Content Marketing is an important part of any business marketing strategy. It helps educate and engage your audience, potentially generate leads and drive traffic to your website. In addition, it can help increase your Google rankings.
As a digital marketing agency, one of our goals is to support local businesses to reach the top page of Google when people are searching for their services. Here’s a look at some of the strategies we use to help achieve this.
Ways To Use Content Marketing To Help Improve Google Rankings
Create Valuable Content
Content marketing is all about capturing your audience’s interest using content such as social media posts, videos, blogs, email marketing or any form of content that engages, answers their questions and adds value. Excellent content does not come across as an advertising spiel but rather a well thought out piece beneficial for customers.
Tip: Compile a list of questions your audience frequently asks or topics they would like to read about. Start creating content by answering these questions. When other users ask the same questions or look for those specific topics, you can direct them conveniently on your website.
Choose the Right Keywords
No one takes the time to write out long sentences with exact details on what they need when they search online. They don’t type in “Who is the best agency to use for my content marketing in Brisbane” or “Where can I go have the best coffee in the Varsity Lakes area?” Instead, most users type short phrases like “Content Marketing Brisbane” or “best Varsity Lakes coffee shops”.
It’s all about picking the right and most relevant keywords to use with your content. Use these phrases sparingly and in context, not sprinkled on every sentence you write. Search engines may tag your content as spam for committing keyword abuse.
Tip: Online tools have come a long way, and now it’s easier than ever for you to track down the keywords that will help your business thrive. As a digital marketing and content marketing agency working with clients on the Gold Coast and Brisbane, we recommend using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and SEMRush. They will give you comprehensive insights into what phrases people are typing when trying to find information related to yours.
Go Back To SEO Basics
Your website is the starting point of your SEO efforts. If you invest time into building a site that offers an authentic user experience, then you’ll be on track to rank well in search engines and get more traffic.
Here are the essentials to consider when writing an SEO friendly article:
- Title Tag – Keep it short, concise, definitive and representative of the article context.
- Image Alt Tag – Search engines cannot read what your images convey unless you caption them.
- Meta Description – This is the summary of your content. Write compelling meta descriptions for more clicks.
- Tagging – Make sure your blog entries are in categories.
Tip: Include the focus keyword in your title, image caption, and meta description, but make sure it reads naturally.
Utilise the Power of Video
It’s easy to see why videos have become one of the most popular content marketing mediums. They often attract more attention than text, are more interactive and engaging.
The way to rank highly in Google is by aligning your content marketing strategy with their algorithm. While they aren’t always transparent on what they’re looking for, what’s certain is video can be effective content to improve ranking. Here’s how it works. According to BrightEdge, Google is now showing video thumbnails in 26% of search results. The presence of the thumbnails makes the content “rich snippets”, and users are more likely to click those. It has also been rumoured that Google is prioritising content with video above those without.
Tip: Publish videos on your website and make sure to embed them where they make sense (i.e., right before an article talking about something related) rather than randomly throughout pages. You might even want to create a transcript of the video you upload so that more keywords can be targeted for SEO purposes. Don’t forget to enter tags and keywords on the backend to ensure it’s categorised and prioritised correctly.
Create A Tailored Content Marketing Strategy
Content Marketing is a powerful strategy for driving search engine rankings through the content you create. Follow these tips, and you’ll be able to develop an effective method that will work with your business goals. If you need help in creating your content marketing strategy, please get in touch.