The Power of Content Marketing

The Internet revolves around content marketing. It’s essentially a big competition: Google lays down the ground rules, judges the competitors, and can disqualify those who cheat. A few years ago things were very different and almost anyone could achieve top 10 rankings with little effort. Nowadays it’s much more difficult.

Content is anything and everything that’s published online, be it articles, photos, videos or even interactive media. It has the power to rank websites, attract readers, and entice customers to buy things. But sadly, the entire landscape has been ruined by spammers – perhaps it’s Google’s fault for making it too easy in the first place? Either way, in today’s day and age it can be pretty damn hard to make it work, and it’s only getting tougher. That said, if you manage to succeed you can achieve phenomenal results.

This guide – created with the help of Internet marketing guru Matthew Woodward – will explain just how powerful content marketing can be if you follow the rules.

How Things Have Changed

Google has one priority: to rank websites based on their relevancy and quality. Even today you can take unethical shortcuts and probably outrank other, higher quality websites; however, if you want long-term sustainable results, this is certainly not advisable. Take this approach and one day, out of nowhere, you will be penalised. Basically… it’s just not worth the risk.

The search engine optimisation industry has always been about backlinks. In that sense nothing has changed; however, years ago quantity held just as much precedence as quality. This was a flawed system that Google stopped as soon as affiliate marketers and spammers began using content mills and blog rolls to acquire hundreds of links automatically. Now a quality backlink can literally be worth hundreds of smaller backlinks.

Guest posting is a huge part of content marketing and one which has also been abused. When bloggers started to realise that they could charge companies cash to provide a good quality backlink, sponsored listings became a prime money maker. This served as a catalyst for PBNs (Private Blog Networks) which were also penalised.

How Content Marketing Works

There is no magic formula. If you create good quality content, publish it on legitimate websites, and repeat the process over and over, then you’re doing it right. It takes time, and when you try to streamline the process by using PBNs or content farms, it becomes a problem.

Fundamentally, you need to earn your place in the market, and taking shortcuts won’t quite cut the mustard. If, however, you manage to succeed with content marketing in an ethical manner, you can be damn sure that you’ll have an edge over 90% of your competition. Many businesses and SEO companies are still using old content marketing techniques and holding out hope that they won’t be penalised in the future. But that’s good news for you, because it’s not a case of “if” it happens, but a case of “when”.

Remember, everything that gets published online comes under the content moniker, so don’t neglect the social aspect. In fact, it’s the social element that creates successful marketing campaigns and builds trust in your brand. It’s estimated that businesses with social content receive up to two thirds more website views, which could equate to a phenomenal amount of online traffic and sales.

So the next time you consider taking shortcuts, think again. Content is a powerful digital force and will fight back if it’s abused. Keep things ethical and of a high calibre and you’ll have absolutely no reason to worry.

We hope you enjoyed the above promoted content as much as we did!