The Power Duo: Unlocking the Potential of SEO and Content Marketing

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Today’s guest blog post was created by Michael Bellush, founder of HighMark SEO Digital…

 

Introduction

In the magical realm of digital marketing, think of SEO and content marketing as the Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore of the online world. One, much like young Harry, brings fresh, innovative tactics and a touch of technical sorcery. The other, akin to the wise and powerful Dumbledore, offers a wealth of knowledge and captivating content that keeps audiences spellbound. Together, they navigate the labyrinth of Google’s Hogwarts, aiming for the top spots in the search engine results pages (SERPs). In this article, we’ll explore how combining the daring of Harry with the wisdom of Dumbledore in your SEO and content marketing strategies can work wonders for your digital presence.

 

Understanding the Basics

 

What is SEO and Why It Matters

Imagine SEO as a masterful potion brewer in the dungeons of Hogwarts, meticulously mixing ingredients to conjure potions that elevate websites in Google’s grand library of search results. Just as a well-crafted potion can grant visibility or invisibility at Hogwarts, effective SEO can determine whether your website, keywords, and content get found online. Why does this matter? Because if you’re not on page one, you might as well be on page none.

Now, before you start envisioning SEO as some kind of mystical dark art performed by cloak-wearing wizards in dimly lit rooms, let’s demystify it. Sure, an SEO wizard might jokingly mutter “Accio” while optimizing your website, hoping for a magical boost in rankings. But in reality, great SEO is less about enchantments and more about smart strategies:

  • Understanding Google’s algorithms
  • Mastering keyword research
  • Creating high-quality content with a keyword focus
  • Performing website SEO optimization
  • Building domain authority through backlinking

The real magic lies in blending these elements to light up your website’s visibility, much like the “Lumos” spell lights up a dark corridor in a wizard’s castle. So, while there’s no actual wand-waving, the transformation your website undergoes with effective SEO techniques is nothing short of spellbinding.

The Synergy of SEO and Content Marketing

Complementary Strategies

SEO and content marketing can form a powerful combination.

  • SEO: Boosts visibility through strategic keyword placement, website optimization, and backlinking.
  • Content Marketing: Enriches visibility by engaging and retaining the audience with high-quality, relevant content.

This synergy not only drives traffic but also enhances user engagement, a key factor in SEO success.

Keyword Synchronization

 

Keywords in content marketing are akin to the carefully selected ingredients in a potion from the Hogwarts Apothecary. It’s not about haphazardly throwing in every magical herb and creature part you can find, but rather about artfully blending them into your content, much like a Hogwarts Potion Master crafting a perfect Polyjuice Potion. The right mix of keywords can charm Google’s algorithms, ensuring that your content casts a spell over the desired audience.

Technical SEO and Content Strategy

Technical SEO Foundations

Technical SEO optimizes your website’s backend elements to improve search engine rankings. This includes:

  • Crafting clear, descriptive URL names
  • Engaging and optimized page titles
  • Optimized meta descriptions that succinctly summarize page content
  • Using image-alt tags for improved SEO
  • Structuring content with logical headings that include keyword variations
  • Strategically incorporating keywords throughout the content

These components work together to enhance both the user experience and a website’s visibility to search engines.

Link Building and Content Authority

Link building is like a high school popularity contest, but in the digital world. The more reputable sites that backlink to your content, the cooler you are in the eyes of search engines. Relevant and authoritative backlinks are what build up authority and they are crucial for SEO success.


Realizing the Full Potential


Measuring Success

To see if your digital potion is working, you need to dive into the cauldron of analytics. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console are essential for understanding whether your SEO and content spells are enchanting the audience or if they need a bit more magic.


Real World Example

Consider a local roofing company that wants to create brand awareness, increase sales, and service a larger area. They started creating detailed blog posts about common roofing issues, maintenance tips, and the advantages of timely repairs. By implementing focused SEO strategies, such as keyword mapping, technical website SEO optimization, and authority building through backlinking they significantly increased their online visibility. This strategic approach not only boosted their ranking in search engine results but also attracted a broader range of homeowners in need of roofing services. The increase in inquiries and customer engagement demonstrated the impactful combination of targeted SEO and informative content for a service-based business.

Conclusion

So, there you have it – SEO and content marketing, the Harry Potter and Dumbledore of the digital world, ready to take your online presence from muggle to magician. Remember, in the world of digital marketing it’s better to take off the invisibility cloak. It’s time to step into the spotlight!

 

                             

 

 For further information, Michael Bellush may be reached at Michael@highmarkseo.com.

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Business Blogging and SEO – How Strong is the Bond?

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SEO and blogs

One of the points Carol Tice lists in comparing blog posts to articles is that blog posts are “built around SEO keywords”.

Does blogging help SEO?  To be sure.  Kristen Hicks of HostGator lists six reasons why:

 

  1. Blogging keeps your website fresh and current.
  2. A blog keeps people on your website for longer.
  3. Blogging helps target long-tail keywords (half of all searches are for terms four words or longer).
  4. A blog offers opportunities for internal linking.
  5. A quality blog gives other sites more reasons to link back to your site.
  6. A blog helps you connect with your audience (which encourages sharing and driving traffic to the site).

All true, but…. Are blogs – should blogs – be “built around” SEO keywords? “ Every successful blog is built on a solid foundation of content, but it’s consistency that’s the real key to successful search engine rank,” offers top web infuencer Neil Patel. “Using your keywords in a natural way in your post isn’t a bad SEO practice,” Patel says,” “but don’t overdo it”. .

 

SEO is the practice of optimizing content to clearly define what your webpage is and what information it is providing, explains Elena Terenteva in the SEMrush Blog. Some areas that need to be optimized, Terenteva explains, include:
  • page titles
  • meta descriptions
  • alt-text
  • internal links
  • anchor text
  • URLs

“Above all, your blog post has to be a good piece of writing!” cautions yoast.com ( The Yoast SEO WordPress plugin is the guide our blog content writers at Say It For You rely on).

 

So, no, Carol Tice, blog posts should not be “built around” SEO keywords. As the Yoast article so aptly concludes – “The days when a few SEO tricks were enough to get your website to rank well in Google are long gone.  Nowadays, quality content is king.”

 

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Informational Blogging and Academic Writing – What’s the Diff?

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academic writing vs. blog posts
Informational blogging and academic writing – is there a difference? It depends, observes blogger Yvonne McQuarrrie in Quora. “Blogs have a specific circle of readers, ‘your fellows’, ”McQuarrie says. “You can communicate with them like friends.”  An academic paper, on the other hand, she adds, will be read by someone in the context of an educational institution. A second contributor to Quora, Raina Du Trieux, emphasizes audience as well: “Formal writing is used in academic and scientific settings whenever you want to convey your ideas to a wide audience with many possible backgrounds and assumptions.”
Requirements differ from one discipline to the next, says Michel Clasquin-Johnson, weighing in on Quora as well, “but some tell you never to use the word ‘I’”. “In academic writing, there is the requirement of backing up claims and arguments with noted and verifiable evidence,” adds Virginia Badeuax.

 “Essays are for a specific audience (your professors) to show what you’ve learned. They expect an in-depth analysis of the assigned books and perhaps from secondary sources as well. Blog posts are for a more general public to entertain them or educate them in a brief and engaging, is careerpathwriting solutions.com’s take.

Career Path Writing Solutions goes on to offer a number of guidelines for blog content writers:

  • Short paragraphs are encouraged.
  • Be intelligent without being technical.
  • Explain concepts briefly, touching on important details only.
  • Personal touches are allowed and encouraged.

While every one of these Quora and Career Path Writing Solutions observations are very much in keeping with the way we train blog content writers at Say It For You, two of the points Carol Tice lists in comparing blog posts and articles are definitely not. In blog posts, Tice says:

  • Good spelling and grammar optional.
  • Posts are mostly your own opinion – no interviews or research.
  • Posts are built around SEO keywords.

Beg to differ, Tice. Good spelling and grammar are hardly optional. As a corporate blogging trainer, my favorite recommendation to both business owners and the freelance blog content writers they hire to bring their message to customers is this: Prevent blog content writing “wardrobe malfunctions”, including grammar errors, run-on sentences, and spelling errors. Blogs are, in fact, more personal and more informal than academic pieces, but they shouldn’t be sloppy.

What’s more, I believe, interviews are one very effective format for blog posts. In a face-to-face (or Skype) interview with a business owner or executive (or professional practitioner), I am able to capture their ideas and some of their words, then add “framing” with my own questions and introductions, to create a blog post more compelling and “real” than the typical narrative text.

Are there differences between informational blogging and academic writing? To be sure. But the two will always have a common goal – engaging and informing readers.
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Blogging Helps FNU LNUs Get Found

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FNU LNU (acronym for First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown) is a term used by authorities to identify unknown suspects. When you’re selecting keyword phrases to use in your website and blog content, it’s useful to remember that the business owner or the professional practitioner is actually the FNU LNU in the equation. Nine out of ten, I explain to newbie blog content writers, at stage #1 of their search, online readers don’t know the name of the individual, the business, or the practice. What most consumers are likely to type into the search bar are words describing:
  • their need
  • their problem
  • their idea of the solution to their problem
  • a question

Blogging for business, I teach at Say It For You, essentially consists of introducing yourself to strangers.  Not that it isn’t a good idea to email links to your blog posts to existing customers and clients, but, for developing new relationships, your blog will be your central prospecting tool. In order to convert those “strangers” to friends and customers, address your blog posts to them, and write about them.  Fact is, they’re going to care about your name only if and when they know you care about their problems and needs, and when they are reassured that you have just the means to take care of them.

 

It’s reassuring to blog content writers to remember that the only people who are going to be reading the blog posts, are those searching for precisely the kinds oif information, products, and services that relate to what you do, what you have for sale, and what you know about and know how to do. It’s also reassuring to realize that consumers who feel fairly informed are more likely to make buying decisions.

 

Generally speaking, the information consumers seek in the process of online searching falls into three categories:
  1. How to do things
  2. How to find things
  3. How to keep things (and their bodies) in the best condition possible

Once having been “found”, the next step is to get “personal”, Practical eCommerce’s Paul Chaney emphasizes “Blogging,” he says, “consists of one person – or one company – communicating directly with consumers in an unfettered, unfiltered manner….blogs are a more personal form of communication.”

Marketing blogs may be written about business, but they had better be about people as well, and that includes both the online searchers and the blog content writers. You start out being a FLU LNU, and, ideally, end up being an ally! 

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The Short Tale of Long-Tailing it in Blogging for Business

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  1. long tail keywords

In the animal world, fellow Mensan Bob Truett pointed out, there are several purposes for tails, including:

  • balance (as the animal climbs)
  • temperature control (for cover in the cold, for fanning in the heat)
  • defense (to swat enemies o
  • social purposes (dogs wagging their tails)

In the internet world, the concept of the “long tail” is based on the fact that when searchers type in very specific, three-to-four word phrases to describe what they want, those searchers are more likely to convert (to become buyers). The term “long tail keyword” itself comes from the 2006 book The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, which talks about niche marketing. The author explains that in brick and mortar stores, there is only so much shelf space, so marketers need to focus on their most popular products. On the internet, in contrast, where there is unlimited “space”, selling in relatively small quantities to people who want specific products, becomes eminently feasible. In fact, Neil Patel (one of my own go-to authorities) asserts, “The longer the keyword, the easier it is for you to rank well with that keyword.”

Winning search should not be the only goal. Business owners and practitioners who make the commitment to give blog marketing a spot in their overall business strategy stand to reap three types of benefits:

  1. The promotional benefit (the blog helps get customers excited enough to choose you over the competition).
  2. The credibility benefit (the blog demonstrates that you’re interested in using the latest tools to communicate with customers – you’re “in the game”).
  3. The training benefit (as you review the benefits of your own products and services and develop new ideas, you’re constantly learning to talk effectively about your business).

Long-tailing it is no shortcut to success, a thought I often share with blog content writers in this Say It For You blog. But, just as tails serve many functions in the animal world, blogging for business can add balance, grasp, defense, and social purpose in the world of the internet.

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