Is content marketing the new SEO? You could get that impression if you look at the rhetoric of some marketing experts in recent years. The content platform Clickz, for example, declared 2016 the year in which content marketing would finally grow up. A study by Yahoo and Enders Analysis found that companies in Germany will spend around 413 billion euros on content marketing by 2021 . In retrospect, over 60 percent of advertisers also state that their content marketing measures were more successful in 2016 than in previous years. In the company, therefore, the question may arise: Are we investing in content marketing or SEO?
So is it time now? Should the veteran SEOs pack their bags and go into early retirement? Anyone who deals with the topic of search engine optimization can actually only shake their head in the face of such ideas. Each of the companies advises to invest in content marketing rather than SEO, has either not fully understood the concept or has a very limited idea of what search engine optimization is all about.
Content Marketing or SEO – is that even a competition?
However, this did not prevent numerous bloggers and experts from asking the full-bodied question: “Content marketing or SEO?” All too often the relatively young discipline was seen as an alternative or a replacement for traditional search engine optimization. And the SEOs also objected, dismissing content as a fad and questioning its effectiveness.
So if you ask the question: content marketing or SEO, you overlook the fact that these are only two parts of the same discipline – namely the technical and the content side of search engine optimization. Or, as marketing guru Neil Patel put it: “two personalities of the same person”.
The following applies: Content marketing is not a competition for classic search engine optimization – it has become an indispensable component in the meantime. Only when both disciplines go hand in hand, websites can assert themselves permanently and occupy the top ranks of the search results. The two areas also have clearly defined “tasks”.
Important aspects of content marketing:
- High quality, well-written texts
- Unique – unique – content
- Added value for the user
- Holistic content strategy
- Inclusion of social media
- Multimedia content: videos, infographics, podcasts, etc.
- Keyword optimization – in moderation
- Important tool for organic link building
Important aspects in SEO:
- Clear URL structure
- Optimization of usability
- Use of canonical tags
- Set up 301 redirects
- Optimization of loading times
- Clean up the HTML code
- Compressing content & images
- Optimization for mobile devices
- Avoiding 404 errors and broken links
- Optimization for rich snippets
- Crawlability and optimization of the internal link structure
What can content do?
What can SEO do?
Content marketing only makes search engine optimization superfluous if SEO is only understood to be keyword-driven text creation, which was still a lively activity until a few years ago. So is content marketing the better substitute for SEO after all?
Clearly: no. Because good content alone does not bring rankings. No matter how well an article is worth reading – if Google doesn’t find it, it practically doesn’t exist for the target group. This is where SEO comes into play, especially the technical aspects. A website or blog must meet all the technical requirements that Google attaches great importance to. First and foremost: The page must be able to be crawled by Google. The Google bot must be able to navigate well within the pages. Loading times and (mobile) usability have to be right.
An example: It actually happens that technically inexperienced bloggers or site operators block parts of their websites – or even the entire site – from Google crawlers … and then wonder why they do not appear in any search query. This can happen, for example, if the page was set to “disallow” by the technicians when it was set up or during a relaunch , so that Google does not crawl the unfinished content and thus does not display it.
As soon as the page is actively taken, such a measure should be ended and the page released for Google. If this is neglected, even the best content has no chance of good placement.
In addition, both disciplines can also achieve success in other areas independently of one another. For example, it is possible that a blog article may not be highly successful in classic SEO aspects, but it drives the clicks on the shop upwards or increases the fan base on Facebook and thus increases brand awareness. Likewise, a fast and well-structured page can achieve good conversions – regardless of the content on the page. For a holistic and optimally successful online marketing strategy, both areas should be coordinate. Often there is even a third one: ideally, content marketing, SEO and social media form a coherent and well-thought-out unit.
What can content do? What can SEO do?
Content marketing only makes search engine optimization superfluous if SEO is only understood to be keyword-driven text creation, which was still a lively activity until a few years ago. Today it is actually the case that only valuable, well-written and properly researched content can survive in front of the eyes of the readers – and thus also the search engines. Because high-quality content does exactly what search engines were actually invented for : It delivers the best answers to a search query. So is content marketing the better substitute for SEO after all?
Clearly: no. Because good content alone does not bring rankings. No matter how well an article is worth reading – if Google doesn’t find it, it practically doesn’t exist for the target group. This is where SEO comes into play, especially the technical aspects. A website or blog must meet all the technical requirements that Google attaches great importance to. First and foremost: The page must be able to be crawle Google. The Google bot must be able to navigate well within the pages. Loading times and (mobile) usability have to be right.
An example: It actually happens that technically inexperienced bloggers or site operators block parts of their websites – or even the entire site – from Google crawlers … and then wonder why they do not appear in any search query.
SEO remains indispensable – but so is content marketing
And that’s exactly why SEO is still indispensable. A company definitely has to invest in content experts. After all, these produce the good content without which a website cannot be successful today. However, it must also have a budget for SEO experts who keep an eye on the site under technical aspects and usability and adjust it if necessary.
Here you could actually say boldly : content marketing is the new off-page . While common practices for a long time such as buying links or haphazard link building, even on weak sites, are now increasingly slipping into a gray area and can even damage the rankings, good posts do what Google actually wants: They generate organic links. Because if you think a contribution is good, you will also share it. In addition, online PR measures (e.g. newsletters, social media, blogger campaigns) can draw the attention of other pages to your own content and also move them to link.
So if you ask the question: content marketing or SEO, you overlook the fact that these are only two parts of the same discipline – namely the technical and the content side of search engine optimization. Or, as marketing guru Neil Patel put it: “two personalities of the same person”.