More than half of marketers report that SEO has become more effective in the past year for increasing lead generation and website traffic, according to a recent study conducted by Ascend2 and Research Partners.
But SEO tactics have been in a state of confusion this last year because of several significant updates from Google, turning many popular practices into punishable ones. Among the SEO tactics that got the axe are: certain links built through guest blogging; changes to onsite copy demanded by Google Hummingbird; retracted access to organic keyword search data; links embedded in press releases and blog comments; and link building on social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Digg.
All of these changes amount to a shift in SEO where a large focus is now on creating quality content, or content marketing – and that comes with a new set of challenges. 47% of respondents said content creation is the most difficult tactic to execute. But why?
For starters, content marketing requires greater planning than traditional link-buidling, typically in the form of an editorial calendar that plans your brand’s content for the next month, or quarter – giving you plenty of time for production. In addition to creating content around targeted, researched keywords for lead generation and website traffic, you’re also planning content around days of significance relevant to your brand and themes on the web, in order to reach social media goals for sharing, referral and virality.
Another big challenge is internal staffing resources: content development teams at established companies utilize many employees from various departments. A single piece of content may have input from a copywriter, graphic designer, media or video producer, creative director, website designer, social media marketer, SEO specialist and others.
Plus, content marketing takes so many forms, all of which have a unique SEO advantage. Your content calendar plans for social media posts, articles, whitepapers, case studies, press releases, blog posts, video, images and infographics, contests and much more.
And creating content is just the first step. Once published, content has to be strategically shared and ‘remixed’ across dozens of online sites (branded and non-branded), and tailored to each platform’s unique audience, in order to increase reach and make the time spent producing it worthwhile.
In fact, content marketing is so in demand that a new HubSpot study finds that Content Marketers are more sought after for hire than SEO specialists right now : 44.9% of B2B companies say they plan to hire for content marketing in the next year, and most content marketing teams are predicted to grow by 1-3 people in the next year (almost half already have 2-5 people).
If those positions aren’t an option for your business (and they almost certainly aren’t for most nonprofits), an agency that integrates content marketing across its digital marketing services including website design and development, SEO, and social media is the most cost effective solution.
None of this is meant to diminish the importance of SEO. Remember, neither Content Marketing nor SEO is a ‘trend’, and neither competes with the other – both are star players in an enterprise-focused marketing strategy. The question is – do you have the time, money and resources?
