Why SEO is finished and Search Content Marketing (SCM) is the future
Everyone knows about SEO. Everyone equates SEO to link building, lots of link building.
But what is Search Content Marketing or SCM content?
SCM is all about content. Content is a marketing tool and written for real users.
SEO has always been about rankings and content was just a means to an end.
Which is why we used terms such as “keyword density”, “LSI”, “authority links” etc. when talking about the perfect SEO’d article.
In the short run, SEO content is perfect to get you started with traffic, how ever focusing on SCM i.e., “Valuable Content” is more capable of getting you effective results over the long term.
SCM asks “Is this content useful for my reader (even if it is one person)?”
Google wants valuable content that it can deliver to its users. Content that is worth sharing.
Is your content worth sharing?
- Is it well written? (Grammar, spelling, etc)
- Does it provide value to my reader?
As we all know, good content generates more traffic. Bad content will just get ignored, but if you are so un-lucky, it may even decrease traffic.
The worse kind of content, will get marked as spam, de-indexed or just marked as duplicate.
Content is king right?
Of course, it’s not as easy that!
In the beginning, it was enough just to have a really well SEO’d article and traffic would flow to your page. Even if the content wasn’t very good, viewers had a chance of seeing your opt-in popups, freebies, etc.
You got traffic purely because you are in the top 10 in Google.
As time went on competition got worse.
Your articles now needed backlinks, authority, etc.
Then we discovered long tail keywords.
We discovered we could rank for multiple low traffic and low competition keywords to attract traffic to our site.
Hopefully… eventually, we come back full circle and decide that writing something useful for our readers does indeed payoff, but only in the long term!
Blogging for SCM instead of SEO
Writing for rankings is an exciting game. Being on the first page for any term brings traffic.
In the beginning if you have no brand, no online presence and still trying to establish yourself. The only reliable traffic is what organic search brings you.
You start with a blog and provide details about your product, service or company. It is purely a place where people seek what they want to find out.
You then add some SEO’d articles to grow the traffic to your site
Blogs connect you and your audience
For businesses, having an official website, a blog and accounts in Instagram, Twitter or Facebook is not enough.
While businesses can directly leverage keywords and search engine optimization in order to match up what people are searching on the Internet, this route is more competitive.
With blogs, you can squeeze in some personal touches to your SCM content. It is when the audience can relate to you that you can establish a connection.
Have your business blogs consistently updated and make it a platform to build your views, authority and credibility.
That is why your blog content needs human touch so you can relate to your customers as a human, sans the “formal” corporate talks that may sound boring to the readers. People give their trust fast and easy with those with personality, which cannot be found in “business” discussions.
It is part of human nature for people to do business only with those they can trust and relate.
Since search engines love content, your website with consistent additional content will be SE-friendly. And it benefits your website. Your sites will be showing up in search engines consistently and your search rankings will be consistently high as well.
Better rankings mean more traffic. They lead to more visitors and higher conversion rates.