COMMENTS
Remarkable content should include the following:
1. focused on your prospects needs
2. delivered in a concise fashion
3. good links for more support
4. good pictures
5. video if possible (check out the new HubSpot ebook on video)
Great article. Do you think that as the search engines get more and more sophisticated that SEO will become almost redundant? i.e. if it is all about quality, relevant content then (so long as that is served up in an accessible fashion) then the rest will take care of itself - no need for SEO. Interested in your thoughts?
"If you build a reputation for quality and relevant content you will get the traffic and conversions you are after." I think this so true!
At the end of the day, you can have all the traffic in the world due to great SEO but if you can't keep your visitors there and convert them to customers, then all you SEO efforts will be for nothing.
Finding a way to engage your readers and creating great value I believe will be the key to a successful site.
Thanks for sharing Dan!
SEO today is definitely a teaser, it gets the visitor in the door, but if the product (and content) is crap, they will turn around and walk out. Great content marketing is what converts visitors. Unfortunately, some companies take the approach of paying for more visitors (PPC) rather than improving the brand message on site to convert more of their current visitors.
Oooooh so true! Unfortunately there are still so many businesses that aren't getting this message and are finding themselves... nowhere. Keep on delivering great content, it will pay off.
Kirsten, How do you tell your clients that 1st page ranking is not as important when they can't find themselves in google.. I think the content in King, because when you write you get found, when you comment, you get found... So how do you have the harsh conversation with your client to say "Look Dude, it doesn't matter how much tweaking of you keywords I can do, you need to BLOG!!!" I feel like a freakin broken record.. I guess as with kids...one day they will listen :) Thanks for the post it was great!
Amen! For 21 years I've told B2B companies that if their marketing message is correct and relevant, it will work written on napkins.
Most marketers get lost in tactics (direct mail, SEO, email marketing, blogging) and completely forget the messaging.
That all leads back to Bryan's point: conversion is king. And conversion starts with proper messaging.
While I have long agreed with the guts of this article, I do find it interesting that multiple hubspot article conflict. One webinar says working toward rankings is dead. This article seems to see "oops, we should not have said that since our revenue is tied to, and search is still king". Just sorta ironic since the point of this article is to get rankings.
Great comments - thank you for the overall interaction!
@Ryan Malone - I think the conflict that you point out is really a natural 'tension' --> ultimately, your 'page rank' or SERP is NOT what you care about right - you care about the leads/sales you can generate from them. The way to get that traffic is to show up for a given searcher on a given topic ... which might mean that you aren't at the top of generic search listings, but the social search or video listings that get you found. We don't think folks should focus myopically on a number that fluctuates - rather on the traffic & leads they generate as the metric that matters.
@Aidan - your question has been on my mind for sure - as Search Engines take more and more factors into account and search becomes 'mass personalized', it will be harder to use blanket tactics to get found. It is the long-tail in practice. So, SEO practices won't go away ... I think that users will just get better results - so you should use keywords that are in fact relevant to your audience and create great content:)
As the Search Engine Results Page changes we believe the new frontier for search is video. Great content is all well and good but as more "great content" starts to crowd the web it will be increasingly difficult to get found even if you have great written content. However, there is so much less great content when it comes to video. Business video is about 10 years behind written business content. The good news is there's a need for better content and there's still plenty of opportunity for optimizing.
The importance of compelling content is really catching on in the marketing world, but relaying that importance to the executive suite, and even some marketing executives, continues to be a challenge. Particularly difficult is the notion of "educational" content. I find executives understand this need quickly, but can often misinterpret it as "educational about THEIR products". Moving them away from talking largely about themselves is I think the heavy lifting for an inbound marketer.
So is SEO still relevant or not?
@Aiden, I've always thought of SEO as the glue that holds things together, but content is the backbone that supports everything. I'm bad at analogies, but the point is that SEO is important, it just needs to be supported by fresh and relevant content to help it grow.
You make an excellent point. At a previous job, I heard clients pour over how they wanted to be on the first page of Google for some keyword phrases that wouldn't likely convert anything for them. SEO must be used in conjunction with compelling content. Great content and SEO should be partners in your overall strategy.
Great article, totally agree. Interestingly enough, I just gave a presentation at the Online Marketing Summit regarding how to mine search and social data to improve content relevance. Here's a link to the slides with examples and instruction :http://budurl.com/bpdm