By Alan Coleman on 7 Jun 2013
Content marketing is something that - up until very recently - many of us did not understand or place any importance on. How things have changed. Today, it seems that content marketing (or inbound marketing, as some call it) is popping up everywhere. Rarely does a search marketing or SEO-related conversation take place without a focus on content marketing. The reality of the matter is that today, content marketing cannot be successfully implemented without consideration for search engines. Likewise, one can not engage in search marketing without formulating content marketing in their plan. Here is a great infographic from SearchMojo which lists five reasons you cannot have content marketing without search marketing (and vice versa). 1. You want your company to be top-of-mind to your prospects - Content marketing can help you generate brand awareness and credibility. 2. Your prospects are using search to make purchasing decisions - 81% of consumers' purchase decisions are influenced by search; 89% use search before purchasing 3. You'll generate more leads - 57% of marketers have acquired new customers via their blogs. 4. Your prospects are sharing content on social media, and social media influences search results:
- Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social media.
- Content on social networks is indexed on Google.
- Bing uses Facebook Likes as a ranking signal when users are logged in.
- GOOGLE+ shares and +1s can affect search results.
5. People (and search engines) love visual content:
- Photos receive 20 times more engagement through social networks like Facebook and Google+
- Videos are 53 times more likely to generate a 1st page Google ranking.
- Images shared Pinterest are also indexed into Google Images results.
In three words, content is great!! Get with the trend and start creating content!
Siobhán
