Batman and Robin.
Peanut butter and jelly.
Macaroni and cheese.
These are just a few examples of well-known dynamic duos. All are perfectly capable of standing alone but go next-level when paired with their notable counterpart.
In the marketing world, the most formidable dynamic duo consists of SEO and content. Are they both important? Definitely. Can they stand alone? To a degree. Are they more effective when paired together? Absolutely!
SEO and content pack a powerful 1-2 punch that helps companies get found by prospective buyers, connect with them and support them as they make their way through their individual buyer’s journeys. The companies that combine SEO and content into a cohesive marketing approach beat their competitors and keep their sales funnels full.
Read on to learn more about why SEO and content are important and how they help maximize each other’s potential.
SEO & Content: Undisputed Champions of Marketing
Consider a scenario where one of your company’s social media channels gets 1.2 million views every month but still trails Google in traffic generated. That may seem surprising, but not when you consider that Pinterest processes 5 billion search queries a month compared to Google’s 3.5 billion search queries every day. If you’re good at math, you know that equates to 21 times more searches on Google every month.
This isn’t hypothetical musing; it’s an actual example shared by marketing consultant Leanne Wong. It demonstrates just how important SEO and content are to your marketing success. Even if you’ve got a huge social media following or a lengthy email subscriber list, it pales in comparison to the traffic Google can send your way.
Here are a few other eye-opening statistics from Wong:
- Most websites with maturity see their organic Google traffic surpass all social media traffic
- High-quality content with authority can maintain first-page rankings on Google for years
- When you rank in the top 3 positions on search engine result pages (SERPs), you stay there for at least 1-2 years
How SEO Gets Your Content (And Company) Found
Does your company have a game-changing product or service? A compelling story to tell? An offer that’s too good to pass up? That’s great, but how do you get your messaging in front of the most eyeballs possible? With SEO!
You can write an incredible blog post, post a persuasive case study or build an eye-catching and convincing landing page, but it won’t mean much if you can’t open the tap to a continual flow of page visitors. You accomplish this by optimizing your well-written content for search.
Improving your SEO standing and maintaining it long-term requires several tasks. The on-page SEO tactics include:
- Targeting the right keywords
- Adding or revising the meta tags
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Heading tags
- Optimizing URL structures
- Adding image alt text
Of course, optimizing your web pages is only half the battle. The other phase is off-page SEO, the tactics of which include:
- Building citations
- Local directory
- Rich media
- Social
- Utilizing social media
- Purchasing PPC ads to supplement your organic SEO
- Accumulating backlinks from other sites with high domain authority
Last, but certainly not least, don’t overlook Google Business Profile. Some marketers would argue that it’s the most important component of your business’s digital presence and paramount to your ability to beat your competition in search.
It offers key features including:
- Maps
- Reviews
- Posts
- Business description
- Business contact information
- Photos
- Hours
- Appointments
To learn more, read our article The Importance of Google Business Profile for Local Businesses. Of course, you can implement all the SEO tactics and tricks in the book to get traffic to your site. But what happens once visitors get there — whether or not they convert — is out of SEO’s control. At that point, it’s up to your content to take the baton and push them toward the finish line.
How Content Turns SEO Traffic Into Sales
Content isn’t just window dressing that can be an afterthought as you focus on the technical details of your other marketing tactics. Quite the opposite, in fact. In many cases, content is the focal point.
These days, the best products, services and salespeople alone aren’t enough to convince people to open their wallets. Buyers want lots of information that they can consume on their own time at their own pace before making a purchase decision. It enables them to verify the merits of the product or service and the credibility of the company offering it.
This demonstrates the importance and the power of content marketing, which emphasizes education and trust over sales pitches and split-second decisions.
Content pairs with SEO by giving it “juice” in the form of the relevant keywords it contains and the helpful information it shares. Both are equal in importance. Google rewards sites with a higher ranking if they have helpful, well-developed content that contains the proper quantity and quality of keywords that apply to a specific search query. Well-written copy without the backing of a good keyword strategy will fall short. So, too, will copy that has lots of keywords but is poorly written.
Quality content is essential at every level of the sales funnel and can take many forms depending on the conversions you are hoping to achieve. Here are some examples:
- Lead magnets
- Web copy
- Landing page copy
- Blog posts
- Case studies
- White papers
- Infographics
- Videos
- Podcasts
For more information, check out our blog posts on creating a content strategy and getting the most out of your content team.
Conquer the Competition with the Pairing of SEO & Content
By themselves, SEO and content are must-have elements of a high-performing marketing strategy. Together, they can be leveraged into an unbeatable combination that will have your marketing machine churning out dollars.
SEO will bring in the traffic. Content will pique interest and drive conversions. Marketing’s dynamic duo will have your company reaping the rewards and leave your less informed, less prepared competitors scrambling to keep up.
A final note before we leave you to put SEO and content to work at your business. Patience!
As Wong emphasizes, organic search traffic is steady and rarely fluctuates, unlike volatile social media traffic which can have drastic peaks and valleys. Most mature websites with quality content and backlinks have built a strong SEO foundation over time. They didn’t start doing SEO a few months ago.
If your SEO and content marketing initiative is in its infancy, don’t get discouraged if you don’t see instant results. It takes time to build momentum. But once you do, you’ll rest easy knowing your dynamic duo is working hard for you.
Have additional questions about SEO and content or want to learn even more? Call us at 815.431.1000 or submit this form to contact us. And to learn more about SEO, visit the SEO/SEM section of our blog.
