Why SEO is All About Content Marketing

SEO and content marketing: until now, they’ve been regarded as two separate entities. SEO works to enhance search engine results and help a site appear higher in Google’s rank algorithm. Content marketing, on the other hand, drives customer awareness and sells things, right?

Wrong.

Today, more and more content marketing professionals are making a bold claim: that SEO and content marketing aren’t actually separate things. Instead, they both serve the same purpose and are both part and parcel of the same pursuit.

Here’s what you need to know about the marriage of these two things, and how you can use them more effectively together:

Why SEO is Actually all About Content Marketing

Historically, content marketing and SEO have been anything but integrated. They’re treated as if they are two entirely different things, although, in reality, they frequently run together, overlap, and cooperate.

If you want successful content, you need good SEO, and if you want good SEO, you need to create content that drives it.

SEO and Content Marketing Aren’t Always Integrated

The confusion that arises around SEO and content marketing generally pertains to how the two fit together. The answer to that confusion is simple: they fit together in every single way.

If you’ve ever tried to hire an SEO firm and put them to work without having any content on your website, you know this. You also know this if you’ve ever hired a copywriter and told them that you don’t care about SEO. It’s a little bit like trying to drive a car without an engine.

At the end of the day, SEO and content marketing work together as a marriage, a partnership, a team. The sooner we all start treating them as such, the better.

The Differences Between SEO and Content Marketing Firms

That said, it’s also wise to understand the differences between SEO and content marketing, so as to utilize each more effectively. Here are some of the key discrepancies:

• SEO is more technical and narrower in scope
• Content marketing is much broader and includes many more pursuits and actions

On that note, here’s how the two work together:

• SEO relies on content marketing for its technical “home.” It can’t exist without content
• Content needs SEO to rank and appear online. A random article written and published with no thought to SEO will never see the light of day, as far as the internet is concerned.

How SEO and Content Marketing Come Together

So, despite their differences, SEO and content marketing are a team. The question, now, is how they come together. Here’s a breakdown:

1. SEO Sets the Standards, Content Meets Them

SEO is a very technical pursuit. It wants you to do certain things, take specific actions, and make certain choices. Unfortunately, it can’t do any of these things on its own. Instead, it needs content to support and uplift its standards, and provide a “home” for requirements to land.

2. Content Supplies the Keywords Content Needs

One of the primary requirements of SEO is keywords. SEO needs keywords so websites can “read” them, interpret pages, and rank them accordingly.

Again, though, SEO isn’t an actual “thing,” and it doesn’t provide any material for keywords to lodge themselves in. Because of this, it needs content. Content is the material that gives keywords a home and provides a footing for them to rank. Content is king, and keywords are its jesters.

3. SEO Needs Content. Content Marketing Provides it.

The proof is in the name: content marketing offers content. SEO simply cannot exist without content, and content marketing provides the words, substance, verbiage, and articles SEO needs to survive.

4. Content Provides the Links SEO Needs

One of the major tenants of SEO is links. Because SEO doesn’t have a “body,” so to speak, though, it can’t provide these on its own. As such, it needs to partner with content to get these things.

Content is capable of collecting links that point back to reputable sites, or other places within your content. This is an essential element of content marketing, and one of the most important aspects of the entire partnership between the two things.

5. Content Marketing Supports UX While SEO Offers Technical Optimization

In the modern online environment, you can’t sacrifice UX in favor of technicality, or technicality in favor of UX. Both need to work together toward the greater good, and the partnership between content marketing and SEO supports this.

6. Content Provides the Consistency SEO Requires

There is no way to plateau with SEO. It requires ongoing, consistent input, and content marketing offers this. Because content must be consistent and regular in order to succeed, it provides the foundation for good SEO. Google loves fresh content, readers love fresh content, and everyone wins.

Conclusion

If you work in the world of online marketing, you’ve got to stop treating SEO and content marketing like they are two separate entities. The fact is that they’re not. They work together like Batman and Robin and, taken as a package, can be the element that launches your website from good to great.

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