There are so many articles out there emphasizing the need for SEO and SERP (if you’re reading my blog I’m assuming you know what these terms mean) and how tweaking them correctly in and of itself is the route to success! I’m here to tell you that while SEO/SERP are indeed very important, they are not as effective in isolation, and the combination of quality, targeted content with SEO is the way to go.

Over the last few years, Google has made updates to their algorithms (you may see this referred to as the Panda update) that had an “over-optimization penalty” which included tricks such as excessive backlinks and keyword stuffing.

SEO today prioritizes quality over quantity, which is why knowing your audience is so important. Just like creating a new physical product or service, an intimate knowledge of your target market’s habits surrounding the media they consume your content on is paramount to success. As Kathryn Hawkins of Eucalypt Media points out, “Including relevant keywords in your articles is important, but if those keywords aren’t placed organically in high-quality articles, they won’t do you much good.” 

In her article on Live Help Now, Kylie Gray takes this to the next step and provides some solutions to this problem, namely niche marketing, which she describes as “In an age of targeted advertising and increasing web personalization, consumers are accustomed to a more direct line from a company. Niche content marketing targets a specific subset of a consumer base with engaging articles and blog posts.”

Niche marketing, essentially, is creating content tailored to a target audience’s needs and wants, and provides some insight. The content should be specific to the keywords and demographics in your target audience. And here is where SEO is a factor, using the targeted keywords, share the content in the media (such as forums) where your target audience is likely to obtain the content from, and over time, this high-quality, consistency approach is what will drive up SEO!

A last thought from Kylie: “Think of SEO as setting the stage for success, while content marketing is the main act that get takes you there. By following common sense SEO guidelines, quality content builds true organic search growth.”

And there you have it, folks. I hope this shed some light on the nuances and intricacies in SEO and content marketing. As always, if you have any thoughts, please comment below.

Signing off,
Navin

Article: http://blog.livehelpnow.net/niche-content-marketing-trumps-seo-every-time/