How to get Google Rankings and Traffic 3x with Content Marketing

The best way to generate organic traffic to your site is through content marketing. Companies that engage in content marketing are 3x more likely to get traffic than those that don't. This is a big difference!

If you have read any of our articles, then you know that content marketing works. It's not about driving traffic to your site and leads, but how can you outperform your competitors who also use content marketing in their strategies?

You need these four things to do it:

1. SEO mastery — You know the most important Google ranking factors and can align your content with them.
2. Authenticity — You know your brand, and you reflect it in your content.
3. Creativity — You create original, high-quality content and give new spins to topics that are already covered.
4. Consistency — You have a plan for publishing content on multiple channels.

Many brands just go through the motions with their content marketing strategy. This is why only 24% of brands that publish content report a strong ROI.

You need to go the extra mile in order to increase organic traffic and rank higher in search engines with content marketing. We'll show how. We'll first go in depth about each of these four approaches, and then we'll show you how to take them all into practice.

Quick Take-Aways

• Search engines are the foundation of nearly every online experience.

• Content marketing can help brands achieve higher search rankings. First, improve keyword rankings that are already in place. Then build on their success.

• Google uses RankBrain to determine content relevance and value.

• Creative thinking and the use of diverse content types and current trends can make content more interesting by encouraging creativity.

• Brands who publish blog posts between 11-16 times per month get more traffic and better rankings than brands that post less often.

• When they don't have enough internal bandwidth, many companies outsource content production.

SEO Mastery

The launching point of almost all online experiences today is search engines. You can think of it this way: Search engines are the best place to go if you want to find an answer quickly. You're looking for brands? Search. Search. Search. Search. Search. Where do Siri, Alexa and other intelligent assistants find their answers? Search, you've guessed it.

Search engine optimization (SEO), is essential to your content marketing strategy in order to rank high in search engines. SEO is simply a collection of strategies and tactics that help web pages and content rank high on search engine results pages.

Even if you have the most amazing content, it won't help you get anywhere unless your content is also ranked on Google. More than 90% of internet users don't click beyond the first page.

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Keyword research

Keyword research is the foundation of any SEO marketing strategy. There are many great tools that you can use for keyword research.

You first need to determine which keywords are ranking well for you. This can be done using the SEMRush Keyword Position Tracking Tool or Ahrefs' Keyword Rank Checker tool.

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These keywords are a great place to begin your SEO efforts. You can make some quick wins with these keywords and continue to grow your business.

If you rank for a few keywords on page one, try to get them to the top three results. It is much easier to move from #10 to #3 on a SERP than it is to move from page one to no ranking. To build momentum for your future strategy, you should first maximize your success.

Next, find out which keywords people are searching on topics, products, or other information that is relevant to your brand and industry. Ahrefs, SEMRush and other keyword research tools can help you with this.

Now, you can plan your content creation around the keywords that you have identified as important to your brand and to your target audience. Quick tip: Start with keywords that are closest to keywords you already rank for. Google will already consider you a brand authority in these topics so you can get a head start when ranking for keywords related to the same topic.

Additional SEO strategies that are important

Although keywords may be the most important contributor to your SEO strategy's success, it is not the only factor that matters in Google search results. To be successful, your strategy must include these important SEO contributors:

• Backlinks are links from quality websites that point to your site. Backlinks are used by Google to establish brand authority.

• Site structure and UX: Your website should be designed to make it intuitive and easy for search engine crawlers and human users to navigate.

• Mobile optimization – Google now uses mobile first indexing. This means that the mobile version of your website is often more important than its desktop counterpart.

• Google and other search engines have become more sophisticated than ever in determining value and relevance. They use AI algorithms to find content that is valuable and relevant to their target audience. Not just keywords to grab attention.

These last factors, value and relevance, will be the most prominent throughout this guide. As Google gets smarter and more sophisticated it has made it clear that brands should write for people first, not algorithms. To deliver high-quality content to your audience, you must be authentic, creative, consistent and consistent.

Authenticity

Two things are meant by authenticity. It covers topics and subjects where your brand is able to add value. It accurately reflects the brand's voice, personality, and offerings.

In simpler terms: you're being yourself! You aren't trying to be someone you're not or using Google's algorithm to get more visibility for content that makes little sense.

Are you still unsure about the relevance of this to content marketing and search engine rankings? Let me introduce you RankBrain.

Google recently identified RankBrain as its third-most important ranking factor. It uses metrics such as the time spent on your page to determine how relevant and valuable users find your content. Google will not accept content that doesn't include the correct keywords.

Here's a Moz overview on optimizing for RankBrain.

Google's EAT framework is another important concept related to authenticity. EAT stands to represent expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

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This framework is used by Google to assess the credentials of content creators to determine their ability to publish the content. This is most important in industries where the information shared via content could have a direct effect on someone's livelihood or well-being — such as financial or medical topics — but it's something every brand should keep in mind.

Google is smarter than any brand trying to insert keywords into articles to defeat an algorithm. You must know your brand and know what is relevant to your audience before you can start to earn organic search rankings through content marketing.

Creativity

Boring content is not what people want to read. Although it may sound obvious, this is the truth. The first articles that appear on Google for most topics are almost identical. Blog articles for companies are often lacking excitement and instead stick to a formal, almost mechanical tone.

This type of simple approach is not wrong. People want content that is engaging and authentic. You should have some fun with your content. This can be done by using your creativity.

We have good news: anyone can be creative. Marketers are naturally creative. But even if they don't consider themselves to be, there is still plenty you can do.

A design thinking approach is one of the best ways to get your team and you thinking creatively about content ideas. Design thinking is about creating solutions for real problems that are relevant to a specific group (in this instance, your customers). This video will give you an overview of the subject, even though we don't have the time.

These are just a few of the creative ways that you can approach your content marketing strategy in a more innovative way.

• Different content types are possible – Do you know of dozens of articles on the subject that you are covering? Instead, consider making an infographic or video. Visual content is more engaging and shareable than text, so you can make it interesting.

• Skyscraper Technique – This technique takes the top-ranking content on a topic and uses its weaknesses and gaps to create a better version. This is the perfect time to consider how you can add a creative twist to something that's already been covered.

• Trends and news – Covering current events is a great way to make your content more relatable and exciting for your audience. You can pay attention to the industry and offer your unique perspective.

Consistency

Content marketing is not easy to rank in search engines. It takes consistency and time. Research has repeatedly shown that brands who publish regularly over a longer period of time are more likely to rank higher in search results.

HubSpot discovered that brands publishing 11-16 times per months earn twice or more inbound traffic than those who publish less frequently.

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A content calendar is a great way to keep your schedule on track. You can find tons of great content calendar templates that you can download and modify to suit your needs.

Even with a solid plan, it's possible that you think 11-16 blog posts per monthly is too much for your team. You're not the only one. Around 70% of companies outsource content creation, often because it is necessary.

Content marketing agencies have the experience, resources, and expertise necessary to implement your content strategy at scale. It is smarter to partner with an agency than a frustrated, overworked team.

Content that delivers will help you jumpstart your search engine rankings

Marketing Insider Group's SEO Blog Writing Service and Content Marketing Strategy will help you create a strategy that works, track key KPIs, and implement it.

Our team can produce high-quality, optimized content that you can publish every week on your website. We will promote your content to increase visibility and track its ROI so that you can see how it is performing.

Are you ready to get started? Schedule your quick consultation today.