The Best Practices for Content Marketing and Its Effect on SEO

A lot has been said about content marketing and its impact on overall SEO efforts. In most of these articles, people talk about writing two types of contents, writing for human readers and writing for Google and other search engines. It is time that we change this old idea and realize the need of the hour. Trust me, a lot has changed after recent Google updates and web content is one thing which has received the major share of Google's attention.
Google recently changed algorithm, like I pointed out earlier, which helps them to find out the most useful content for a given search query. How they achieved that is another topic altogether. And with a closely guarded algorithm, we can't do anything but guess. Leaving the technicality behind, lets talk about the effect.
Write for the human readers: The first thing to consider is that, according to Google itself, do not write for Google. Do not write even keeping Google in mind. Just write some great content which the human readers will like and your duty is 90% done. Google wants to present to the searcher with the most relevant, most informative and most useful article or webpage and so they will of course place articles displaying those traits at the top.
Think of 'WHY' before writing any content: Nobody likes to read useless information, no matter how well or creatively you have written them. The same is applicable for Google. Google doesn't want to present these pages to the readers as well. So, before you create any online content, have a very clear purpose behind creating the page. Once you have a definite purpose and you know what are you going to share with the world by creating this page, obviously your content will be pithy, useful and relevant. These contents are for sure to get a good ranking in Google.
Socially shared content: This is the latest point which I would include as the last point in this article. In this social age, the more people like your content using Google +1 or Facebook 'Like' and other social media, the better it is in the eyes of Google. Also, if your content is getting shared, referred to in the prominent social media, Google will consider this as a sign of a great content. On a technical note, never miss to have those Facebook, Google+, Twitter buttons on your webpage. Display them prominently so people can actually click on them easily if they like your content.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz writes on a few subjects including content development and general SEO practices. He works for the leading SEO solution provider, Search Eccentric and more of his thoughts can be found on the blog.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Faiz_Ahmed_Faiz

Why Your Business Needs a Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is more than just a popular buzzword in the Internet marketing industry. The concept of content marketing underscores a powerful technique to promote a business on the Internet. By creating great content (such as a video, article, or infographic) and marketing that content (via Facebook, Google+, or StumbleUpon,) your business can take advantage of many opportunities to connect with potential customers.
The methods behind content marketing offer limitless channels to exploit your ideas. In short, you can create content in various forms and distribute it many different ways. And just a limitless as the channels to market your content are the potential benefits for your business.
All types of companies can improve their marketing efforts by producing and sharing awesome content. In fact, marketing software provider Kapost has found through its research that per dollar, content marketing contributes to three times more leads that tradition online advertising, such as paid search. For this reason, creating a content marketing strategy can be a momentous game-changer for your business.
Although content marketing offers a ton of advantages (some of which are nearly impossible to track,) there are three major benefits that your business can realize:

• Build Brand Awareness
• Inbound Traffic to Your Site
• Generate Natural Link Popularity for SEO

Building Brand Awareness
As the foundation to marketing your content on the web, building brand awareness is further enhanced when the audience is engaged. This audience engagement is what fuels respect for your brand and bolsters a potential relationship. As a result, the quality and relevancy of your content is paramount. Any content you publish is a reflection of your business and its brand, so you'll want to be creative and use the right context that relates to your target audience.
Some of the highest levels of audience engagement derive from visually-based content. Videos are a powerful medium to communicate to a potentially massive audience. And by optimizing videos for better search engine exposure (also known as search engine optimization or "SEO"), the overall marketing potential skyrockets. Also effective in the visual content category are images, infographics, cartoons and comics. Exercise your creativity and produce a compelling form of content that can help build awareness in your brand.
Inbounding Traffic to Your Site
The cornerstone of content marketing is to inbound traffic to your site. Marketing your content is a very powerful way to promote your niche or unique selling proposition. As long as you present the right calls to action, the individuals that interact with your content will be more apt to visit your website.
This form of traffic is unique because of the prior interaction that users experience with your content. The best ways to inbound quality traffic to your site is use your content to inform and educate your target audience. Addressing relevant issues, questions, and concerns is a good way to achieve this. For example, a criminal defense attorney may benefit from publishing an article about 'what to do when faced with DUI charges.' Any traffic coming from that article could very well be a highly qualified lead for the attorney's legal services.
Generating Natural Link Popularity for SEO
When content goes viral, it tends to attract a lot of social attention. People usually link to popular content (link popularity,) and as a result, the content can earn a high level of authority. From a SEO standpoint, if a webpage has a high level of authority, then the outbound links coming from that page will be more powerful. This concept of SEO (commonly referred to as "link bait") is one of the many effective approaches of content marketing.
Think of your wonderful piece of content as a link bait for your SEO efforts. In almost any form of content, whether a video, article, or graphic, you can typically include a link that directs back to your site. For instance, graphics and videos will usually always have supportive text or an author attribution. Here you can include a bit about who you are, as well as a link back to your website. If your content generates a lot of buzz and people start linking to it, the SEO value of your content will only become more powerful.
Developing Your Strategy
Putting together a successful content marketing strategy will depend on the resources you have on hand. You'll want to determine which types of content are going to be the most relevant and effective to connect to your target audience. Additionally, you'll also want to pinpoint the ideal publishing platforms and social media sites to market and promote your content. All strategies for marketing content are unique, so you'll need to get creative as to how you approach the strategy for your business.

Tyler Tafelsky is a SEO and Internet marketing specialist for the Web Presence Group. He has a high degree of experience in content marketing, social media, web design, and website optimization.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tyler_Tafelsky