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For content marketers, SEO can be a hassle. Are they the same Is SEO Odd with Content Marketing? Can you force them to work together?

It’s easy to get lost in how they work together. In certain blog posts, they even seem to contradict each other at times, and no one has ever really drawn the line between the two.

The simple answer is that SEO and content marketing go hand in hand. They force each other in the sense that SEO is all about content marketing and vice versa.

In reality, however, the answer is much more complex. Although they overlap, the main problem between SEO and content marketing is that they are not integrated.

To understand the problem, let’s break them down separately.

How does search engine optimization work?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a collection of techniques that ensure that all web content is visible to a specific audience that a marketer is trying to target.

Simply put, SEO aims to have the right eyes on the right content. This is done through regular adjustments to targeted optimization and technical improvements.

An SEO professional would then use these techniques to drive traffic through organic sources such as search engines.

Hence search engine optimization.

SEO would not work without content such as websites, blogs, product descriptions, images or videos.

Why?

Because it needs content to match search engine research with certain keywords.

Then what is content marketing?

Well, the name is self-explanatory: marketing with content. What you are reading right now is content marketing.

It is the basis of every digital marketing campaign. For example, let’s say I’m writing this particular blog post about intermittent fasting for Business A.

Company A is a company that specializes in intermittent fasting programs. It shares it on its social media platforms, gains traction, generates traffic, leads, and maybe even sales.

However, the real magic of content marketing happens behind the scenes. SEO gives content marketing the potential to generate traffic from organic sources. In a way, content with good SEO can generate traffic without paying for ads.

But do not be mistaken. Good search engine optimization doesn’t make up for bad content, I thought. It’s not a magic potion that can turn trash into gold. As a content marketer, you remain responsible for creating good content.

How do you work together?

First, it’s important to understand that SEO and content marketing are not at odds. The main problem between the two is that they are not integrated.

That means you have to pay attention to how a search engine works. It finds out what your content is about and then catalogs it accordingly.

How do you do it then

You divide your content into individual topics. The narrower your content is limited to certain areas, the better.

Why?

Because they overlap.

While there are some differences between the two, the most important one is.

SEO is tighter and focuses on the technical aspect of the content.

The content is broader and focuses on a holistic approach.

They overlap each other this way.

SEO is integrated by applying its technical functions to channel it more broadly.

The only way to ensure the success of an organic content marketing campaign is to use SEO techniques in its implementation.

How can you bring them together?

A good way to look at the problem is as follows: SEO has a specific requirement. Content marketing fulfills this specific requirement.

Think of it as a conversation between two people.

Search engine optimization defines the requirements that content marketing meets.

Let’s look specifically at how SEO and content marketing complement each other.

SEO calls for content.

It would be quite difficult to get SEO working without written content. You need words, articles, blogs, landing pages, keywords, and idioms.

And as clichéd as it sounds, the basic truth is: content is everything.

It’s undeniable and a truism in the SEO industry. Then what is content marketing about? Well satisfied. It is paradoxically the practical application of SEO.

And it’s up to keywords.

SEO calls for keywords. Content marketing means using keywords.

This is the most basic aspect of SEO – finding it, using it, and tracking its ranking in the SERP.

So how can you stuff keywords? How can you put all your research into practice?

It’s content marketing. The only way to use keywords properly is to use them strategically in your content. After all, content marketing is first class content designed and created by and for people.

SEO calls for linkbacks and content marketing offers linkbacks.

If SEOs could dream, they would dream of linkbacks – a fat, juicy DA 98 linking to your website. Or an influential .edu that throws a link on your blog article.

However, this dream can only come true if you publish phenomenal content through content marketing.

You can also create links in a link building agency. Some are great, some are not that great.

Even then, the best way to create links is by posting content – good content that people can link back to. This is the real key to continued SEO success.

If you want to take advantage of this crucial component of search engine optimization, you need this indispensable element of content marketing. The dangling SEO carrot should have content that is worth linking to.

How do you reconcile the technical optimization of SEO with content marketing UX?

Designing your content with a search engine in mind can be tricky. However, this does not mean that you should fill your content to the brim with keywords.

Nobody wants to read the same word in every sentence. Their content looks more like a bloated mess of keywords than a logical continuity.

Instead, you need to pay attention to how a search engine works. From a content marketing point of view, this means breaking your content down into a single topic that is narrowed down to a specific point.

Why? Because SEO is more than just linkbacks, blogs or keywords. It’s about tweaking robots.txt, improving metadata, using the right tags, and creating the right sitemap. Technical stuff like this.

Regardless of whether this sounds far-fetched or not, this is tangentially related to content marketing.

The technical optimization of SEO is specially tailored to the user – be it when the user searches, selects or reads your content.

It is correct to think of these technical tweaks as improvements from a user experience (UX) perspective. They are in place to serve the user and to promote your content.

The link between SEO and content is inextricably linked. For example.

• Why do you want a good sitemap? So that users can find and access your content more easily.
• How can you benefit from optimized robots.txt? So that search engines can better edit your website and readers can access your content.
• Why would you want the right tags in the right place? So that your content is cataloged and indexed accordingly, more accurate search results and ultimately more readers.

Consistent and continuous output.

Even if this is partly a content marketing strategy, SEO is nonetheless included in it. Why? Because Google likes fresh content and has been for a long time.

If you are familiar with SEO, you will find that fresh content is indexed quickly and catalogs are higher in the SERPs than older and less valuable content. When new content comes up on a topic on a website with high historical authority, you can bet that it will generate a SERP boost.

Then SEO means consistently delivering high quality content. Consistent output means you need to be content marketing and get it right. There are no two ways around this.

Conclusion

I could dig deeper into the uses of SEO and content marketing, but I hope the point is clear: SEO is all about content marketing and content marketing is all about SEO.

To finish in style, I want to address two important takeaway points.

• You are not an SEO without being a content marketer, and you are not a content marketer without being an SEO.

This is not a moral or prescriptive judgment of any kind. If you refer to yourself solely as “SEO” or “Content Marketer”, that’s perfectly fine.

The point is that content marketing needs SEO, and SEO needs content marketing. These are no longer separate departments with separate efforts. An SEO must be aware of content marketing and vice versa.

• An SEO campaign will fail if it does not integrate content marketing and a content marketing campaign will fail if it does not integrate SEO.

Logically, content marketing can only be successful if SEO components are integrated. If not, how can readers reach your content if it’s not properly integrated?

They will fail alone. Together they will stand.

Author: Keenan Guiet

Keenan is a marketing student who enjoys writing about his hobbies, including health, lifestyle, fitness, but most of all marketing and business.

His experience in the latter two can be traced back to his freelance work, from creating successful email marketing campaigns to effective SEO blogs, mostly on B2B content… View full profile ›