What is Content Marketing for SEO?

In this post, I will answer the question: What is content marketing for SEO?

Firstly, a bit about content marketing.

It is a concept of providing useful and relevant information to your audience about your niche and whatever you are selling.

By offering your expertise and knowledge freely, you attract people who are looking for resources and products in your niche.

When they interact with your content, they start to know, like and trust you. And when they are ready to buy, you will be the first person that comes to mind.

As opposed to the traditional way of pestering people to buy, and shoving products into their faces when they are not even vaguely interested, content marketing is way less annoying.

It meets the needs of your audience, in answering specific questions they may have, or solving certain problems they encounter.

Thus it is all about giving before you take.

Provide value to win your audience over before you start selling anything to them.

Who does content marketing?

Everybody does!

Content marketing is everywhere around us.

Entire empires build their businesses around offering useful content. Google is one. Its relentless tweaking of its search algorithm has one goal: to provide its users with the best content there is on the internet.

From giant corporations to small businesses, everyone is offering content.

As a customer, you make your buying decisions based on information that you find trustworthy and authentic. You appreciate it more when you are left alone to digest the information in your own space and time, instead of having to deal with pushy and aggressive sales tactics.

That is what businesses and marketers have come to realize. Content marketing plans are the thing these days.

Even one-man operated businesses (in fact, all the more so), like yours and mine, should incorporate content marketing as the overarching strategy.

Why content marketing is the best strategy for you

Besides being the more palatable way to sell, it is low cost. And hassle-free. You do not need to own or create any product if you don’t wish to.

You can offer other people’s products, and earn a commission when you bring in a sale to that company. This is also called affiliate marketing.

It works even if you are offering a service, say as a writer, or a plumber. When you provide valuable information freely, people learn to gain confidence in you, like you, and want to work with you.

Basically content marketing works for anyone.

What are the various distribution channels for your content?

There are so many ways to distribute your content. Here are just some of them:

• Blog (your own website)
• Emails to your subscribers
• Videos (Youtube, Vimeo, etc.)
• Social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)
• Podcast
• Webinar
• PDF file, Ebook, etc.
• Templates

The list goes on.

I want to bring special attention to owning a website. Because that is what every single person looking to make money on the internet should have.

Why a website is a must-have for making money online

All the other platforms, you do not own.

Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. can be great channels to park and distribute your content. But ultimately, you are just sitting on borrowed land.

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You do not have any control over what happens to those channels. Youtube can decide to close your channel for whatever reason. Facebook can shut down your business page. Pinterest can ban you.

But with your own website, you have complete control. No one can ever take it away from you. Whatever you build on it stays there, and is going to work hard for you even years down the road.

Example of content marketing at work: Plumber

Let’s take this specific example of a plumber.

As he builds out his website that promotes his service to an audience, there are so many other income streams that he can create from it.

With tutorials on DIY hacks, by teaching people how to fix small issues themselves, he will start to build up a following. He can collect their emails and send out monthly newsletters so that his audience has him at the back of their minds.

When a major plumbing problem crops up, they will engage him. He earns directly by offering his service.

As people try to fix small leakages themselves, they will click on the affiliate links that the plumber placed on his blog to buy some spare parts. He earns a commission. This is affiliate marketing at work.

As he gains traffic, he can even allow advertising networks to place ads on his website. He will earn ads revenue when people view or click on those ads.

He can write ebooks about plumbing, or create checklists, and sell them directly on his website.

There are so many things you can do once you have a website.

How does SEO come into the picture?

SEO is search engine optimization.

You want to position your website such that the right people come looking for you.

To be more exact, you want the people looking for what you are selling to find you.

This can be done through SEO, which are strategies you employ and actions you take that allow the search engines to find you more easily. When search engines deem your website to be credible and of authority in your niche, they will push up its ranking in the search results. It will start to become visible to the right people.

When this happens, you’re in for some fantastic results.

You will not have to sell to these people, because they are already actively searching for what you are selling or promoting. They are ready buyers.

This is called organic traffic. Not only is it free, it is highly targeted, and will convert at the highest rate, if you can nurture a relationship with them and earn their trust.

Social media traffic works too. But it involves daily hustling on those platforms. Once you stop hustling, your visibility drops, and social media traffic winds down.

Conclusion

I hope this article has helped you understand the importance of content marketing for SEO.

You can be a content marketer!

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