Every skilled blogger and savvy business owner recognizes the power of SEO and content marketing. These techniques go together like peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti and meatballs, mac and cheese, or Pepper Potts and Iron Man (you catch my drift). The reality is, both SEO and content marketing rely heavily on one another to operate effectively and productively. Here’s why, like most pairs, these two are better when they’re together.

The only actionable way to grow your business online is to ensure your SEO and content marketing strategy are best friends; we’re talking as close as a 90’s boy band on tour for the first time in years to promote their greatest hits album. The best websites thrive and flourish only when SEO and content marketing efforts strategically work *NSYNC.

What’s More Important: Content Marketing or SEO?

The content strategy for your blog is as important as the SEO.

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If you’re a smarty-pants then you may already know a great content marketing strategy infused with SEO is a recipe for success. But do you know why?

At Posts By Ghost, we’re not just writers, SEO specialists, and part-time unicorns (you know, because we bring the magic and the glitter); we’re also skilled mind readers. Therefore, I know exactly what you’re thinking: so who got here first–SEO or content marketing!? And which one is really more important? Well, the answer is as complicated as your college relationships….

Over time, SEO developed into a useful tool for bloggers, entrepreneurs, CEOs, small business, and anyone else on the web because, at the end of the day, SEO is simply “optimizing for search.” How do you get discovered on search? By putting out content that speaks to the queries of your customers! Companies realized that well-written, interesting content attracted more customers online (just like it attracted them offline) and the concept of content marketing was born.

Constantly creating and thinking is key to a successful website or blog.

Image via Unsplash by Jon Tyson.

Here’s the dealio, it doesn’t really matter which one came first anymore because, in today’s web world, you need both SEO and content marketing to reach success. Think of SEO and content marketing like ordering a pizza that’s half barbecue chicken, half Hawaiian. Both are different and amazing on their own but taste delightfully fulfilling when enjoyed together. (Okay, so maybe I’m a little hungry, can you tell?)

Business 2 Community says it best, “You need content to support your keyword strategy and you need to understand what people are searching for to create meaningful content that will resonate with your audience.” SEO supports the content you create. So, while the concept of SEO may have arrived at the party first, the content marketing is what keeps the good times rollin’ and all the guests entertained. Without content, there’s no point in SEO and without SEO there’s no stellar content optimized for your readers and followers. SEO and content marketing work together to provide real results. Still foggy on how they’re intertwined? Check out these different ways one influences the other.

3 Ways SEO and Content Marketing Successfully Work Together

The concepts of SEO and content marketing have a lot in common and aspire to achieve virtually the same goals. In fact, it was the birth of SEO itself that encouraged the production of well-thought-out content. This changed the business world as compelling content marketing strategies took the industry by storm.

Here are 3 ways SEO and content marketing are a dynamite pair as they work together, cook together, walk together, laugh together, and yes, sometimes even cry together.

1. Together They Improve User Experience

Great content marketing and SEO improve the user experience for all readers.

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First thing’s first, let’s go back to basics. Any website, whether it’s a company’s Meet the Team page or a Culinary for Cuties recipe blog, will always perform better when the content is optimized and the site is organized. No matter the niche, SEO helps sets bloggers and businesses up for success. Weaving SEO and content marketing together benefits the user experience.

To achieve a great user experience, ensure your content is organized in an accessible way for searchers. It should also be both informative and easy to digest.

Succeeding at a solid user experience accomplishes many things, including attracting more readers while getting more eyes on your brand and growing your business online while also earning money in the process.

“Content marketing became a way to provide the search engines with the quality content they wanted to serve to their users. It also became a way to educate your prospects about the products and services you offer without directly being a sales pitch.” Customers no longer respond to traditional selling methods; they don’t want you to sell to them, they want an experience.

When your content serves a specific purpose, it will drive traffic to your site. Content should be easy to navigate and feature titles, headers, and categories that make sense and all the super technologically advanced robot-y stuff (Sing it with me! Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto) on the backend of your site must be in order. Do this, and you’re molding a great user experience for your users. Together, implementing strong SEO and content marketing will improve the user experience for any person who visits your site.

2. SEO and Content Marketing Help You Know Your Audience

If you’re a newer blogger, get to know your audience before you write to them. Deciding on the who, what, when, where, how, and why behind your blog audience can be entirely confusing and overwhelming. Luckily for you, together SEO and content marketing will guide you in the right direction.

The best DIY SEO practices naturally encourage you and your business to push only content that serves a specific purpose. As you’re optimizing a post or a piece of content, you work around a singular topic. Your content is specific. It’s written for your reader (not simply because you have something to get off your chest).

Image via Unsplash by Nicole Honeywill.

Clear content that skillfully answers specific searcher questions, addresses popular topics, and offers authoritative, helpful information IS optimized, strategic content. Keep crafting this purposeful content and Voila! before you know it, you’ve built your solid blog audience.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, your ability (or inability) to “click” with your blog audience will determine the fate of your business. Implementing best practices for SEO and content marketing together will help you get there. Pinpointing exactly the type of people reading your work as well as formulating a smart and impactful strategy to reflect the needs of your blog audience will result in success.

It’s a little like the chicken and the egg question: SEO helps you narrow your focus. Focus helps you appeal to your fans. As you build and identify focused content for your fans, you’re creating a content marketing strategy made for the needs of your specific audience. This circle results in success and (let’s channel our inner Oprah), “you get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car, you all get cars!” In other words, it’s a win-win situation all around.

Distilling your message for your blog audience is another one of the totally awesome, amazingly fantastic perks of merging the two almighty powers of SEO and content marketing together.

3. The Combined Result is Clear, Concise, and Catchy Content

Clear and concise content will attract the most readers to your blog.

Image via Unsplash by Nicole Honeywill.

Blogging itself is a form of content marketing and the content you write greatly benefits from optimization! Together, SEO and content marketing help writers and business owners stay on track, creating the best, top quality content. As a pair, SEO and content marketing remind us to get to the point and give users exactly what they are looking for.

SEO and content marketing combined will help you to improve your site and avoid crap content. Think about it like this, your blog may have the most well written, witty copy ever, but unless it’s optimized for search, users will never find it. (If a blog post is never read, is it really a good blog post?) A strong content marketing strategy is fabulous, but without SEO, it’s lost.

On the flip side, you can optimize the heck out of a crummy post, but even with meta descriptions, alt tags, keywords, and perfect <H2> headers, a bad post won’t offer authority on search. It won’t drive traffic and it won’t capture the attention of your readers, even if they happen to land on it.

SEO elements like concise meta descriptions and well-researched focus keywords ensure your efforts are always successful, but it works ONLY IF the content you produce is interesting and, of course, specific. Blog posts, articles, interviews… no matter what strategy you choose, SEO and content marketing must maintain their role as a united front.

So… POP QUIZ! Which is More Important, the Great Content or SEO?

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! It’s a trick question, you’re right! The decision between SEO and content marketing is a serious conundrum. SEO produces the stellar content and provides you with the tools necessary to be your best (online) self through a kick-ass marketing strategy.

Together SEO and content marketing make the perfect match.

Image via Unsplash by Tyler Nix.

Content marketing and SEO became linked the moment we started turning to search engines to solve our problems.” This is no summer fling, so hopefully, there are no commitment issues here. Just like the song goes about love and marriage: you can’t have one without the other.

The reality is, SEO and content marketing are together for life and seriously they’re perfect for each other. Come on, name a more iconic duo, I dare you. I’ll wait… oh, you said pizza and ranch dressing? That’s fair. Hmm, okay, but name another one… see, you can’t! SEO and content marketing takes the cake (apparently yes, I’m still hungry).

SEO Inc. sums it all up; “SEO is about content marketing, and content marketing is about SEO.”

So the next time you feel like Google is ignoring you and you’re wondering why, remember this: Google.com wasn’t registered as a domain name until September of 1997. This means Google was a literal baby when Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping came out! Google missed Nirvana entirely and the grunge revolution was already over. In the grand scheme of things, Google is still learning.

SEO and content marketing aren’t a magic solution to get Google’s attention, either. Both require hard work and consistency to maintain their connection. As time marches on, SEO and content marketing will continue to evolve just like every other element in the web industry.

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by all this, don’t worry! We’re here to help! And guess what? You’re in luck because we’re experts on both SEO AND content marketing! An SEO audit from Posts By Ghost is a great first step towards improving your website. Your audit will help you drill down and dissect your blog. Discover what’s working, assess the health, and get a road map to help you navigate your content strategy approach. An audit tells you where you stand in the internet popularity contest and what areas of your blog need improvement.

content and seo audit cta button

We’ll pinpoint any issues needing immediate attention and provide you with clear, easy-to-follow recommendations you can use to reach the SEO results you want. Whether you’re running a local company, a mom and pop business, or you’re a well-established blogger, we want to help you succeed!

You CAN have the SEO and content marketing results you want, and we’ll help you get there! Schedule your personalized SEO audit with us today and we’ll walk you through the rest.

Colin_faviconIs it time to make real changes to the content on your blog? Are you in need of major help to increase website traffic? Do you have a thousand random questions about everything you read? No worries, we can’t wait to help you! Contact Posts by Ghost™ or leave a comment below!

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