive.

So you can’t take SEO anywhere all alone.

Content marketing is a catalyst that boosts all your SEO efforts 2x.

How SEO Helps Content Marketing?

I have a story for you to understand why SEO is important for content marketing:

It’s good that he thought about making his shop DISCOVERABLE without much delay.

So you can sense what happened here.

The boy first had everything: a good shop and fantastic products. But people didn’t know about his shop.

Later, he opened his shop where people could easily find his shop.

Can you guess where we are going? Towards your online fate…

Even if you have a great website, written awesome and engaging content, and selling amazing products:

You need to first catch the audience’s eye before becoming their eye candy.

That’s where you need an SEO content marketing strategy.

Google is the main source for searchers to reach your online shop.

The story of SEO in the life of content marketing doesn’t end with just more visibility and higher rankings.

Keywords are also essential characters of this story.

The story goes like this:

Scene 1: Keywords without awesome content are useless

Because:

Google will not support you (we have already talked about it!).

Scene 2: Awesome content without the right keywords is dead.

Because:

Your content will not appear in the search queries of your target audiences.

You should target one primary keyword and its various variants…

… to make your content discoverable and relevant in the search results of different searchers who are using different keywords to find you.

If you are not using the right keywords, get ready to see your AWESOME content getting lost in the pit of SERPs.

That’s where the best SEO content strategy helps you:

It saves your content from vanishing as well as gives it a due boost on SERPs.

What is the Relationship Between SEO and Content Marketing?

So:

After finding out…

How SEO works along with the content

How content and SEO work at the same time

…we can see that it is hard to predict the relationship between SEO and content marketing.

You can check out the blog marketing strategies of popular bloggers, and you will find that they are a combination of the right content marketing tricks and SEO practices.

CASE STUDY 1: Backlinko by Brian Dean

Backlinko is a popular blog in the SEO world that talks about everything SEO and surrounding it.

In fact, very popular!

So what makes this blog so popular?

Answer: Its SEO and content marketing strategy.

This blog’s content ranks high for various keywords.

But Brian doesn’t depend only on SEO to get traffic.

He also employs content marketing tactics to catch relevant eyes.

Like:

He sends newsletters to his subscribers, telling them about his latest blogs…

Source: Backlinko

…and also promote on social media.

Result?

Most of the posts on this blog have huge social engagement.

So that’s what happens when you know how to do content marketing in SEO:

You become unstoppable.

CASE STUDY 2: WordStream by Larry Kim

WordStream is another popular blog that gives tips about online advertising and lead generation.

It also grabs good rankings for its targeted keywords.

And… yes, content marketing also has its role in bringing 1.5M traffic to this blog.

Larry Kim, the man behind the blog, has a huge Twitter following.

For a blogger, this number of social media followers is tremendous.

WordStream’s Twitter handle is also quite popular.

So definitely, posts also get good engagement.

You can see where this 1.5M traffic is coming from.

It isn’t hard to measure how viable SEO content marketing strategies have changed the fate of these blogs.

But does it mean that there is no difference between SEO and content marketing?

That’s also not true.

They are different in terms of their approach, audience, and the value they add to your business goals.

Yeah!

Things are twisted in the relationship between SEO and content.

It goes more like…

Good content:

Gives your site authority
Builds the reputation of your site
Attracts quality links

Good SEO:

Ranks your site high
Gives a better user experience

Both work mutually to give your business a boost while maintaining their individuality intact.

So your safe heaven lies in finding the sweet spot between the two by developing an SEO content marketing strategy that finds the best of both worlds.

SEO Content Marketing Strategy: What Should You DO?

Developing a powerful strategy that combines SEO content marketing depends on two important things:

Don’t compromise on quality on any step
Focus on giving the best user experience to visitors

Here are some best practices for SEO content marketing that really derive results:

STEP # 1: Audit Your Content

If you are going to write content for the first time and you are looking out for content marketing strategies for businesses (that’s quite a smart move) to begin things, you are better off the hook from this point.

But if you are checking out this blog in the middle of an already running website, this point is essential for you.

Before jumping on to any new strategy, you need first to know what you have gotten in your kitty.

What is the current performance of your content?
What do your audiences like?
Which content is performing the best?
Which area of a particular content needs the most attention?
How are audiences interacting with your existing content?
Which aspect of your content is lacking?
Where do you need to work the most?

Here are a few tools along with what they can do for you:

#1: Google Analytics

Helps in tracking, measuring, and managing website’s performance. Also, best known to tell user behavior on your site.

#2: DYNO Mapper

Determines the current on-site performance and which on-site factors are affecting performance.

#3: Atomic Reach

Checks the grammatical errors, weak narratives, and poorly written content on your website to suggest required improvements.

#4: SimilarWeb

Gives insightful data by comparing your content with your competitors to tell what your content is missing out on.

#5: Screaming Frog

Digs out common SEO issues in your content, including which content is buried in the bottom of the site.

These are some of the best content marketing tools that give you a reality check.

This is your first step towards creating an impressive SEO content marketing strategy to get the desired results.

STEP # 2: Know What Your Target Audiences Want

Know your customers.

Starting any marketing strategy without creating a buyer’s persona is just like you set off on a treasure hunt without a map of the treasure.

Analyze your target audiences demographically, psychologically, emotionally, culturally, and behaviorally.

What are their needs
What do they expect from you
How are they searching you
How do they interact with the search results
Why are they looking for you
What kind of content they like

Answering all these questions is important because it helps you create content that helps to:

Make your audiences stay on your site
Answer all possible queries of visitors
Give your content an edge over other competing content on SERPs
Make Google love your content
Decrease the bounce rate
Enhance the click through rate

In other words, you need to know about your target audiences to write content that wins on the SEO as well as content marketing front.

The problem is that all visitors that hit your website are not in the same relationship with you.

Some might be your potential clients
Some will be your buyers
While some others will be just jaywalkers

You can’t treat all of them with the same kind of content because they are on a different level of relationship with you.

You can’t tell a buyer why you should buy their products – he already knows that.

You can’t convince a mere visitor by yelling through your content that you are the best – he needs to know the ‘how’ factor.

See? Knowing your buyers before content production is more crucial than you think.

STEP # 3: Conduct a Competitor Analysis

If your competitors are ranking on the top for any keyword, it means that they are doing something right, and you need to know it!

Sneaking into the content and SEO patterns of your competitors give you:

New ideas to craft your own content writing planner
How things are working in the market
What kind of topics are trending, and how users are interacting with that content

These are just a few benefits of running a competitor analysis.

It cuts your hassle of working on everything from scratch. In fact, you get a proven formula that is visibly generating results.

Here are a few steps to do it:

# 1: Take Help from Google

Want to know about something? Google it!

You might have heard this line before, and you are going to hear it many more.

Reason?

Google is the main man behind the search world.

How you do it is simple: just type in your targeted keyword and search.

You will get a list of different sites ranking for that keyword.

After that, you can conduct a content audit of the top-ranking sites.

Or you can manually go through the content.

Whatever might be the case, you will surely get a better idea of your direction.

It is always good to let others do the hard work and enjoy a free ride on their hard work (wink!).

#2: Use Related Tools

You can also use tools like Ahrefs, Buzzsumo, etc., to find out the backlink profile, top-performing content, and users’ interaction with them.

STEP # 4: Target the Right Keywords

Now comes the most awaited step: keyword selection (don’t tell me that you were waiting for this one for a long time!).

But before jumping on to the keyword selection, it is always better to do your initial homework.

Once you secure your front end, next, it is time to advance deep down into the strategy.

The selection of keywords is not only important because it ranks your site and makes your content relevant for a query.

It is also important because it enhances the user experience by making your content more coherent and meaningful for people.

But which keywords should you target depending on competition and visibility?

Should you go with those that your competitors are using – like, copy-paste?

This can be a bit tricky.

For example, if you are selling content marketing services, people might be searching these services through different terms.

You can see that there are various keywords that people might use to search for the same type of service.

So what should you do when you have to take care of three things:

What are searchers using?
What can you rank for?
What relates to your topic?

It is hard to find such keywords that qualify to all these parameters because things are mostly contrasting:

If you target keywords that searchers are using, it becomes hard to rank for them because they are, most of the time, very competitive.

If you focus on keywords that suit your topic, they might not derive the desired traffic flow.

See? It is quite a shilly-shally condition.

But what if I say that there is a secret trick here:

Target keywords that your prospects use to find you in their initial buyer journey.

During the initial phase, people try to gather information.

They try to figure out their problem: try to hit there.

Here is a great example.

Content writing services is a very competitive keyword. People are searching for it, sure, but you can’t rank for it very easily.

That’s where you need a shortcut or a smart move.

You can see that in this example, all other pages are blog posts, whereas there is only one service page.

It is a smart move on so many levels:

You dodge the competition
You rank higher on SERPs
You get the eyeballs

And most importantly:

You steal the opportunity to meet the informed visitor who already knows a few things from blogs.

Remember that your keyword selection is not just a matter of ranking; it can also become a breakthrough in customer acquisition.

For that, you need to come up with a keyword selection strategy to boost your SEO content marketing strategy.

STEP # 5: Create Awesome Content

Okay, now, this might have become a cliché because almost all SEO or content marketing tips talk about this thing:

Create high-quality content
Create the best content

So talking about why you should create good content has become a bit boring.

We already know that:

Google loves it
It is essential to rank higher
You get more backlinks through it

…and so on.

That’s why here you will find what type of content is awesome besides being original, unique, and grammatically accurate (another obvious, you see!).

#1: Content Sorting Out Problems

Awesome content is one that gives answers to users’ queries.

Or the one that solves their problems.

That’s what Google also says in its quality guidelines:

“Know what your readers want… and give it to them!”

So when you are creating content, try to answer as many questions of your buyers as many you can.

#2: In-Depth & Well-Researched Content

You can neither satisfy readers nor Google with thin content.

Many pieces of research show that long-form content does well in so many ways:

It ranks better
It gets more backlinks
It has more social shares

Well, that’s the story of content on SEO’s front.

Readers also like reading a good dose of content.

Here is the proof:

Invest time and effort in providing the best value through in-depth content to readers and Google – both lookout for it.

STEP # 6: Enhance Content’s Readability

Question: Does content readability impact SEO.

Answer: Yes!

Not directly, but indirectly content readability does impact the SEO of your website.

Readability of the content has SEO significance as well as content marketing importance.

Readability means how understandable and easy to digest your content is for readers.

Your content’s readability affects user engagement metric because:

If your content is not easy to read, users will quit.

Simple!

SEO experts have predicted that soon readability can become a direct ranking factor.

Now you might be thinking, what is the parameter to determine the readability of content?

Well, Google determines the readability of content based on these factors:

#1: Flesch Reading Score

This test measures the readability based on two factors:

The average length of the sentence
The average number of syllables in each word

Source: Wikipedia

#2: Passive Voice

You should focus on using active voice sentences. Passive voice sentences shouldn’t be more than 10%.

#3: Consecutive Sentences

The use of the same words to start consecutive sentences feels awkward and annoying.

Pay attention to this when using:

Transition words (and, but, so, etc.)
Personal pronouns (I, you, it, etc.)
Relative pronouns (this, that, these, those)
Articles (the, a, an)

#4: Subheading Distribution

Use subheadings to divide content into scannable sections, give an idea of the text, and decide which section to read.

#5: Paragraph Length

Avoid long stretches of text to make content readable, scannable, and digestible.

#6: Sentence Length

Use shorter sentences to convey your message across and to make your content easy to read and engaging.

#7: Transition Words

The use of words that build a relationship between phrases, sentences, and paragraphs to show a smooth delivery of ideas.

Here is how Yoast shows the readability of content:

Besides these factors, here are given some more tips to enhance the readability of your content:

Font Selection

Don’t use a small or complex font that is hard to read for the readers.

Use of Visual Content

The use of visual content, like images, videos, infographics, screenshots, enhances the content’s readability.

STEP # 7: Create Lead Magnets

The thing with the digital consumers is that they don’t like when you go to them and tell them that you are the best available services.

They don’t care whether you are the best or what unless you first prove to them that how can you provide them a value.

A subscriber doesn’t have time to give you their email address just because you asked them to give their email address.

I mean, come one. Nobody gives you favor out of courtesy. That’s where you need a lead magnet.

A lead magnet is a perk, incentive, or bait that you offer to potential buyers to get their email address or contact information.

Here is an example of a lead magnet (killing lead magnet with a lead magnet’s example – eh!):

Can you see some specific properties of these lead magnets?

They are:

Highly targeted
Solving a problem
Calling for a specific action
Enticing
Ultra digestible
Highly accessible
Sounds valuable

The key is to make your targets think that you are really their well-wisher and they shouldn’t miss on to this opportunity.

Here are some types of lead magnets you can use in your SEO content marketing strategy:

Cheatsheets
Ultimate Checklists
Guides and resources
Toolkit
Apps & Tools
Special Offers
Calculators
Generators
Case Studies
Templates

Once you create lead magnets in your content, you offer an opportunity to prospects to stay on your page for a long time and interact with your website.

It: