Content Marketing

Content Marketing

We use authority-based content marketing to attract inbound organic search, referral and social traffic to our websites. Our approach to content marketing is to design and build highly effective content funnels (aka pillars, clusters or silos) to dominate the search topic and ensure that as many of the articles are at the top of page 1 as possible.

From this content funnel, we channel the traffic into a digital product (landing page), e-commerce store, affiliate product, newsletter signup, service offer, video sales page, webinar, viral sharing offer, etc.

Our Content Marketing Approach

We follow a structured content marketing plan that includes:

  • Identifying the unique buyer (aka avatar) that we wish to target
  • Doing extensive keyword research and competition analysis to identify “low hanging fruit”
  • Building a content plan focused on the topics with the highest chance of success (i.e. we can rank on page 1 with reasonable effort)
  • Creating an outline for each piece of content in the plan, including article type, title, sub-headings, tables, images, etc.
  • Writing and editing (this is typically outsourced, but we maintain strict quality control)
  • Publishing and linking the content into silos to establish topical authority — aka EAT (Google’s expertise, authority and trust)
  • Investing in high-quality external backlinks, as needed

2 Keys to Content Marketing Success

The 2 key to generating substantial traffic growth through inbound content marketing are: 1) matching search intent and 2) content quality and uniqueness.

Search Intent

Matching the type and format of an article to the searcher’s intent is critical. Google’s natural language processing engine is designed to serve search results that match the searcher’s intent, whether that is to buy a product, learn how to do something, or simply get a quick factual answer. We use 11 different article templates to ensure we match the search intent with the right content.

Content Quality

High content quality — including adding unique value that other websites don’t have — is essential. The web has matured significantly and content production has increased quickly with agencies and AI writers publishing at a rapid pace. Google and other search engines are not looking for copycat content. They are looking for unique value-added content that enhances the searcher’s knowledge, or gets them to the right answer, product or service quickly. Factors such as author reputation, depth of coverage, unique data or surveys, tables, custom images and infographics, etc. are important to rank on page 1 of the search results. They also increase your site’s EAT (expertise, authority and trust) which contributes to your site’s overall ranking.

On-Page and Off-Page Content Marketing

One of the ways to drive higher traffic growth from inbound content marketing is to expand the content footprint outside of the website. The idea is to expand your content funnel beyond your website in various ways that attract additional traffic from different platforms.

We do this in various ways, for example:

  • Guest posting on relevant niche sites related to the niche
  • Adding supporting “sticky” content on social media accounts like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
  • Syndicating high-quality “pillar” articles on major content platforms like Medium, LinkedIn, industry sites, etc.
  • Creating free files, infographics, calculators, images and other resources that other websites can use in exchange for a backlink
  • Using PR techniques to get a website or resource mentioned by journalists

A Long-Term View Is Essential for Success

It can take major search engines anywhere from 3 days to 6 months to index, test and rank a piece of content. This means you MUST have a long term view when embarking on an inbound content marketing campaign. You should not expect to see substantial results in terms of inbound organic search traffic for at least 3-6 months.

There are ways to accelerate the process, such as expanding your content distribution and link-building outreach. But long gone are the days of publishing a new article, throwing 50 cheap paid links at it and ranking it fast on page 1. Modern SEO goes way beyond these outdated (and dangerous!) methods. Google will simply punish you for link spam now if you do this.

Content Marketing Articles