The biggest puzzle among marketers around the world is whether content marketing was taking over search engine marketing.
This is an intereting notion since content marketing is a relatively new area in the Australian context. However, it doesn’t mean that content marketing is replacing anything, because the two disciplines are subtly, but importantly, different. The role of SEO or content optimisation is critical in the content marketing segment. Are we seeing budgets roll over to us? Yes. Why? It probably goes back to Google and its algorithm updates. Google makes these changes a regular occurrence to ensure quality sites are at the top of their index. This creates a superior user experience, rather than a site that is rammed full of optimised terms but has little or no relevance to what the user searched for.
Furthermore, Google also wanted to take away the role on backlinks, and move it to social recommendations – shares, retweets and +1s, which also means that people – not bots – are now engaging with the content. All this contributes to the purpose of the search engine now linking users who are after quality content with those who produce it. These changes mean that a combination of great quality content as well as having it optimised for search ensures your page is high in Google rankings. The content must be high quality, and that’s why SEO budgets move to content marketing agencies. We craft great, engaging, interesting, exiting, enjoyable content that drives people to action. It should be seen on multiple search engines, but more importantly, we ensure that it is suitable with the users. That’s the measure of great content.
Is this a problem for search agencies? Probably. Do they need to look at their business model? Certainly. However, SEO agencies will continue to breathe, but the business will need to change. They will need editors, content strategists and sub-editors. They will need to develop these content strategies to build engagement. They’ll need to incorporate visual content as well – video, infographics, images, and many more.
Put simply, content marketing and SEO are two separate beasts trying to deliver one outcome, yet only one will win. Your task now is choosing which side you are betting on.