5 Ways to Improve Search Engine Visibility with Content Marketing

Marketers will always say that content is king, and when it comes to your search engine visibility, this couldn’t be more true.

If you have any kind of digital marketing strategy in place, you already know why content marketing is important for your SEO strategy. However, knowing why to do something is quite different than knowing how to do something.

Here are 5 trusted, proven ways to improve your search engine visibility with content marketing. 

Establish Your Expertise

Google’s crawlers rank websites higher when they believe that website is an expert on the particular keyword or topic. But how exactly do you establish expertise? Here are some ways you can do this:

• Stay on point and keep your content relevant to your specific topic.
• Don’t try to become an expert in everything. This will confuse the crawlers, and as a result, they won’t know how to index your page.
• Use a link building strategy to obtain high-quality hyperlinks to your site.
• Publish content consistently.
• Try guest blogging on other industry websites to establish yourself as a leading thought expert in your industry.

Use Pillar Content

Every content marketing strategy relies heavily on keyword research. However, in the last few years, Google has made some changes to its algorithm to focus on user intent instead of specific keyword matches. That means you need to think the way your audience is thinking. This is where pillar content comes in. 

With pillar content, the emphasis is on topic clusters. You make one pillar page that covers the topic in a more broad context, and then that pillar page links out to individual blogs or other pages based on subtopics that relate directly to that broad category.

For example, if you’re a real estate company, you could have a pillar page dedicated to first time home buyers that links out to content clusters on individual topics such as what to look for in a home, how to finance your first home, what makes a good agent, and so on.

So, instead of individual blog posts optimized to rank for specific keywords, you have a cohesive content strategy aligned around topics that form a stronger architecture on your site.

Focus on Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are easier to rank for because they are narrowed, down, specific, and refined. They are also more closely aligned to what your audience is searching for, which will tell Google you’re a relevant and well-matched choice for them.

According to HubSpot, 64% of all searches online are longer than four words. With the rise of voice search using smart home devices like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, this is something you should always have at the back of your mind. Before those devices were as popular as they are now, voice search still accounted for 20% of mobile Google searches.

Another benefit of using long-tail keywords is that you’re going to get more qualified leads. Someone who is looking for something very specific, like “red sports cars under $20,000,” is at a much further stage in the buying process than someone making a broad search such as “red cars.” 

Optimize All of Your Titles

Every page, blog, and piece of content should be fully optimized for SEO. This includes the meta description, page title tags, headings, and image alt tags. Do an SEO audit if you need to. If you don’t have a strong SEO background, it’s possible to overlook this step or not completely understand how to properly optimize each item.

Keep in mind that a good meta description alone won’t automatically get you a higher ranking on Google, but it will help tell users what your page is about when they see you in a search result. This can lead to a higher chance that someone will click on your link, which results in increased traffic to your site (which, in turn, is great for SEO). 

Share, Share, Share 

Get your content out there on your social media channels, and make sure they’re integrated with your website. Social media has a strong impact on your search visibility in a variety of ways.

Firstly, the more of your content that gets shared in different networks, the more traffic you’ll get.

Secondly, the more consistently you post, the more Google will notice and factor that into your rank.

Lastly, your social profiles can rank in Google, too. In fact, some people use social media as a search engine, so you want to make sure they can find your content there, too.

Links back to your site shouldn’t be the only thing you publish on social media, because you do want to keep engaging with your audience and providing value.

However, sending out little snippets or bits of value from that content is a great way to get people interested in reading or learning more about that topic.