Content has a purpose. Your content marketing agency or advisor may suggest increased content on your website. However, many companies get stuck in the rut of creating content for content’s sake and don’t understand the true purpose of content. It’s likely that you once heard that Google likes fresh content, so you created a task to regularly pump out 500-word pieces to feed the Google gods. But if this is as far as your strategy goes, you could just be wasting time. If you’ve been arbitrarily placing emphasis on the number of pieces instead of the quality of those pieces, you could be doing your SEO, and your brand, a great disservice.
Figuring out why you’re producing the content you are might be more challenging than you think. If you think about the “why,” you might come up with some answers like: because the CEO says we have to, because Google wants us to, or because we don’t want our blog to look unattended. While all of those reasons might be valid in their own ways – none of them are good enough reasons to produce content for content’s sake. Each piece of content that you create must have a specific strategy and purpose. Content needs to be a part of your overall marketing plan and support its goals instead of just existing “because.”
Great content is developed for one or more of the following reasons, all of which can improve your rankings on search engines, and heighten the user experience on your website:
- To educate and inform. Great content can educate and inform your audience (which Google also loves!). Crafting helpful and informative content can build the credibility of your brand both online and off. Content that’s created for this purpose could be something like a whitepaper or an ebook. This type of content alone isn’t created in the hopes of increasing rankings but can be helpful as part of your overall strategy.
- To engage your audience on social platforms. Producing good content keeps your audience engaged. However, the content you create to educate and inform will look much different than the content you create to engage with your audience across social media platforms. Content isn’t just the written word – it can take on a variety of forms including video, infographics, and more. These types of content pieces do well on social media and can draw people to your site.
- To earn links. Your content marketing agency may have mentioned link building as part of your strategy. Content can sometimes be created in the hopes that it will earn links from reputable sources, which in turn builds credibility and boosts rankings. Check out our blog to learn more about the importance of backlinks and brand mentions.
Being focused on what type of content best serves your specific goals is key in creating a successful strategy and executing it well. Creating quality content can increase search engine rankings as part of a comprehensive SEO strategy and send you more quality leads through your site. If you have questions about content strategy, are looking for a content marketing agency, or want to know more about anything else related to digital marketing, call Results Repeat today!