In the early days, SEO was a technical exercise. It meant tuning the website, adjusting title tags, and various other one-time optimizations for the website. In fact, “optimization” is in the acronym. So it is natural for small businesses to hold the antiquated notion that simply adding new pages to their website will bring more traffic from SEO.
Time has changed. There are over 2 million blog posts created each day. This is an astounding figure that most small business owners have not yet begun to understand. If you think of each blog post as a new web page that is created or an application of traditional onsite SEO, it becomes clear that the nature of SEO has shifted dramatically. This is why small business content marketing has become such an important strategy. In many ways, it is the NEW SEO.
While many small firms have embraced content marketing, only 30% feel they are effective at it. Why are small businesses so bad at highly effective content marketing campaigns? The answer lies in the strategy – which tends to rely too much on content creation and not enough on content promotion.
Smart firms have figured out that shifting from onsite SEO to content generation is only the first step in a well-defined content marketing strategy. They also need to have strong capabilities in link building and content sharing – skills that are very foreign to the traditional SEO technician.
This infographic summarizes a well-formed small business content marketing strategy. It emphasized how modern firms need to understand traditional approaches to SEO, as well as the need to generate GREAT content. Great content is defined as a piece someone would want to bookmark or share. However, once the content is released, it is very important to apply appropriate promotional activities to get the word out. Email, social media and relationship building all help you find others who would want to join the conversation. Through these efforts, an opportunity for link-building and cross-promotion usually arises.
In summary, the world of SEO has changed. With over 2 million blog posts published per day, the rate of content generation is simply mind-boggling. Modern search engine optimization firms need to adapt strategies that align with what users are really looking for. This means high-quality content marketing and well-tuned promotional skills so that the best content ends up at the top of the Google search results.
