Content marketing is the most effective, and most cost effective, way of building links and boosting your rankings. Some industry experts, like Neil Patel, are even hailing content marketing as the “new SEO.”
Effective content marketing is quickly showing that, not only are there other options outside of building links manually, there are even better options.
The lesson here? Quality over quantity.
When you provide Google with substance of value, they provide you with lasting rankings. And while PPC is short-term solution, SEO techniques change, algorithms update, and more, quality is quality, simple as that, and Google will always want to reward what’s quality.
But how can you make your content marketing strategy a success? Follow these simple guidelines to start (and maintain) an effective content marketing campaign that can generate quality links, boost rankings, and drive traffic.
Be (or Hire) a Good Writer
The power of content marketing lies in its effectiveness as a means to produce and promote quality content on the web. The first, and most important, step in the process is to actually create that quality content you plan to market with. If Google rewards quality content, valuable links, and a far-reaching online presence—you need to provide that quality. If you’re writing content yourself, don’t try to sneak a quick article writing session into your morning between emails—set aside time, and put in effort. If you’re hiring a writer, or writers, it may be hard to hear, but like with most things: you get what you pay for. Great writers can be hard to find, but they can also be an invaluable asset, especially with content marketing on the rise. So whether it means being a great writer yourself, or hiring a terrific one to help you, just bite the bullet and do it. It will pay off.
Be Thorough and Delve Deep.
When you’re hoping to generate quality links, you need to make content that people actually want to read first. Generally, unless you’re capable of putting out dozens of posts a day, keeping things short and sweet (for once) might not be the best option when it comes to content marketing. Again, if we’re talking quality over quantity, writing one, longer, more detailed, more in depth piece is really what’s going to give you the readers, and the links, you want to see.
Be Easy on the Eyes.
People are very visual creatures. We are stimulated by things we see—the more visually appealing, the better. So put on your party dress, so to speak, and jazz up your content marketing with things like high-quality infographics.
While they involve a number of elements and can be more difficult to produce than say, a quick blog post, creating and sharing infographics can be an amazing content marketing strategy. Infographics are a great way to pack a big punch in a small package and condense a lot of complicated information into an easily digestible, enjoyable piece of content—meaning more audience interest, more links, more engagement, more shares, and more traffic back to your site.
Be Consistent (in your writing and your relationships)
One key to content marketing is consistency. Writing a wonderful article or creating an engaging infographic is great, but producing great work and great links doesn’t do much good if it’s a once in a while event, an inconsistent effort. Write blog posts on a schedule, and stick to it.
And, if you’re looking to get your articles shared on the top guest blogging sites, you need be just as consistent in your outreach. Content marketing and getting backlinks from powerful sites involves more than just shooting off an email requesting to post, it’s about value-exchange and relationship building. Share good content but also provide positive interactions with those you deal with during the process. Send thank you emails after your posts are shared on a site, and try to maintain a conversation, that way, you can leave the door open to continue to share valuable content on that site in the future.
Be Social and Encourage Engagement
Don’t just write up an article, post it (or get it hosted on a guest blog site), pat yourself on the back and then go get a cup of coffee and move on.
Only half the battle is over. If you really want to get the most from the links your getting and the audience your writing for, you need to get as many readers reading and as many social media fans sharing and liking as you can. Getting as much attention surrounding your content as possible is the difference between generating great links that search engines will reward and also getting them to drive serious traffic back to your site.