Unlike back in the early 2000s, ranking number one on Google has almost reached a point where it could be deemed impossible to achieve. Well, technically it isn’t impossible, but a couple of factors make it difficult to get ahead in today’s highly competitive digital marketing landscape. 

Reason one, every expert digital marketer in the world strives to reach first. Two, perseverant early birds still get to enjoy their first comer advantage. Add the ever-growing competition to these factors, and generating returns through digital marketing becomes super hard to achieve.

However, digital marketing continues to be one of the greatest and most effective means to market products and services to your target audience. To perform, you must have a fluid digital marketing strategy that caters to both organic and paid traffic.

In this post, we will focus on the main steps that expert digital marketers perform to help you prop up your business via content marketing.

Nail Your Basic SEO 

The most important part of SEO is finding the right keywords for your website or content. Ensure you cover basic SEO requisites such as metadata, image alt texts, the first few paragraphs, your H2 tags, and your URL structures with correct keyword placements. 

Also, don’t forget to build your local SEO. People generally search for what they want by typing in keywords along with the location’s name where they want to avail the service. For instance, if you have a Melbourne-based business looking for SEO services, you will likely type in the keywords – SEO Agency in Melbourne.

Furthermore, there are things like internal linking, backlinking, guest posting, social bookmarking etc. Those mentioned above just belong to the tip of the SEO iceberg. It is best to seek professional help from expert digital marketers or SEO agencies to achieve better ROI through digital marketing.

Competitor Based Content Outlines

To build a working content outline, find out what websites that show on the third and fourth SERPs are not doing compared to those ranking at the top. They might be missing key elements or may not be as updated. You must dissect them and find out what’s missing. It’ll give you an idea of what the top 10 people are doing and that you could emulate to find your spot on the first page. It doesn’t mean you should copy them, but improvise and create unique content that pertains to your product, cause, or service. 

Focus On Helping Your Readers 

When it comes to writing content, most people would directly jump into the pursuit of keyword research. While it’s important, your primary goal must be to find topics that can potentially solve your readers’ queries or problems. 

For example, if you have a website that sells materials for DIY furniture, you might as well post articles that can teach people how to create different types of furniture pieces. Or, you can write something like a step-by-step manual that guides them on how to use the products you sell. Also, add supportive videos or GIFs to help them better understand the content you’ve posted. 

No one wants to read something that would make them feel like it was a waste of time. So offer practical tips and advice. The articles should be short and to the point. Nothing’s better if you could inspire them to respond to a call to action. If you adhere to these simple guidelines, it will help you rank better. 

Put In Work To Write Engaging Headlines

You must spend a good amount of time preparing your content’s headline. Generally, only 20% of the readers will click through to expand and read the whole article. You can push this percentage up by preparing creative headlines. This doesn’t mean you can just write clickbait headlines. It should act as triggers that evoke curiosity for what’s actually inside those articles. 

Let’s look at an example like, “The Ten Benefits of Pushups. The Seventh One Will Shock You.” With such a title, on top of the benefits that the reader might be already interested in, they will be intrigued to find out what’s special about point number seven. 

Again, it’s not about injecting keywords and clickbaity titles but providing value. If you use these tricks prudently, you will have a better chance of getting more than 2 out of 10 people actually to click through and read the rest of your article. 

To Conclude

So that wraps up the four important content marketing aspects that can help you write content that ranks.

Back in the day, it was as simple as putting the keywords on your website, and you’d find yourself on the first page. In today’s highly competitive SEO, it’s become almost impossible to do so. Google continuously updates its algorithms to ensure that websites with redundant content don’t perform as well as websites that focus on a single niche and are super thorough. So get cracking on that stellar content strategy, and see your business flourish.