9 reasons why good content is essential for SEO

The terms sometimes seem so contradictory; Content Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With Content Marketing, the goal is to attract people, with SEO mainly Google’s web crawler. Many companies hire a specialized agency for SEO while allocating little budget for Content Marketing. A shame, because aside from the intrinsic value of Content Marketing, it is essential for a successful SEO strategy. We give you some ammunition in the form of 9 reasons why good content is essential for SEO.

Why SEO

Ultimately, online marketing is all about sales. The goal of SEO is, of course, primarily to improve the findability of your website. Better findability means more organic visitors, which leads to more leads and ultimately sales. Simple enough and exactly the reason companies are eager to ‘buy’ this: they like to believe they can get ‘to number 1 on Google’ for a few hundred euros. In our article ‘High in the search engine, how does SEO actually work?’ we elaborate on this:

What exactly are all those SEO specialists selling? This can be divided into two camps. One camp is the ‘black hatters’ who specialize in tricks to unjustly get a high rating from Google. Think, for example, of buying links and social media shares or certain software that the normal visitor will never see. This can yield strong results, but if Google finds out, you can be sure no one will find you anymore. ‘White hat’ is the other camp and only uses ‘legal’ methods. In our experience, this mainly applies to programmers and other specialists who provide the basics such as a well-indexable and fast site by Google.

In other words, in the best case, you have bought a solid foundation from that agency, in the worst case a big risk.

Why SEO revolves around Content Marketing

On Kissmetrics, they already wrote the article ‘Why SEO Is Actually All About Content Marketing’ in which the author states:

“There is no such thing as SEO without content. You need words, articles, substance, keywords, verbiage. I wince whenever I have to say it, because it’s so cliche, but it’s true: Content is king.”

The core of his story: there is a huge overlap between Content Marketing and SEO.

9 reasons why content is essential for SEO

We actually quickly came up with 9 reasons why content is so essential for SEO and we can surely think of more.

1. A reason to come back

The goal of SEO is more visitors. If visitors have a reason to come directly to your site, why would you still need the search engine?

2. Establish expertise and authority

Good content highlights the expertise and knowledge of your organization and people. A potential customer can already see from your content that they are in the right place with you.

3. Conversion opportunity to lead/customer

Content that touches or appeals to your target audience likely generates questions or eventually even an order/assignment. That piece you wrote about that custom solution you implemented for that big client in France? A potential customer from Germany called; they are interested as well.

4. Good content is shareable on social media

The most powerful form of advertising is still word-of-mouth, and social media are nowadays one of the most important channels for this. Who knows how a cow catches a hare? Oh, and Google nowadays factors in the number of social shares in its ranking, just so you know. Source: Searchenginewatch.com

Besides social shares, search engines (or should I just say Google?) have even more tricks to evaluate content. What we read about it (contentmarketinginstitute.com for example) quickly becomes complex, but it is crystal clear that Google is increasingly able to determine what good content is. All the more reason to make sure you stand head and shoulders above the competition.

6. Claim brand (values)

Are there words you would like to associate with your company or brand? Content can help you with that. To give a personal example, if your search query contains the word ‘positioning’ chances are you will end up at De Merkelijkheid. And that just happens to be what we excel at. By centering a few words in your content, the search engine can more easily associate this with your brand.

7. Creates an ‘active’ site

Activity is an important factor for Google. A site that is not maintained is reasoned by the robot to contain no relevant information. So make sure you regularly post new content on your site.

8. Provides new SEO (keyword) insights and connections

By experimenting with content from the substance, you sometimes gain insights that are very valuable in SEO. Maybe you find long-tail keywords that specifically apply to your target audience and no one has claimed them yet!

9. Link building

People like to link to good content. Just as we link here to Kiss Metric and the Content Marketing Institute, you need to ensure that you become one of the best sources of information in your market. Google watches and often rewards many links quickly with a (much) higher ranking.

What do we want to achieve with this piece? That next time you do hire a photographer to take some beautiful photos of that new product. Or that you invest a little more time in elaborating that article about your production method. In short, that you are proud of what is at the core of your unique selling point and make it possible for the world to enjoy it. If you don’t share what makes you so special, how can the ideal customer find you?