Recently, amid talks of expanding our current content team, I’ve been looking at outside companies’ job descriptions for content strategists before we write our own. One thing is for sure, there is no perfect college degree for content marketing. Any major seems to be in play as I’ve seen postings asking for people with backgrounds in English, Marketing, Business Administration, Public Relations, and Communications. I believe that quality content marketing candidates can come from any of those degrees; however, any content marketer needs to have a strong understanding of SEO best practices. Whether that SEO knowledge comes from previous experience or on-the-job training, an effective content marketer has to understand what search engines look for in content. Below are 4 SEO strategies every content marketer needs to know:
1. Quality is Inevitable
This is one of the most important SEO strategies to follow when you want to create high ranking content. Search engines penalize websites containing low quality content. You must therefore focus on giving your website visitors quality otherwise you stand a chance of being ranked poorly on search engines which is bad for business. Poor quality content can be anything from duplicate content copied from other sites to content that doesn’t attract and retain readership. The best content marketers consider quality before quantity.
2. Popular Keywords and Keyword Phrases Must be Included in All Content
This is another very important SEO strategy every content marketer must know. People find information online by typing certain keywords and keyword phrases in search engines. Every niche has its own popular keywords and keyword phrases used by search engine users to find relevant information online. When content marketers fail to use popular keywords or search terms when creating content, it becomes impossible for search engines to find their content online.
Keywords should, however, be used in moderation. Rand Fishkin of Moz fame touched on keyword density in his latest episode of Whiteboard Friday. For instance, if you are preparing a high quality article on losing weight, some of the most popular keyword phrases in that niche include; weight loss and healthy weight loss. You shouldn’t use these keywords phrases too many times in the article. Google penalizes content containing too many keywords/keyword phrases. Ideally, you should write content naturally without focus on a certain keyword for better SEO.
3. Strive to Create Brief and Concise Content
Most people hate reading long pages of text online. The web is flooded with impatient surfers itching to click the next link they find. This is precisely why you should create content that is brief and straight to the point. Web users should be able to find useful information from your text at first glance otherwise they will render your content useless which has a negative effect on your search engine ranking. When you combine this strategy with high quality content and the right number of keywords, you will definitely end up with content that is perfectly optimized for search engines.
4. Plan to Engage Readers With Your Content
This is another effective SEO strategy every content marketer must know. Search engines favor engaging content when ranking sites. You must therefore consider engaging people who comment on your content to enjoy search engine ranking advantages. You can even go as far as encouraging them to leave their comments or share the content on social media. This strategy is very rewarding when it comes to spreading your content online which automatically attracts high ranking.
In summary, the above SEO strategies are bound to guide content marketers on the right path when they want to create outstanding content that ranks high in search engines. It is however important to note that there are other effective SEO strategies for content marketers that are not covered above. This article should therefore be used as a basis for further research.
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