What You Need to Know About Content Marketing
High quality content is an essential and a fundamental requirement in this era where there is a frantic hunt for a sustainable Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. Although this is not enough in today’s very competitive online environment, a holistic strategy for marketing contents is the key to a sustainable search engine optimization (SEO).
Let’s unveil what is needed to know in relation to SEO and content marketing.
First, what is the perception of the industry?
• A significant majority (up to 92%) say an effective SEO is achieved by high quality content.
• Investments are made in creating quality content, and this is done by well over 70% of SEO.
• In contrast, only about 40% are of the opinion that white papers are of any effect.
A critical look at the market will reveal that marketers spend most time creating articles and guides, blog post, social medial contents and press releases. Audio, podcast and music are among the least popular, while info graphics, videos, polls and surveys are at the intermediate levels.
What is the social impact of content?
Sharing on social sites is encouraged by developing quality content as well as promotion. This is becoming a criteria for ranking in most search engines. Deeper studies has shown that Google uses +1’s as a ranking criteria and this practice is increasing by the day, Bing presently uses the number of Facebook likes on your page as a ranking factor, while the number of tweets you have helps Google index a page much faster. The correlation between content and SEO is becoming gradually clear.
Furthermore, for every five media messages developed, at least one contains links to contents, and it is believed that the importance of this will increase as a search engine page ranking factor, this is buttressed by the fact that about 72% of SEO’s engage in social marketing as part of their daily responsibilities.
Here are some socials that are popular with search marketers
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Blogging
Those with least popularity are
• Tumblr
• Flickr
• Stumble Upon
Relationship Between Content, Brand Signals, and Conversion
The probability of users sharing quality content is high, this in turn increases the brand popularity by creating natural links. This is against the back drop of a survey conducted in 2012 which revealed that over 26 million instances of online content are shared via social media on a daily basis. From this, it is obvious that the potentials of getting ranked by search engines is high. This implies that when quality content is promoted, the potentials of generating natural link juice increases geometrically, as opposed to traditional SEO techniques of building one link at a time. Links associated with brand names increases brand reputation as far as Google is concerned and this portrays you as an authority in your area of specialization.
Surveys conducted at various levels has shown that high quality content impacts positively on conversion rates. Here are some pointers.
• Over 50% of consumers are of the opinion that blogs have impacted their decisions.
• Over 55% of online marketers have secured new customers through their blogs.
• Products with videos improve conversion by about 50%.
• Of the total visitors to a site, about 60% are likely to make purchases from a site with custom content.
The quality of a site is directly proportional to its content and its perception in the mind of the users. A significant portion of marketers believe that the level of perception of a site will increase in importance with respect to ranking in search engines, hence the race for sustained quality is constantly on. This importance is underscored by the increase in Google search for the term “content marketing.”
8 Tips in Creating High Quality Content that can be Shared
1. Boring and unattractive pages should be replaced with alluring and more endearing contents such as neat graphics, e – books and the likes.
2. Contents should be deeply researched, consistent, informative and provide long term interest for users.
3. Variety should be included. Uniqueness in communication style, be enthusiastic about it, while maintaining a sense of humor.
4. Take advantage of increased demand resulting from scarcity of information to provide detailed contents with respect to specific topics, attributing content to real sources. This boosts confidence in the users mind.
5. Set good examples by providing generous links, this encourages sharing and increased level of trust.
6. Develop contents in a manner that makes it easy for users to share by including buttons for social sharing sites.
7. There should be something more for the user when he shares your content in form of further information or a form of discount.
8. Incorporate a social reward system, where users get rewarded in return for sharing your content on social media.
Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here.
