Topic: how content marketing and SEO complement each other and how to measure the success of this relationship.
Relationship between SEO and content marketing: what connects the two? Are there any key distinctions?
@BrianRBaker4 Content marketing aids SEO to link-building.
@milestech They complement each other! content marketing = making awesome stuff people want to read. SEO = making sure they can find it.
@AndreaMLehr In one simple phrase, SEO and content marketing are connected on “quality over quantity”. SEO works through links, and you earn those links by producing high-quality content.
@AndreeaC_T Content marketing has become SEO really. Offsite content– guest blogging, articles in legitmate sources, offsite blogs, that’s content that shoudl be SEO optimized too.
@Casieg Content marketing helps drive an SEO program. Understanding the content you’re producing & for whom is key.
@SocialMichelleR What connects content and SEO is the human element.
@emily_C27 SEO and CM go hand in hand. Using Keywords to optimize content is just one example.
@KristiKellogg You can’t do #SEO without content — it’s impossible. There’d be nothing to optimize.
@RyanJones SEO basically IS content marketing.
@EricLanderSEO Successful SEO requires quality content & quality content is rewarded with SEO traffic. In other words, if “SEO” & “Content Marketing” were Facebook friends, their relationship status would be “It’s complicated.”
@netvantage They go hand-in-hand. Content marketing can lead to links to improve SEO.
@cltaylor8 A connection is relevancy. Content needs to be of current interest to the audience unless they will not seek out content online.
@BruceClayInc SEO & content go hand-in-hand. Always have, always will.
@allmikehall Keywords are a key distinction. Content created from kw research data does leaps and bounds better than without kw research.
@AJutah SEO is the discipline of optimizing for search engines, while Content Marketing is focused on marketing through content.
@utahphotobank Content & SEO are connected in purpose and vision, but executed differently.
@alexpeerenboom You can also look at externally and internally: optimizing your own content (internal) and the links it generates (external).
@mwilton13 SEO is a task. Content marketing is a larger strategy. SEO will help content marketing, but u could technically do it without.
@JesseStoler Content marketing is an essential component of a successful SEO campaign. Of the internet is a vehicle, content is the fuel.
@creativecalif Simply put, SEO needs content, and content marketing is made up of content. There’s a lot of overlap to use to your advantage.
@markdhansen Search algorithms now are sophisticated, so technical seo is less important and its mostly abt content marketing.
@cjmonteblanco Content marketing is becoming the norm, but throwing in SEO into the mix to drives up traffic and ranking.
Given the strong relationship between the two, what are some ways you integrate SEO into your content marketing efforts?
@AndreeaC_T Because it’s more than just text: images & Video too, using alt descriptions and titles, etc.
@netvantage We always have “leftover keywords” not used on product/service pages. Fantastic for content marketing.
@LiveOptim_US We always have “leftover keywords” not used on product/service pages. Fantastic for content marketing.
@SocialMichelleR It’s the semantics, not just keywords but the meaning behind the keyword. We find that long tail keywords work really well for tightly targeted audience segments. From #Periscope tested tags. Found that less than 5 tags actually rank better than stuffing tags.
@AndreeaC_T Ex Youtube — optimized descriptions, titles, tags. Then when shared, you get that SEO boost
@AJutah Always add longtail keywords into your content. Reddit and Wikipedia are great resources for research.
@AndreaMLehr Keywords: research them and utilize them strategically throughout your content; remember they should sound natural, not stuffed.
@CaitlinBoroden Make sure your content is easily understood by readers but also the search bots.
@EricLanderSEO Content marketers can’t be limited to keyword strategies. Success require authentic audience engagement strategies. To integrate SEO, you’ll need to focus on well structured content that reads well, makes sense and addresses audience needs.
@utahphotobank Try to consider search intent when crafting your content. This includes search engines, Facebook search, image search, etc.
@Casieg Content allows us to answer the questions our users have (and are searching for). Content marketing helps us reach those users.
@DevDawg Integration? Shouldn’t they already be integrated? Seperating the two seems foolish.
@TheBuyerGroup Choose one primary keyword phrase per press release or article. Keep in mind that your brand isn’t always the keyword!
@mwilton13 Consider your outreach/link opportunities as you’re developing your content marketing strategies.
@DevDawg I’d say consider users first and will they enjoy the content and that’s it.
@mwilton13 For sure, but if u want to partner with media or blog outlets for your campaign it doesnt hurt toinclude this in planning.
@allmikehall Content marketing can always be used to answer questions – long tail keywords – of your target audience.
@JesseStoler It’s important 2 create content/titles that r searchable. Don’t just write what u want 2 write, write what people want 2 read.
@milestech Use the right keywords NATURALLY in the content – make it amazing. Then plenty of quality outreach to the right people.
@alexpeerenboom SEO also includes HOW your audiences consumes the content. Just reading, or more interactive with video, interactive graph?
@RyanJones Don’t ask “how can I make this rank for __” Ask “what do people searching __ expect?” Then write/build that.
@creativecalif Integrate SEO and CM by prioritizing content based on most commonly researched topics, never forgetting about readability.
Keywords seem like a popular way to integrate the two. How do you determine your keywords, and frequently do you update them?
@EricLanderSEO It may not be a popular opinion, but I don’t let content marketing’s START w/ focus on keywords. Audiences, yes. Keywords, no.
@AndreaMLehr Agreed–starting on keywords made lead you down a “bot” path over more human connections.
@AndreeaC_T Existing data from GA, competitor research–what they’re using in their content. Experiment– type in a search phrase and see what else Google serves up. Don’t forget google trends. Don’t be afraid of offline efforts either. Listen to sales/customer service & ID what phrases they’re using.
@DevDawg You should use your keywords based on search traffic, conversation data, what users are searching, your industry, etc.
@AJutah I’m a big fan of analyzing site search queries. What are people looking for when they’re searching on your site?
@utahphotobank Your core list of terms will usually stay consistent, but long tail queries will change depending on season, news cycle, etc.
@cltaylor8 It’s about audience behavior. Knowing your audience allows you to choose keywords that they are most likely to search for.
@SocialMichelleR Social media listening is a key part of how we continue to identify topics and create relevant content.
@netvantage Ask your client what they think their audience would be searching for. Also use GA and WMT for keyword ideas. Determine keyword priorities by keyword volumes, competition levels and common sense. Adwords Keyword Planner comes in handy.
@allmikehall Use tools. I love keywordtool.io – use their questions section. Then establish top keyword targets and develop content.
@singerswings Bing webmaster tools gives good insight. See the long tails people are using to find you, answer their questions.
@markdhansen Get keywords from personas. Study how real ppl in ur audience talk and write. Get inside their heads.
@milestech Come up with the topic/ idea first, then look into keywords. keywordtool.io is pretty good.
@Casieg I like to find what people are asking & the keywords/phrases they are using in those questions/comments.
@AndreaMLehr Look at posts on targeted sites to determine what they’re talking about; use Google Trends to add focus and context to each word. Also simply being social: listen to what your target audience is saying on socal media and update your keywords accordingly.
@utahphotobank Polls are great for research! Ask your Facebook community a question and note their answers.
@TheBuyerGroup Absolutely! Create Twitter lists for each market segment allowing you to be more targeted in your analysis.
@cjmonteblanco Find low-medium competitive keywords in @adwords. LSI keywords, too!
@Navahk There are great tools like Scribe And @BruceClayInc SEOToolSet
@mwilton13 Go beyond keyword tools. Explore audience needs. What questions are they asking online? What do they search on your site?
@jennyhalasz I thought this might be relevant for your discussion! via @stonetemple: Interview of me over on the BrightEdge blog on why content marketing is the key to success.
Aside from keywords, your SEO efforts can be elevated through high-quality content. How do you ensure your content adds value?
@AJutah Make sure your posts are actionable enough to answer the initial question, but also go above and beyond with value.
@EricLanderSEO Added value comes from quality recording and analysis of analytics, social sharing & commentary review and link building. I’d also advocate for understanding how content structure and layout can aid both users and SEO potential on page.
@AndreeaC_T Stay away from blatant sales pitches. Make it “human”. I focus on making content educational and being a thought leader, linking to relevant pgs. Those pgs should have calls 2 action. Use annotations in GA to big/notable content features.
@SocialMichelleR Touch more learning styles. Create written content, images, video, and podcasts.
@BruceClayInc Link to appropriate content for FURTHER reading, include calls to action that keep them on your site. Add pics. Slides. Videos.
@utahphotobank Watch your Analytics. Look at top 10 posts each month, and review bounce rate, time on page, exit page & other KPIs.
@CaitlinBoroden If possible.. ask around. Figure out what your customers needs and wants are.
@milestech If you haven’t worked your fingers to the bone trying to answer your target audience’s questions, you’re doing it wrong
@mysiteauditor Actionable tips and resources, data, and real life case studies.
@jessesem Make sure your content is not easily replicable. Teach vs tell. Does your content answer a user’s query so completely that they don’t need to hit the back button and refine their search?
@JesseStoler Make sure it’s engaging. make sure it’s informative. make sure it’s beneficial 2 readers. + make sure it has Ryan Gosling memes.
@jessesem Ryan Gosling memes are a key component of the online marketing toolbelt.
@netvantage Analytics! Review bounce rates, time on site, pages per visit and determine what content was successful and why.
@DavidProHQ To add value, you have to understand a reader’s needs, wants, and beliefs. Having your customer personas nailed down. Think of all the objections a reader could have and answer all of them in the article.
@Navahk Listening to your audience can give you insight + testing it with snippets of tweets or FB posts to see if they’re engaged.
@cjmonteblanco Hyperlinks, high-quality images with text, and rich content in the body that exceeds the expectations of the user’s query.
@AndreaMLehr If your content answers specific questions while also leaving room for interpretation and discussion, you’ve added value.
@alexpeerenboom Bloomberg’s “What is Code” is great example of value beyond keywords.
What are some of the popular metrics you use to measure a campaign’s success?
@AndreeaC_T Set up content origins in GA and track conversions. If using a crm– look at where your conversions came from. Did they read a content? A blog? Add that to SEO conversions. I track SEO conversions based attribution–where conversions came from & note if it was offsite or onsite.
@pjmckeown Let’s not get too fancy now. CRM able to track that. LOL I have this headache everyday.
@AndreeaC_T LOL I double check my CRM’s data to be keep them honest
@pjmckeown We are in the process of redoing CRM, I attended a meeting last week (they’ve been 9mos in dev) and mentioned lead scoring. Their response: What’s that?
@AndreeaC_T UGH. Oh my. No words. I have to constantly give my CRM reps lessons in marketing.
@SocialMichelleR Referral traffic. How did the content propagate across the digital spaces. From #Periscope GA tracking where traffic comes from and how long they stay.
@milestech Depends on the type of content and what stage of the funnel is being targeted. could be lead volume, could be social signals. If influencers and your target audience are picking it up and sharing it, then it’s a success!
@Casieg Leads/Sales are obviously top priority but getting people into funnel is also a plus. Did they come back?
@EricLanderSEO This. You should all find ways to see how marketed content aids in (viewthrough/assisted) conversions!
@EricLanderSEO Go way beyond the default and include author metrics, engagement depth and organic social enrollment.
@MarketingMeisha Engagement metrics (time on page, etc.), Social metrics (sharing, etc.), and conversion metrics (sales, etc.) are all important!
@cltaylor8 Share-ability! You’ve hit the jackpot when your audience values your content enough to share w/their network.
@markdhansen Set up goals in Google Analytics. Content marketing and SEO should be measured against specific micro-goals.
@jessesem New referring domains, social shares, revenue/goal success events, CTR, time on page, bounce rate.
@netvantage Organic & referral traffic, both month-to-month & year-to-year. Conversions are also a good metric to look at.
@RyanJones Sales. because, at the end of the day, why else do the campaign?
@pjmckeown Some places it’s about awareness, Non-profits, etc. My old place didn’t sell.
@RyanJones Replace sales with otherwise main goal of website. donations, leads, etc.
@mysiteauditor To measure content success, look at traffic, engagement (ie time on site), social shares, + conversions in google analytics.
@allmikehall Year over year metrics (of all kinds). So many businesses are seasonal – have to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples.
@AndreaMLehr LOVE this. Always want to keep in mind the larger picture–after all, campaigns should be part of a bigger strategy.
@AJutah That’s a good question, but *metrics* don’t always equal Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
@AndreaMLehr In a study from @fractlagency and @moz, leads, high-quality links, and social shares were at the top.
@cjmonteblanco Tracking conversions (shares, comments, new subscriptions, purchases, visitor rate, time on site) after sharing new content.
@utahphotobank Focus on things that end in results: conversions, appointments, leads, $$$.
@SocialMichelleR Tracking traffic by device is also important. Are you serving your mobile audience?
@JesseStoler Shares and links account for two of my favorites, but conversions are most important, whatever conversions may mean to yr site. As my man Alec Baldwin says, “Always Be Converting.”
Some indicated the number of links. In terms of total links vs. the authority of a link, which would you argue is more valuable?
@AndreeaC_T Authority hands down. If u want external links, reach out to influential ppl with high social following and PARTNER with them on content linking back.
@EricLanderSEO Both, with certain context. Quality for editorial links, volume for social shares and op/ed bloggers. There are some “quality link builders” out there who would love to have you believe otherwise.
@AJutah Building links is still an important part of SEO. Definitely a right and wrong way to do it, though.
@EricLanderSEO Completely agree – and I’m one of the few I know who would still prefer to hire legitimate link builders. I would always argue if there’s new content being generated, I always want more outreach specialists.
@AndreeaC_T If the focus is quantity of links, you get trapped into bad linking.
@MarketingMeisha I tend to lead towards quality over quantity, though ideally both.
@AJutah Lots of *naturally* acquired links = valuable content, but site authority is determined by link authority.
@SocialMichelleR Quality, authority, and relevance are far and away more important than pure quantity of links. From #periscope tons of non relevant poor quality links will actually hurt you.
@creativecalif Visits, bounce rate, time on site, conversions. The usual! Authority, by far. Not only is it weighed more heavily, but you actually have a chance of referral traffic from popular sites.
@AlanBleiweiss Quantity cannot be superior to quality if the quality is strong enough. 1 can be more valuable than 1,000. Quality links bring real, relevant traffic AND off-site authority signals. Quality links will RARELY jeopardize a site (except when Google screws up). Quantity will USUALLY do so. Quantity instead of quality is NOT a noble SEO goal with links. It’s a shiny object vortex of wasted resources. Quantity link pursuit inevitably leads to toxic, false patterns, paints a target on the site. Quantity link pursuit inevitably leads to fake attempts at quality.
@allmikehall I’d throw in an additional link metric – relevancy. Majestic, Ahrefs, etc. are pushing relevancy metrics to help link builders.
@jessesem Authoritative, relevant link is better than many, many low authority links.
@AndreaMLehr Google favors the quality of your content more than the quantity, so I’d argue the same when it comes to links. High-authority publishers tend to have highly-engaged followers as well, so content amplification is also stronger.
@cjmonteblanco Quality > quantity. But if you’re winning over localities, quantity may also deem valuable.
@Navahk Authority = quality ..we all know how that saying goes.
@mysiteauditor Definitely authority! Quality links over quantity, always
@JadedTLC Since the beginning of sustainable SEO – links should always be quality.
Another popular metric is total social shares. How would you explain the value of shares to an industry outsider?
@AJutah Social share counts can be manipulated. I approach it as a trust-building metric. How does social really affect bottom line?
@pjmckeown Same as IRL. You tell two friends, they tell two friends and so on. Same as content distribution.
@EricLanderSEO Focus on the social reach and influencer of key shares and the lost link volume over time for active accounts. Ebb & flow.
@RyanJones It’s all about LITRE Method: Limited, Influential, Trusted, Relevant, Essential. The LITRE method is however, only 0.946X as good as @AlanBleiweiss QUART method.
@netvantage Social share is virtual word of mouth. It’s like a snowball effect and sharing keeps building up the snowball.
@SocialMichelleR While bots will help you rank initially, it is the social vote of human confidence that you really need.
@CaitlinBoroden Social shares are today’s word of mouth recommendations. You need people to spread your message.
@RyanJones Majority rule does not work in mental institutions. See reddit or /b or American elections.
@CaitlinBoroden Well you got me there
@milestech Social shares are only valuable if they’re from real people.
@AlanBleiweiss Social shares are a next-frontier of authority and trust signals vital to success with or without SEO involved. Social shares on scale lead to more organic search already. In the future, a likely direct off-site signal. Social shares also show up in existing multi-channel funnel data in analytics.
@TheBuyerGroup Through organic and paid Reach via social insights. How more people will see your content when shared. Especially influencers!
@AndreaMLehr Your content on a targeted site guarantees you’ve reached your existing audience; social shares reaches an untapped audience.
@AndreaMLehr For more insights, here is a link to the study I mentioned earlier.