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Content marketing: Not your ordinary web page

Posted by Sheera Eby on April 1, 2014

Many marketers believe they are actively engaging in content marketing. I often hear marketers say, “We have a lot of pages on our website describing our services,” or “We have a number of case studies.” Content marketing is a strategically and analytically driven process of driving website traffic and converting that traffic to leads.

 

 

The foundation of an effective content marketing strategy is ensuring keyword analytics are applied to web page development to generate positive results with search engines. Some marketers are using content marketing predominantly for brand building and awareness. This article will focus on how to create content that can serve as a lead generation technique.

 

While we won’t explore all the components of Google's sophisticated search algorithm, we will provide tips on how to differentiate content marketing that can drive search engine traffic. We’ll also discuss how the associated page development and components are different from your typical web page copy. And we’ll outline how a typical page of web copy differs from an SEO-driven content page by ensuring quality of the content, inclusion of authoritative links, and the dynamic nature of the page and length of blogs or articles. Here are the 4 key differences between your typical web page and a page created for content marketing purposes.

 

1. Content marketing is search engine optimized.
Google's search crawler is the primary target of content marketing techniques. It is designed to detect superior, original web content. Over the past three years, Google has adjusted its search parameters at least three times, with the development of Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird algorithms. Keyword stuffing, unnatural backlinks and plagiarized content are still considered taboo methods of ranking by Google search. The new Hummingbird algorithm is irresistibly drawn to web pages that are frequently updated, consist of relevant content and strategized with inbound marketing links.

 

A strong content marketing strategy is founded in keyword analytics. This is accomplished by analytically determining which keywords a page is likely to rank against, and constructing the content against those words. This approach to content marketing marks one of the chief differences between web page development for search engine optimized content marketing and a typical web page.

 

2. Search engines believe length and authority are related.
Content marketing underscores the importance of web page length by providing blogs, articles and product and service descriptions composed of at least 500 words, preferably even more. Search engines like Google consider length as a demonstration of authority and are likely to view a web page loaded with meaty, lengthy content pieces higher on its search results than pages with snippets of written content.

Many marketers believe because they are time-compressed that less is more in communication. Search engines, such as Google, believe authority trumps brevity. Therefore, more can actually be more.

 

3. Freshness indicates “this is new and might be important.”
Many websites have a number of general web pages, or pages offering content that never becomes outdated. As a result, those pages are seldom touched for updates. Although many companies may think they are saving money by incorporating generic content that never needs to be revised, this content is more likely to encourage Google's search crawler to scamper quickly past it and onto more dynamic, newer content.

Content marketing, in particular blogging, is intended to be nimble, and promotes freshness. Blogging by nature is a more informal approach to communications and, as a result, it doesn’t always require the same level of corporate approvals to execute. Adding pages and encouraging search engines to acknowledge a site is one of the key differences between just maintaining current web pages and employing an aggressive content marketing strategy.

 

4. Content marketing is customer-centric, not company-centric.
The reality is that most websites are about the company, their products and services, and other non-customer-driven information. Content marketing is being actively leveraged as a lead generation technique by utilizing a problem/solution format.

This occurs when a user is looking for information via a search engine, and content marketing allows that user to find a solution, or information that they seek. Users are often not searching for a specific company capability or product, but rather looking for information that will solve their problem. This is where content marketing can artfully transform itself into a lead generation technique. Content marketing fulfills an information request that a user has in a format that is customer-centric, not content that is perceived as corporate propaganda. When done well, content marketing can drive the user to a landing page for data collection.

 

Do you think your content has been meeting the criteria of content marketing, or have you been focused on general web pages? Hopefully this article clearly articulated the differences. Content marketing can be an effective lead generation technique when a formula is followed. To learn more about how to turn a beast like content marketing into a lead generation machine for your company, sign up for a personalized session with J&C and get your free content marketing action and assessment plan.

Topics: Content Marketing

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