Many companies kick off their SEO efforts by hiring a dedicated SEO specialist. Usually, SEO experts work as external collaborators to the content team. They bridge the gap between content ideas and the target audience’s search behavior and give content creators a set of guidelines to follow.
But, considering content specialists and SEO experts as two different divisions within your marketing team, can severely limit your strategy. With SEO getting increasingly complex and competitive, your content team should understand the principles and objectives of SEO. Thus, teaching your entire organization (especially your marketing team) about SEO may be the key to increasing your content’s impact.
Interested in learning more? Look no further, in this post you’ll learn:
- The difference between content marketing and SEO
- The pros of having an SEO-savvy content team
Let’s get started.
Content Marketing vs SEO: What’s the Difference?
Content marketing and SEO do overlap, but they differ in some key ways.
SEO focuses on maximizing a website’s:
- SERP positioning
- Organic visibility
Meanwhile, content marketing is a wide-encompassing field, dedicated to:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Supporting lead generation through informative and entertaining content
SEO is laser-focused on enabling customer journeys that begin on search engines. And it makes sense: Approximately 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from search engines.
Content marketing, on the other hand, isn’t just concerned with search engines. Other platforms, such as email and social media are also relevant to content marketing efforts.
But, what if this distinction was a little muddy? At the end of the day, social media & email marketing can also benefit your SEO efforts.
It’s clear that content marketing and SEO are natural allies. But it’s rarely noted that SEO experts can provide many valuable insights to content teams, not just lists of target keywords.
For instance, SEO can help content teams to:
- Spot new user needs
- Re-focus their social listening efforts
- Detect trends that are relevant to social & email content
But it takes two to tango. Skilled SEO experts need content marketers that are aware of the principles of SEO and can apply them to their creative process.
In the next section, we’ll explore 5 areas where SEO-savvy content teams excel.
5 Benefits of an SEO-Savvy Content Team
SEO-savvy content teams are great at:
- Creating competitive content
- Performing true keyword optimization
- Building solid internal linking
- Adapting headlines to SEO goals
Creating Competitive Content
There was a time when thin content was enough for Google’s crawlers, this is no longer true. Moreover, weak content produced for the sole purpose of meeting content creation targets will not attract or retain readers. Nor will it facilitate conversions or rank on Google.
Original and engaging content will differentiate you from your competitors and crawl higher on the SERPs. This is especially true in an era where low-value, AI-generated content abounds.
Here’s how it works:
- Users find that content highly valuable
- So, they interact with it in multiple ways (They click on backlinks, they share it, they spend considerable time reading it, etc.)
- Google perceives it as valuable and ranks it higher.
Authoritative, high-ranking content will also help advance your content marketing goals since you are more likely to attract a larger audience with it.
A content team that understands the role of quality and originality in modern SEO will produce better, more effective content. And believe us, this is hard to find.
Articles containing valuable tips and insights tend to attract more links and get the engagement metrics that Google is looking for. Therefore, with a value-centered content strategy, your site will continue to rank well over a long period.
Performing True Keyword Optimization
If you want your content to get exposure, it must match the search terms people use, and answer their queries effectively. Using the right keywords is a small but important step to help Google detect what your content is about and which user needs it targets.
But including keywords intelligently throughout your text requires skill. And, in this day and age, proper keyword placement can make it easier to get privileged positions on the SERPs. For instance, answer boxes.
Internal Linking: The Work of a Team
Internal linking isn’t just good for SEO. It also improves your user experience by providing additional value to readers.
Internal links can:
- Help Google crawl your site more effectively
- Direct users to other content that they may be interested in, increasing the time they spend on your site
It’s smart to leave interlinking in the hands of those who actually write your content. At the end of the day, who knows your content better than they do?
Let SEO take the lead and train your content team so they know why and how to invite users to check out the rest of your content.
Leveraging the Power of Good Headlines
Content headlines are an often overlooked element of your content that both your writing team and your SEO team can collaborate on.
When we talk about headlines, we’re not just referring to your H1, but also to:
- Your subheadings (especially H2s and H3s), which are key to your posts’ readability and to getting answer boxes.
- Your meta titles, which are key to turning your SERP impressions into actual organic traffic.
There Is More to SEO than Just Your Content
In this post, we shared many ways your content team can benefit from understanding SEO basics. Without a doubt, having a team that is aware of the importance of SEO and its principles will increase their content’s quality and boost your site’s visibility.
But SEO isn’t just about writing good content. There is more to SEO than meets the eye. Missing alt tags, misassigned meta tags, and broken redirects can affect your positioning just as much as your content’s quality or your site’s speed.
SEORadar is a technical SEO auditing and monitoring tool that keeps an eye on your code to protect your rankings.
SEORadar will notify you automatically whenever potentially problematic code changes occur on your website. This way, you can take action before your rankings drop. Notifications will be sent according to your preferences, through the channels you choose.
Take control of your technical SEO today. Start a free trial or schedule a demo.
