SEO is changing with the arrival of the age of content marketing. The division between internet marketing, classic marketing and advertising is blurred when creativity and design are now essential parts of an SEO campaign.
Is SEO Dead?
Many people seem to be thinking that the end of SEO is near. Instead of looking at negatives, it is a good idea to focus on where things are evolving. SEO itself is far from dead. It is just rapidly evolving. The main point of this post is to show you how online marketing has turned full circle to traditional marketing and how SEO, classic marketing and design are converging, and debunk the assumptions that SEO is on its demise.
The Rise of Content Marketing
“Inbound marketing” was very popular last year. Now we have entered the age of content marketing with agencies scrambling to keep up with the change of nomenclature and keyword implications.
Content marketing is essentially creating and sharing relevant information to engage consumers. The truth is, content marketing has been around for a long time, and it is just currently enjoying a resurgence of interest.
Brands have been using content marketing in print for years: Nestlé and Kraft began producing recipe books as free gifts for housewives in the 1950s and think about all those free magazines you get from supermarkets with helpful tips on how to use their products. Soap Operas were invented in the 1930s by Proctor and Gamble as a form of content marketing that has evolved into its own entity.
Content marketing delivers unique value to the consumer. We can already see the good things that is being done by infographics, which historically have been a stunning art form of data visualisation. On the other side, social media is also an essential component of content marketing. Social media contents are created to be shared. They should be included in the strategy at planning stage, otherwise you should not creating them at all. Social media is a powerful tool of getting a brand message out and raising a brand profile online is now the essential focus for online marketing.
The Importance of Design in Content Marketing
This is where design comes into the equation. Design is fundamentally about the visual communication of information. Without any design, we couldn’t have books, magazines, road signs, computer interfaces or even packaged food.
Design is essential to content marketing in the same way that code is essential to technical SEO. It arranges information to make it visually accessible to the reader as clearly and quickly as possible. Good design creates a visual hierarchy and order on the page. Highlighting key information and keeping the clutter and noise to a minimum. Content must rise above the noise to initially be seen and then to engage as quickly as possible, before the user skips to the next info-bite. Good layout and design are going to ensure that your content is read.
You might spend hours crafting the most ground breaking collection of information in your niche but if it isn’t visually appealing enough to invite the reader in, then its chances of being read are diminished. Investing in the quality of the design to ensure your content is engaged with and ultimately shared, is just as essential as the information it contains.
SEO, design and marketing collaboration
The core elements that every marketing agency should owns are:
- Technical SEO.
- Creative thinking and design.
- PR and outreach.
- Content marketing and social media combined.
- Classic marketing and branding .
Meeting these requirements is going to be a major challenge for small and one-person operations that don’t have the resources or experience to embrace so many disciplines. We will see a lot of small SEO agencies fall by the way side the net years as they struggle to adjust. Collaboration is going to be the best option for smaller agencies to evolve and survive, and the quickest way to achieve this is by teaming up an SEO agency with a marketing/design agency who understands the online space.
Anyone who can combine SEO, design and marketing is a valuable asset right now and in short supply.