Above image: My capture of The Feenie Burger, Cactus Club, West Edmonton Mall.

Unlike what marketing industry professionals thought in the past, today, content goes hand in hand with SEO (Search Engine Optimization)—where both are inseparable, like burger and bun.

First, the idea is to arrive at keywords that the organization’s potential clients will be utilizing for their search. Simultaneously, those keywords should be reflective of what the organization will be using to market its products, or services. Then those words, as part of the content, are sprinkled throughout various web pages on headlines, first paragraph in the body copy, image alt text, and even the pages’ URL.

Another point to consider is to use keyword synonyms throughout your content in the form of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords. This illustrates to Google that an organization knows the topic that they are writing about, and that outfit knows their content well. One way to arrive at LSI keywords is through a generator.

Also, social media content should use those same SEO keywords, which can be added in the form of hashtags (#). This goes back to the premise of searchable keywords that potential clients could be utilizing. People who abuse #s are known as a ‘#hole’. So, use #s sparingly and wisely, and ensure the #s are integrated into the sentences and not simply added in the end of the post ad nauseam.

Consistency in content utilizing keywords yields synergy—as the reader reads the organization’s content from its web page to its social media postings to its email campaign, harmonious messaging about the organization is conveyed as to paint a clear, understandable picture of its essence.

In fact, other media—email newsletters, email campaigns, brochures, etc.—should render all SEO content consistent. Again, the synergy factor that yields the organization consistency from platform to platform is vital: the organization should deliver one voice, one face to all its audience. And it goes without saying, that the synergy factor includes consistency in colour, images, etc.—all those key aspects of branding.

Further, part of Google’s complex algorithm is to reward a website that produces fresh content with a higher page ranking versus those sites that rarely update its content. For example, New York Times’ website will rank higher than a site that changes its content once per couple of years.

So, as all this content drives potential clients to the organization’s web site, for example, there should be a conversion strategy in place. Will the website visitor, who could well be a potential client, sign up for a newsletter and leave their contact information? Purchase a product online? Download a white paper? This is the objective of great content—to be able to drive action that sells.

Hence, it’s imperative to think strategically when working with content and SEO keywords. Definitely some information there to chew on : )