I’ve been creating and sharing online content for a while now. It’s a weekly job that takes time and effort, but do you know what? The time and effort I’ve spent on content marketing has paid off and Copywrite Matters is now rocking some very high, page 1 search engine rankings. Was it just blog writing that got me to hold a #2 ranking for “copywriter” and #3 ranking for “copywriting”? No. But my weekly blog is the cornerstone of my entire content marketing strategy and I’ve achieved those rankings without any expensive SEO consultants or link-baiting activity. Here are 5 marketing activities you can do to improve – nah, skyrocket – your search engine ranking.
Content marketing what?
First, let’s define what I mean by “content marketing”. The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:
“… a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
1. Write a regular blog
Simply creating a blog isn’t enough. Writing a blog post once in a blue moon isn’t enough. Filling your blog with posts that simply focus on keywords you want to rank for isn’t enough.
The key to successful content marketing is creating “relevant and valuable content”.
60% of purchasing decisions are made before you’re even contacted, so being valuable before an enquiry is critical. What information would your clients find helpful while they research online? What questions are you always being asked? Writing blog posts around those topics is a great start. You also need to publish blog posts often enough for Google to see you’re “relevant” and that means having fresh content on a regular basis.
2. Optimise your blog posts… even just a little
Once you pick a blog topic, do some quick keyword analysis using Google’s keyword tool. You don’t have to be an SEO expert or spend very long on this. Just long enough to get a feel for the kind of phrases people search on when looking for your topic. Then you need to use those phrases throughout your blog post.
3. Create content off your blog
Once you’ve had your brilliant idea for a blog post, you can turn that idea into lots more online content. Coming up with an idea that your audience wants to hear more about is the hardest part! Consider sharing your blog posts in a regular newsletter, turning them into videos for YouTube, or podcasts, or creating slide presentations for SlideShare. Both YouTube and SlideShare rank incredibly well because Google likes to source different types of media for each search request. The people who visit those sites are also actively looking to learn, making them very receptive to your generous content. It’s also important to remember that different people like to consume media differently, so it’s great idea to publish fresh content in a range of formats.
4. Be social
Social media gives you some excellent channels to share your valuable, relevant content, but social media can be so much more. Social media gives you a chance to ask your audience questions, listen to their responses and chat directly to them about what they need to take the next step with you. Remember that social media is like rented accommodation. Your website is like your home. Don’t invest too much in someone else’s home base (like Facebook’s, Twitter’s or Pinterest’s). Your goal always is to use to your content marketing to drive traffic back to your home base, your website.
5. Be generous with your opinion
The other part of being social is writing for, sharing and commenting on other people’s blogs. When you write for a reputable blog or leave insightful, interesting comments on blogs or in group discussions, you start to establish yourself as someone who knows their stuff. You might even get noticed and have a few people click through to investigate you. From an SEO point of view, when you get social online, actively interact with people and share awesome content, you are showing Google your “social proof”. You’re showing Google that people trust and like you and that can give you a few extra SEO brownie points. Just break it up If you’re a bit daunted by the idea of creating and sharing all this fresh content, don’t be. If you incorporate just a few hours in content marketing each week, your efforts will accumulate and your search engine ranking will show it. It might be 1 hour to write a weekly blog post or create a video, 10 minutes each day on social media and 15 minutes once a week to read and comment on other industry leaders’ online content. If you have more time, spend more time, but when you make content marketing everyone’s responsibility and part of everything you do, it won’t be something you “have to make time for”. Trust me. I’m rocking it with content marketing and you can too.
