SEO content, why it's so important

The race for the top results in SERPs has become even fiercer over the last period.

That is why any business with a significant web presence, i.e own website or social platforms, must plan a SEO strategy and produce valuable content.

User behavior has changed a lot over time and search engines have evolved accordingly: the questions asked by consumers are becoming more structured and less faithful to the stringent concept of “keywords”.

Users searching on search engines expect to find content that can answer their questions with precision and relevance, without having to repeat the same search or perform multiple searches.

The biggest challenge is to stand out among millions of other sites, pages and profiles on the Web and well-trained competitors by taking full advantage of the possibilities of content indexing offered by search engines.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to integrate SEO optimization with user-oriented quality content planning and implementation.

That's why you need to work in parallel with SEO optimization and content curation: devoting resources and time to the technical aspects of SEO alone, without integrating a strategy on quality content, oriented to satisfy users first and foremost through a positive and engaging experience, is a mistake not to be made.

Before answering why your company should integrate the two strategies, let's do a little review to anchor the concepts.

Search engine and search intent

The search engine is one of the two main players in our content strategy. 

While we have SEO optimization to meet search engine parameters, the other side of the medal is occupied by the user.

Beginning with the queries, the questions posed to the search engine, and the search intent, the motivations that drive the user to search, it is possible to intercept the user's needs.

The main research intents concern the goal and accomplishment of an action:

• informational searches deliver results of various types so that the results give the user unique content that can provide the highest amount of relevant information in a single search
• transactional searches, on the other hand, aim to satisfy a specific user need through an action, whether it is buying a product in an e-commerce store or downloading a file

Recognizing what and how the user searches are critical to developing an effective content strategy.

And that's where content comes in.

Content marketing

Content marketing is a strategy geared toward the creation and distribution of high-quality, useful and relevant content to engage and retain a target audience. The goal is to provide value to users by publishing content related to the company's products and services, without directly promoting them.

A good content must possess some basic characteristics to meet the needs of users and fulfill the expectations contained in the query and in the search intent. 

As a basic rule, content must be relevant to the search query and provide relevant information expressed in a clear way (using the right tone of voice for the target audience it addresses) and well structured (with subheadings and paragraphs that can guide the user through the information).

This strategy fits any type of business. To create valuable content and build trust, reach a wider audience, and improve the online reputation of the business, the marketers must first ask themselves some questions:

1. Who is the content intended for
2. What customer’s needs do I want to address?

Along comes a thorough analysis of the service or product offered, of the communication channels to be managed and of the tone of voice to be used.

Without these first thoughts, it is impossible to achieve a successful content strategy. 

Why focus on SEO content?

The combination of SEO and content marketing can help our business to achieve several goals:

• Increased organic and qualified business site traffic: a good SEO and content marketing strategy can help improve search engine rankings, thereby increasing organic traffic to the company's site from target audiences and enhance chances of conversions
• Increased conversions: well-structured content can prompt users to take specific actions on our site, whether it is buying a product or requesting information
• Improving brand awareness: producing useful and relevant content for the target audience, supported by SEO tech optimization can help raise brand awareness and increase its online visibility (including through generated backlinks)
• Reputation enhancement: publishing quality content increases the chances that users will interact on the company's digital channels (on social media or the website), creating a closer relationship between the company and the public

‍

Conclusions

Implementing proper SEO content can be crucial to the success of your online business. 

While SEO provides a solid tech foundation for successfully coping with search engine metrics, content marketing helps bring value to your content by providing an engaging and informative experience for users. Integrating these two approaches helps your business gain more visibility on search engines (in an effort to climb the SERPs), and engage and retain customers.

Content SEO helps build your site's authority in the eyes of search engines and users, thereby increasing the chance of getting backlinks and being shared on social media, which benefits your business in the long run.

If you have a business and want to push your business online, don't underestimate the importance of a SEO content strategy to achieve your goals.