SEO and content marketing are, technically speaking, two very different beasts, and yet, they go together hand in hand.
One relies on the other for success, and vice versa.
Maybe it’s not so much that they are two different beasts, but that they are two sides of the same coin. While these two processes seem to work very differently on the surface, it’s important to understand that they are really inseparable, and both are required to grow the traffic to your website.
In previous days, growing traffic was as simple as changing around link structures, adding keywords here and there, or experimenting with your metas. Once those elements were in place, you could start building more links on your site and sit back and watch your traffic grow.
Today, that process is a little more complicated. You’ve probably heard it before, but Google prefers (more like: “expects”) high-quality content over everything else.
“Content is king” is one of those internet marketing phrases that will never go away. If you don’t have good content, you won’t rank very well, and that’s a fact.
But, at the same time, in order for people to actually find your high-quality content, you have to have a great SEO strategy to back it up.
The greatest, most poetic, and unbelievably persuasive words won’t help your bottom line at all if Google doesn’t view your entire website as one that offers value or follows best practices.
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Where They’re Different
As previously mentioned, SEO and content marketing are two different processes. You could describe the main difference like this: SEO is narrow and technical, while content marketing is broad and holistic.
While this seems like a stark contrast, it actually makes for a union that works effectively and cohesively.
Where They Overlap
While there plenty of differences between SEO and content marketing, there are also many areas where they overlap. Taking advantage of this overlap and using it in your website is the quickest way to get more people to visit your site.
So, let’s take a look at where SEO and content marketing come together.
- You can rank new pages with SEO and content. SEO is all about ranking high on search indexes, which can’t happen without you creating new, quality content. As you create new pages, you create opportunities for new rankings and more reach. This, in turn, leads to more keywords you can rank for. Remember, though, that quantity should never trump quality. Better content gets you better rankings.
- You can optimize keywords with your content. Using keywords in your content allows you to reach better more diverse audiences, including niche audiences. The key to this is using keywords naturally within your content.
- Quality content gives you authority. Ranking high on search engines relies on a variety of different factors, including the quality of the content you write. As you use content to deliver keywords and reach audiences, you’ll rank higher in search engines and increase authority with your site visitors.
Why It Matters
It’s not uncommon for website owners to focus strictly on one side of the SEO/content coin and forget the other.
SEO and content marketing both bring important elements to the online marketing table, and you need them both to really grow your business. It’s often a really big and complex picture that needs to have everything working together to deliver the best results.
If a company were to simply start to focus on something like blogging at the expense of SEO time, they may start to see a drop in overall rankings.
On the other hand, if that same company were to fixate completely on link building and demand to see 18 new high-quality links every day, they will likely not have enough fresh content to support link building on that scale.
In the end, SEO requires so much content because it wants to grow. Google doesn’t want to see a stagnant, unchanging website. It wants to know you’re building up strong, useful and relevant content so it can deliver the best results for every search.
While it is possible to use SEO on the same pages over and over, you’ll find that it’s a lot more effective when it’s pulling all this new content under its wings, tying it all together, and pushing it all up the search engine rankings.
Creating a Balance
The key is to use SEO and content marketing together. Yes, SEO requires a lot of content, but that doesn’t mean you should pin all your hopes on that single aspect of online marketing. We want to come at this from all angles.
Maybe blogs aren’t what you need right now. Maybe you should consider some long-form, evergreen content instead. Maybe we should get your user interface updated before we start delving into link building.
There is a lot of moving parts, here, which is why creating a balance between the two is incredibly important.
And it may be easier than you think.
First, identify the purpose behind your website. If you want to simply attract users, focus more on SEO tactics that drive visitors to your site. If you want higher conversion rates once visitors get to your site, content marketing is more important.
For the most part, however, you should aim to both drive visitors to your site and convert them once they get there. As you create this balance, you’re sure to see your visitors and conversion rates increase.
There’s even more to online marketing than just SEO and content. See how it all comes together in this free ebook.
Your content has to be in seo format to help it rank. Content has to be new fresh or your own version of your experience! Google hates copied material.
I prefer to write Quality content instead of quantity. Because it provides user to stay on the page so that the bounce rate will remain balanced..And off course we can maintain page 1 rank when we follow all your points which you have listed by your SEO.com team member.
I would like to know who has written this article? Excellent post dear. Keep Up the Good Work. From – Ash
Thanks for this article! I think the balance between the content ( quality content of a webpage ) and the number of quality backlinks is the key.
1. SEO states the requirements – Content marketing fulfills them.
2. SEO demands content – Content marketing is content.
3. SEO demands keywords – Content marketing means using keywords.
4. SEO demands linkbacks – Content marketing introduces linkbacks.
5. SEO demands onsite technical optimization – Content marketing needs great UX.
6. SEO demands consistent output – Content marketing requires consistent.
So, Conclusion is that :
1. You’re not an SEO, unless you’re also a content marketer. You’re not a content marketer, unless you’re also an SEO.
2. Your SEO campaign will fail unless you integrate content marketing. Your content marketing campaign will fail unless you integrate SEO.
“In the end, SEO requires so much content because it wants to grow. Google doesn’t want to see a stagnant, unchanging website” – this is essential. Thank you so much for highlighting the importance of fresh content
As others have suggested, to me they are one and the same. The internet is made of content, you’re not going to get very far with nothing to optimise.
That said, people do get hung up on “content marketing” as if that is a particular, defined thing just for SEO (there are, after all, so many type of advertising that require you to provide some form of content).
Thank you for a great read, i really think that quality is important the longer your content is, there better and more context Google grades the piece but if its not well crafted and engaging then it really is for naught.
Good post. Thanks.
Great point! Good content is what attracts visitors (and convert them into customers or followers). Links can bring traffic, but if the content is garbage, the user bounce back quick as light.
Yes, you are right. Good quality content is very important for a website’s growth. But content should not be written for SEO. It should be written to engage the visitors. But we can’t deny the importance of relevant quality backlinks.
Thank you for the post!
You can consider the content marketing as a part of SEO, Both functions differently for your website with the same level of priority.
Amazing article. Thank you for exploring the different needs and benefits of a good-quality content for a website.
Very true saying that “Content is the king in SEO” because the content is somewhat that help you greatly in getting the higher ranking in SERPs. The website who has the quality, as well as unique content, can achieve the good position in major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing much faster as compared to other websites who have duplicate or low-quality content.
So, always give top preference to content writing. It should be plagiarism-free and of high-quality with appropriate keyword stuffing.
Good article. I work in the automotive space and a lot of companies sell “content packages” that are just a pile of low quality blog posts every month so I was happy to see you mention long form evergreen content. Those are often the types of pages that can really deliver long term value for your business. There’s also key differences and necessary overlaps between writing for search engines and writing for your audience.
Thanks for sharing valuable tips. Yes, informative and long content generate more leads and also low bounce rate. Good content always give much benefits.