7 Tips For More Efficient Use of SEO in Content Marketing

Content marketing and SEO are inseparable and belong together, but the relationship between the two is not always that simple. While content marketing comes from a creative world, SEO involves a more technical perspective. Nevertheless, both have a common goal — creating useful and informative content for the target audience. Here are a few tips for the efficient use of SEO in content marketing for you.

1. Select a Keyword

The most important aspect of SEO is that you choose a focus keyword. A keyword that reflects your blog entry well. A focus keyword is nothing else but the search term for which your post should be displayed. Think about what you would look for if you wanted to read your blog post.

2. Do your research

Before you start writing content, you need to get a thorough understanding of the topic. Research all the important information and data you need to create high-quality content. Because in today’s world, people and Google are getting smarter. Both require you to write valuable and high quality content. Sometimes it helps to look at competitors’ content.

The most important question is: Which topics are really interesting and at the same time provide a lever for search engine optimization? Hundreds of thousands of marketers and communicators rack their brains over this every day. But the easiest way is to ask your target group and customers, then check out the ideas and then simply try out the content.

3. Writing content

Have you done thorough research? Do you feel ready to write your contribution? Then let’s get started. Formulate, analyse and comment on the information, data and facts you found in your research. Make sure that your content is varied and interesting. Use pictures, videos, links, etc.

4. Use the keyword

There is no point in choosing just one Focus Keyword and not using it. Therefore, make sure you use the chosen keyword while writing your post. It should appear in the page title, the first paragraph, subheadings, the URL and, of course, in the topic of your post. You should also add the keyword in the image name and the alt tag.

5. Embed the correct (preview) images

Pictures say more than a thousand words. So article and preview pictures must appeal to your potential visitors within fractions of a second. So prepare or buy the appropriate image material for each article.

It is important that you do not embed content-relevant images as background, but as real images (in HTML format) in your blog post. This is because background images are hardly relevant for Google’s image search and are not displayed as thumbnails in social media. Also use the title and alt tags for images to describe the image and to include keywords for image SEO.

6. Use CTAs (call-to-action)

You should also make clear what you want to achieve by mail before you start writing. After all, only the achieved goals (conversions) justify content marketing, or not.

Depending on whether they are primary or secondary goals, these CTAs should be incorporated “above” or “below the fold” (before or after the scrollable area). That means: Important actions such as purchase requests, contact buttons etc. — i.e. primary targets — should be packed into the first 600px page height so that they are immediately visible. Secondary functions like social sharing buttons and other recommendations may also appear below, i.e. in the area that is not visible from the beginning.

If you just want to encourage discussion, the content should lead to a question. If you want to get more social shares or requests, the text should ideally end with a CTA. You can optimize user signals with reading tips and recommendations of further relevant content or products and thus show Google that all your content is interesting and your site or blog deserves to be ranked better.

7. Insert internal links & get external links

Finally, it is important to discuss internal and external links in relation to SEO. With internal links you can refer to previous blog entries, but first make sure that these blog entries are still up to date. You should also try to get external links. This means that you should try to get other companies to include your links in their posts. This shows that not only you are talking about your content, but that others also appreciate your opinion and content.