Is content still king when it comes to SEO? For me, the answer is yes, BUT… Gone are the days when you could just create and post good content and let things flow from there. These days, you can’t just sling out a bunch of content and hope for good search engine rankings. To rank higher in Google and the other search engines, you need to have a Content Strategy with specific objectives.
At the recent Digital Summit Conference in Los Angeles, Robert Rose from The Content Marketing Institute presented this topic. In this article, I’ll go over the main concepts that Robert talked about, along with my own take on how I’ve implemented my content strategy to get better search engine rankings.
Why Your Content Strategy is Important
One of the key points that Robert Rose brought up at the beginning of his presentation at Digital Summit is that these days there is already an abundance of quality content online. So much so, that the reality is you’re not going to be able to create the greatest piece of content that is so much better than everyone else’s. While you should be creating good content, the truth is that in order to succeed, you need to have the right content strategy in place.
Robert talked about three main reasons why content strategy is so important these days. First, because of the pandemic and supply chain shortages, there is a real scarcity of physical presence. Second, because of the return of “push content” (TikTok, etc.), targeting of your audience is an absolute requirement. And, perhaps most importantly, there has been a great decline in trust and truth. Trust in institutions is lower than ever.
Understanding Your Audience is the Key
So, given the above reasons why having a content strategy is critical, how do you go about creating one? The answer is understanding your audience. But that means more than just performing an audience audit. In fact, it’s not even enough to answer your audience’s questions. As Robert explained, you need to lead your audiences’s thinking and create a desire for them to take action.
The key is to build fans not followers. You want your audience to take action and not be indifferent. When you’re creating your content, you want to create an ecosystem where your audience wants to live and not just visit. In other words, you want to create a sustained audience. According to Robert Rose, you need to operate “like a media company”.
From my own prospective, when you understand your audience, you’re better able to build trust and authority with them. That leads to a better and sustained connection that results in more conversions.
Content Strategy Lessons Learned
Wrapping up his Digital Summit presentation, Robert gave us his content strategy lessons learned.
- Your Content Governance Strategy should be built around planning, prioritization, and looking forward.
- Your Audience Research is needed to deliver value beyond the buying experience.
- You actually should slow down the creation process to exponentially increase re-use and re-packaging content.
- Build audiences that Want to hear from you.
For more information on Robert Rose and The Content Marketing Institute, visit https://contentadvisory.net
