As a business owner, marketing is front and center of your thoughts every day. And when it comes to the online world, there are two paths to take.
Content marketers believe that all posts should be written in a pleasing and entertaining way, relying solely on attracting attention by the way the content was written.
SEO marketers believe that every piece of content created should be fully optimized for the search engines to take notice and rank accordingly.
To be truly effective with your online marketing skills, however, it’s important to have a little bit of both. If you combine both skills, you’ll wind up with content that not only is present in search engine results, but will also capture attention once a person visits your information.
Must Have SEO Practices
SEO – search engine optimization – is all about your content being found in search engine rankings; being found under keywords your potential customers are typing into the search engines. That comes in a variety of ways because everyone thinks a little differently, and will search using different terms.
Knowing what your audience wants is the easiest way to understand what type of content to create. There are a number of tools that can help you get into the minds of your potential customer; the best being the Google Keyword Planner.
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The Google Keyword Planner is a free tool available in the Google Adwords platform that helps you find keywords people are searching for. You can start broad nature with your keywords, and Google will show you lists of popular terms based around your concept. The Google tool will also show you the average monthly searches for that keyword and show you how competitive its rank is. Keep in mind that these results will change month by month, season to season.
By understanding what your potential customers are looking for, it provides you with more direction in what to create your individual posts and pages for.
Must Have Content Marketing Practices
While SEO provides results for keyword research, it’s content that drives people deeper into your site, and ultimately into the buying process. If they like what you share, they have more reason to follow you, and to buy from you.
While content should be written with keywords in mind, also realize that a customer doesn’t buy from a machine, a business, or words that are thrown together halfheartedly for a quick sale. Customers buy because they resonate with a post, they see themselves in a situation, and they want more of what they know you can deliver.
The toughest part of the process is making them aware you exist. And that’s where great content comes into play. If you can make them laugh, cry, or nod their heads in agreement to what you have to say, you’re on your way to creating a positive relationship with your new prospect. Only when they say yes to acknowledging they like what you do can they move forward and consider you as a viable option to do business with. Whether they convert into paying customers within minutes of finding you, or it’s a process that takes years of building, in the online world, it’s your content that will win them over every time.
Sounds simple. And in many aspects it is. It’s just a simple matter of putting content writing into your marketing system, and doing it over and over again.