I’m an SEO blogger. But I’m one of thousands, probably even hundreds of thousands, that provide this service across the nation.
If I spent all my time trying to optimize my very small-scale website for the term “SEO blogger,” I wouldn’t make my mortgage payment this month.
Instead, as a small business owner in a crowded space, I focus on my content marketing distribution strategy. What does that mean? It means getting my content in front of the right people instead of assuming they’ll find me via SEO (though that’s not to say I turn a blind eye to SEO entirely).
For me, time and effort in a distribution strategy are much more valuable than SEO alone. But it doesn’t mean blogging is worthless for my business it just means I can’t put all my time into SEO and wait for the traffic to just come my way.
Reasons to Create a Content Marketing Distribution Strategy
Creating a content marketing distribution strategy is wise no matter what industry you’re in or how established your business is. That’s because it takes all the work you’ve already done and it maximizes those efforts through other publishing methods. Here are the top reasons to ensure you’re distributing your content strategically.
1. Big SEO Agencies Sometimes Overpromise
SEO isn’t just a marketing tactic anymore. It’s an entire industry. There are so many freelancers and agencies who claim to put you on the first page within six months.
If your small business gets a promise like that, you should be wary. Ask for references that the agency has worked with for at least a year. Then, ask those businesses the results they’ve seen from the SEO work.
I never lie to my clients. SEO is a long game and even then, for some dime-a-dozen service businesses like mine, it’s extremely difficult to win.
My site will never have the kind of traffic that HubSpot or Neil Patel have. I can’t compete for keywords like they can. I don’t have the kind of marketing budget they do to get the enormous traffic and time on page that tell Google that the content is valuable.
But wait, what’s this about traffic and time on page? Isn’t SEO about keywords?
It is, but there is so much more to SEO than that. Search engines strive to answer your questions right the first time so that you keep coming back. And to do that, they pull in additional data like total visits and time on site.
Search engines know when content delivers and when it doesn’t. So your keyword placement can be perfect but you stay on page four or five of results because overall your site equity is just too small compared to these giants.
2. There’s More to Content Marketing than SEO
I’m not always the most popular marketer in the room when I talk about SEO. That’s because I will never make promises to clients that I can’t keep.
Yes, I’ll gladly draft SEO-focused content for you and your business. But I’ll also dig into your distribution strategy to ensure you’re not just using that blog for SEO and no other marketing attraction efforts. And first and foremost, I’ll recommend ensuring you have customer-centric website copy.
As you think about your content marketing strategy, here are other ways you should be viewing your SEO blogs:
- Quality, unique content for your social media profiles
- Conversation starters on sites like Reddit and Quora (this works better in some industries than it does in others)
- An opportunity to share content within comments related to the topic on social media
- Offering thought-provoking content in Facebook and LinkedIn Groups
- As part of your email marketing strategy as a touchpoint with your contact list
- To build your email marketing list by attracting new website visitors and retaining them via sign-up forms
That’s not to say you shouldn’t do keyword research before writing a blog. You certainly should. Ignoring SEO means not maximizing your opportunities. So I want to be clear that is not what I’m suggesting. I’m suggesting that you consider other ways you could be using your content to attract your target audience in addition to SEO efforts.
But what I see too often is that companies put all their efforts into SEO. And then they wonder why their business isn’t growing.
SEO can’t be your only tactic in your content marketing strategy.
In marketing, everything works together to build your entire online presence and part of your lead generation strategy.
If you’re tired of overpromises and lackluster results in SEO and want a true content marketing distribution strategy, I’d love to talk. Schedule a free consultation to discuss your goals and how a full content marketing strategy could help.