Attaining new leads and retaining loyal customers can easily be achieved through content marketing.

Many businesses have based their content marketing strategies on the guiding principles of search engine optimization (SEO).

Yet in today’s content marketing environment, it’s no longer enough for companies to perfect their content efforts from an SEO perspective.

Companies that are looking to keep the attention on themselves and their solutions need to reevaluate their content strategies in order to provide consumers with a value that goes beyond targeted keywords and social media posts.

Instead of solely focusing on SEO strategies for content marketing efforts, companies have to cater to the content preferences of their customers.

Combining Content with SEO Strategies

About 80% of website traffic is generated from users using search engines to look up information on various topics.

When companies optimize the content on their websites in order to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), they use SEO strategies to build their domain authority.

The theory with SEO is that when a website and its content rank higher on results pages, more people will click on the link that leads to that company’s website.

However, with the evolution and changes of search algorithms like Google, companies are constantly having to update their SEO strategy to ensure they’re meeting Google’s criteria.

That’s why companies shouldn’t be building their content marketing strategies around SEO. It’s not a practical or cost-effective solution in the long run.

With content marketing efforts, companies should be focused on creating high-quality content that is valuable and engaging to a target audience. This content should give consumers valuable information on the given brand, industry, or solutions the audience cares about.

With a good content strategy in place, companies can establish a trusting relationship with consumers, and build more authority with their target audience.

To combine content marketing with SEO, companies have to understand their target audiences and create content that caters to their needs.

They also have to find the right keywords to use in that content, so they rank higher in search results. Moreover, they must develop content that’s educational and informative for consumers, which will improve engagement rates, ranking, and the company’s overall reputation.

Data Driven Decisions

Successful content is generally search engine optimized, but when it comes to overall marketing campaigns, the content is a lot more important than the company’s SEO efforts.

However, just by creating good content, companies can’t ensure that they’ll get a great return on their investment either.

The best way that companies can generate positive results through content is to use data to get a better understanding of the target audience.

With the help of data, analytics, and insights, companies can create a content strategy that converts more consumers and delivers the best possible return on investment.

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Matthew Caiola serves as Co-CEO at 5W Public Relations, managing the overall growth, direction and day-to-day business of the Corporate & Technology Communications Divisions and Digital Marketing.

With more than 17 years of PR experience, Matthew leads teams in launching and building high-growth tech companies, disrupting industries, building global brand resonance through thought leadership, C-Suite profiling, and speakers’ programs, as well as crisis communications across a variety of industries.