SEO vs. content marketing: which is better?
What is more effective for your company, content marketing or SEO?
Should you spend money on content marketing or SEO?
You have probably seen a ton of headlines similar to this. And I've had enough, I've decided!
During the onboarding process, a lot of the customers of my agency asked me this question as well. "Content marketing is excellent, but I've heard SEO is even better," you might say.
That does indeed occur in 2022. Fire away!
Such queries and headlines have amply demonstrated to me that there is a severe lack of knowledge on the subject. The two are not incompatible, and this needs to be more widely understood. At all! Actually, the reverse is true. I'd even go so far as to claim that they are interrelated and essential to a well-rounded digital strategy.
similar to how peanut butter and jelly make a great sandwich.
See why will we?
Term clarification
The Content Marketing Institute defines information marketing as a strategic marketing approach that is focused on creating and distributing useful, pertinent, and consistent content in order to draw in and keep a target audience. "Content marketing's ultimate goal is to drive profitable customer action."
SEO (search engine optimization) is described as "the process of gaining visitors from the "free," "organic," "editorial," or "natural" search results on search engines" by Search Engine Land.
The expressions "attract traffic" and "get traffic" both relate to "attracting (...) a clearly declared objective."
Does this imply that they do the same task and that you must select one of them over the other? Without a doubt.
An intentionally fueled conflict
The kind of title mentioned above is solely intended to "encourage" you to direct your resources in the direction that the article's publisher desires.
For illustration, suppose you had a $4,000 monthly budget and the same decision to make about whether to spend it on content marketing or SEO. There are many results when you Google your question. Every piece of writing you read names a victor.
Some would claim that in today's cutthroat marketplace, SEO is essential. Others would counter that SEO is dead as a result of the numerous Google algorithm tweaks and that you should switch your focus to content marketing.
What's this? The majority of the time, the former are content marketers, whereas the former provide SEO services. Unbiased publications supporting the necessity for the two to coexist are quite rare.
The argument for CONTENT MARKETING AND SEO
Consider the following scenario: You invest your entire $4,000 on SEO and have high traffic. More than you could have ever imagined. No conversions, however.
You may have increased your brand awareness (and undoubtedly your ego thanks to the vanity metrics Google Analytics displays), but what about your bank account? The stuff that keeps companies operating, if you will.
bring on content marketing.
The strategies employed by content marketers are made to convert visitors into paying customers as well as keep them on your website longer and lower bounce rates. Perfectly optimized content is useless if no inquiries or purchases are made by people who view it.
The Internet-savvy consumer or customer is difficult to convert in today's society. Before you can persuade him to even think about your brand, you must first offer him material that is pertinent, worthwhile, and informative. An essay with bad writing and too many keywords won't do that. Potential clients become irritated by it and leave your website in fear (and business).
Good copywriters spend hours creating the ideal call-to-action to go along with your optimized copy so that your organic visitors convert into actual money. This is in addition to providing useful, informative content. If a page doesn't sell anything, what use is it to be the first result in all searches?
Actually, the argument is valid from both sides.
What use is a flawless, eye-catching call-to-action if no one finds the content it goes with? Because of this, you should combine content marketing with SEO rather than choose one over the other. Never look back if someone advises you to make that decision.
How content marketing and SEO may complement one another
I always ensure that the SEO copywriters I recruit for my company have at least a fundamental understanding of content marketing. In fact, I've discovered that experience with inbound and content marketing is far more beneficial than an understanding of SEO.
This is so that anybody may learn how to optimize their material. You may instruct them on how to pick the best LSI keywords, what density to use, and which tools to utilize to identify relevant keywords. It's more difficult to educate them on the value of a decent CTA and a catchy headline, though. Harder but not impossible.
I've learned through experience that there is an ideal ratio between content marketing and SEO.
Let me elaborate.
Naturally, you want all of your texts to be optimized. Nobody can deny that organic traffic is a gold mine for any kind of business. But you don't want to do it at the expense of your content marketing plan.
You need to strike the ideal balance.
In other words, avoid only writing content to raise your page ranks. When you write, you're trying to convey a message. Write because the information is required or desired by your buyer persona. Make sure that what you write is supported by extensive research and is written in a manner appropriate for the target audience.
Your prospective clients adore that. And search engines do too, based on the most recent Google algorithm adjustments. Take Google's word for it if you don't trust me that content marketing and SEO should work together. It has been made quite obvious that websites that write with humans in mind will always rank higher than those that make excessive efforts to please Google.
The bottom truth is that SEO and content marketing are not completely useless. They can do nothing except work together.
