Top Content Marketing and SEO Trends You Need to Know
In recent years, content marketing has emerged as a powerful strategy for businesses to attract potential customers, generate leads, and ultimately drive conversions. What makes content marketing so effective is its versatility - it can take on many forms, from website copy to social media posts, blogs, and videos, allowing businesses to engage with their audience in a dynamic and engaging way.
One crucial aspect of content marketing is SEO or Search Engine Optimization, which is essential if you want your content to be easily discoverable on search engines. By optimizing your content for SEO, you increase the chances of it being seen by the right people, at the right time, and in the right place.
According to HubSpot's State of Marketing Report, 82% of marketers invest in content marketing, with 60% measuring its success through sales. As content marketing continues to be a successful digital marketing strategy, it's important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in SEO and content marketing to ensure your business stays ahead of the competition in 2023.
1. The Challenge of Ranking Content on Google
In today's digital age, ranking high on Google's search engine results page (SERP) is crucial for any content marketer. According to a study by Sistrix, the click-through rate for content in the first position on Google is 25 percent, whereas the tenth position has a mere 2.5 percent click-through rate.
However, ranking on the first page of Google is becoming increasingly challenging, as Google now prioritizes its own products and services in the search results. This shift towards branded search makes it more important than ever for content marketers to focus on optimizing their content for search engines.
Kate Toon, an SEO and content expert, notes that Google's Core Web Vitals update last year prioritizes website usability, not just speed. This means that websites that load quickly and are easy to navigate will have a higher chance of ranking on the first page.
Another trend in content marketing and SEO is the growing importance of website accessibility. Google is now factoring in accessibility when ranking websites, rewarding those that are screen-reader friendly with good contrast, font adjustability, and image descriptions. This means that accessible websites will rank higher than those that are not, providing a new opportunity for content marketers to improve their SEO strategy.
For content marketers, this means adjusting your strategy to include four key elements:
Plan for branded search - look for keywords and integrate them into your content when appropriate
Research your People Also Ask brand results - this will help you make the most of your copy
Set up tracking for keywords and searches - this will help you monitor keyword performance and include new ones as they arise
Question-based Google searches are on the rise - include questions in your short and long-form content (more on this below)
2. Visual Content Dominates Google Discover
Google Discover is a mobile content bank that uses a personalized algorithm to show users content related to their interests and searches. The algorithm analyzes the user’s web and application activity, as well as their location, to determine what content they might find interesting. This creates a unique opportunity for content marketers to get their content in front of a wider audience without users having to actively search for it.
To optimize your chances of getting your content onto Google Discover, it’s important to focus on producing high-quality content that aligns with your target audience’s interests. This includes using targeted keywords, creating engaging headlines and descriptions, and using high-quality images or videos. It’s also important to ensure that your content is mobile-friendly and optimized for speed, as these are important factors that can affect how likely it is to be featured on Google Discover. By following these best practices, content marketers can take advantage of the powerful algorithm of Google Discover to reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to their website.
Create great content - this may seem obvious but Google only wants to put the most relevant and high-quality content in front of its users, so make yours stand out
Focus on authority and trustworthiness - Google loves expertise and will rank authoritative content highly, so include quotes from experts or demonstrate why you’re the leader on the topic
Optimize your website - it’s no good having great content if you bring them to a website that’s slow or inaccessible
Think about your titles - Avoid overly promotional or clickbait titles as they will turn off your audience
Make content timely - Users want relevant and timely content so look to tap into trends or newsworthy activities
Include great visuals - Google Discover is all about visuals, so make sure you’re including eye-catching and relevant images in your content
According to Toon, Google is placing greater emphasis on visuals. “Image search is becoming more of a thing for Google. Google Discover is changing the way that we use Google, and sites that have really good imagery are starting to rank better.”
3. Interactive Content is Growing
Interactive content has gained appeal among brands in recent years as it encourages prospects and customers to participate. Calculators, quizzes, polls, maps, infographics, games, and television programs are examples of interactive material.
According to the State of Interactive Content research by Demand Gen, interactive material receives twice as many interactions as static content and can be especially beneficial for B2B marketing initiatives such as live webinars and virtual events.
There are numerous methods to use interactive content along the marketing funnel, and different types serve a variety of purposes, such as brand exposure or lead creation. This interactive infographic by Marriott Hotels, for instance, helps the user through the process of selecting activities in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In the future, new worlds such as the metaverse may result in a larger role for interactivity in content marketing. "The metaverse...is Facebook or Meta's largest future wager. According to Ken Fitzpatrick, CEO of DMI, people should be interested in what happens there.
"If you were to evaluate a portion of the metaverse that you could conceptualize, it would be how my product or brand exists in a virtual experience setting. Hence, interactive content could be an easy approach to test it," says Fitzpatrick.
4. More Content Production Will Include Artificial Intelligence
While attempting to develop engaging material, the human touch is crucial. In a content-saturated environment, content marketers take satisfaction in finding the correct word or phrase or employing comedy to draw attention. Copywriting is an art, and it requires effort to get the proper tone and message to express your personality.
Yet, Artificial Intelligence (AI) copy generation is expected to grow more complex than ever before. Google has invested in natural language processing techniques over the past few years to increase its search algorithms' comprehension of search requests.
Kate Toon, SEO and Content Expert, explains, "We had an algorithm change about a year ago called BERT, which was about understanding the context of the words typed into Google, not just what we're looking for, but why we're looking for it."
Since BERT, another algorithm upgrade known as MUM has been released (Multitask Unified Model). This is aimed to identify patterns in language in order to comprehend it structurally. This helps Google gain a better understanding of why individuals search for the terms they do in order to provide better results and provide more advertisements.
This, according to Toon, will have a significant impact on how content marketers produce copy, conduct keyword research, and utilize copy automation. "Automation is a more cost-effective choice for many firms." Yet, the message, order, and tone are frequently flawed. I do not believe copywriters have anything to fear since I do not believe AI is currently capable of recognizing wit, slang, rhythm, and tone. But, I anticipate an increase in automation to save time and money."
This type of AI technology will be valuable for SEO specialists, since they will be able to automate the generation of copy elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags.
5. Content Marketing Essentials for Answer-Based Material
When searching for content online, modern consumers are intent on obtaining answers. Nowadays, 14 percent of Google searches are questions, with 'how' being the most popular question-related term.
Customers are now more inclined to use devices to ask questions, whether they type into a search engine on a laptop or mobile device or conduct voice searches. This is an intriguing development for content marketers regarding the craft of copywriting.
"It's more difficult to rank in the organic area for keywords with no modifiers, but it's still pretty simple to acquire real estate for question-and-answer focused content," says Toon. "You must therefore grasp your audience's pain areas in order to address specific questions. And there are numerous ways to formulate a query."
Using FAQ schema is a further way to increase the SEO of your content. This may be a schema for a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. This, according to Toon, is "very simple and gives you the potential to appear in the People Also Ask section of search engine results pages as well."
The Future of Content Marketing & SEO
As you can see, there are many new advances in content marketing and SEO that provide you with the opportunity to increase engagement and conversions. The key is understanding your audience and their pain points so you can generate honest content that provides solutions.
Consumers want to feel that businesses are speaking to them on a personal level. Clearly, they seek answers through question-based searches and desire an immersive experience through interactive material.
It involves developing content optimized for search engines and other critical channels, such as social media, to be optimized for search engines and other critical channels, such as social media, in order to increase brand visibility. You may not even need to start from scratch: undertake a content audit to determine whether your existing resources resonated and your existing resources resonated and whether they can be repurposed or enhanced.
It's a great moment for content creation, so start researching, organizing, and writing to see what you can produce.
