Recently, content marketing has really taken off. It has successfully attracted customers, produced leads, and increased conversions for businesses of all sizes.
The versatility of content marketing is one of its best features. Your content may be diverse and dynamic when in the hands of the proper people, whether it be website copy, social media postings, blogs, or videos.
Search engine optimization, sometimes known as SEO, is a crucial component of content marketing. If you want your material to be seen on search engines, SEO is an essential component of any content strategy. Your material is more likely to be viewed by the appropriate audience at the appropriate time and location if it is more SEO-optimized.
According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report 2021, 60% of marketers who spend in content marketing gauge their effectiveness through sales. Given the success of this area of digital marketing, it’s crucial to comprehend the major content marketing and SEO developments that will emerge in 2022.
1. Ranking Content on Google is Becoming A Challenge
Every content marketer is aware of the significance of being on Google’s first SERP. According to Sistrix research, the click-through rate for information in the top spot on Google is 25%, but it drops rapidly to just 2.5% for content in the bottom 10 spots.
This only demonstrates the strength of your ranking in Google search. However, as the search engine increasingly displays more of the results of its goods, it is becoming more difficult to rank organic material.
“Google’s accommodation engine is now displayed when you search for a hotel,” explains Kate Toon, an SEO and content expert. So, branded search is becoming increasingly prevalent. The Core Web Vitals change (in 2021) was significant from a technological standpoint, and Google is pushing for usability, not just in terms of speed but also in terms of how your website loads.
Google is also creating a stir over accessibility, which will be taken into account when determining rankings. This includes making your page screen-reader-friendly and include enough contrast, font adjustability, and picture captions. As a result, pages that are accessible will receive rewards and move up the ranks more quickly than ones that are not.
This requires content marketers to change their strategy to incorporate four crucial components:
> Create a strategy for branded search – seek for keywords and use them in your content as needed.
> Know your People. Additionally, inquire about brand outcomes to assist you maximize your copy.
> Set up tracking for searches and keywords to keep track of their effectiveness and add new ones as they appear.
> Based on questions Include questions in your short- and long-form content since Google searches are increasing (more on this below).
2. Google Discover is Focused on Great Imagery
On your phone, Google Discover is a bank of swipeable material. It is personalized information that is listed according to your preferences and interests depending on what you read and search for by tracking your location and online and app activity.
Of course, this is a goldmine for content marketers since it enables your material to appear in users’ mobile feeds without them having to do any searches. What is the process for adding material to Google Discover?
1. Produce excellent content. This may seem simple, but Google only wants to present its readers with the most pertinent and high-quality information, so make yours stand out.
2. Focus on credibility and authority – Google values knowledge and will give authoritative material high rankings, so include quotes from professionals or provide evidence of your dominance in the field.
3. Optimize your website since having excellent information on a sluggish or unavailable website is useless.
4. Consider your titles. Avoid headlines that are highly promotional or clickbait since they will alienate your readers.
5. Make material current – Users need timely and relevant content, so take advantage of trends or important events.
6. Include compelling graphics in your material. Google Discover is all on visuals, so be sure to include compelling and pertinent photographs.
Toon thinks Google is giving more and more weight to aesthetics. “Google is making increasing use of image search. The way we use Google is changing thanks to Google Discover, and websites with excellent pictures are starting to rank higher.
3. The Use of Interactive Content Is Growing
Interactive content has grown in popularity among companies over the last several years since it encourages prospects and consumers to participate. Calculators, tests, surveys, maps, infographics, games, and TV series like Bandersnatch from Black Mirror are examples of interactive material.
Interactive content receives twice as much interaction as static material, according to Demand Gen’s State of Interactive Content research, and it may be especially helpful for B2B marketing initiatives like live webinars or virtual events.
Utilizing interactive content may be done in a variety of ways and for a variety of objectives, including lead generation or brand exposure. In order to pick activities in Scottsdale, Arizona, for instance, a user is led on a journey via this interactive infographic from Marriot Hotels.
DMI’s Digital Skills Test is an interactive piece of content that we’ve discovered to be effective in generating traffic and leads. It gives those who are curious about how well-versed they are in digital marketing a means to assess their degree of expertise and identify the areas where they are strong and weak.
Future developments in the metaverse and other new worlds may increase the role of interactivity in content marketing. “Facebook or Meta’s big future wager is the metaverse.
“How does my product or brand exist in a virtual experience setting would be an analysis of the metaverse that anybody can understand. Therefore, testing it with interactive material may be quite easy, says Fitzpatrick.
4. Content Creation Will Involve Artificial Intelligence More.
When producing engaging material, the human touch is crucial. The ability to choose the perfect word or phrase or to use comedy to stand out in a sea of material is something that content marketers take great pleasure in. Good writing is an art, and finding the proper tone and message to express your personality takes practice.
But clone production using artificial intelligence (AI) is about to go to a new level. In order to increase the comprehension of search queries by its algorithms, Google has been investing in natural language processing techniques over the past few years.
According to Kate Toon, SEO and Content Expert, “We had an algorithm update about a year ago called BERT, which was about understanding how what we’ve typed into Google, not just what we’re looking for, but why we’re looking for it, so understanding the context of the words.”
Another algorithm modification since BERT is known as MUM (Multitask Unified Model). This is made to seek for patterns in language so that you can comprehend it structurally.
Toon predicts that this will significantly affect how content marketers approach copywriting, keyword research, and copy automation. “Automation is a more inexpensive choice for many firms. However, the tone, sequence, and messaging are frequently off. Because I don’t believe AI is yet capable of understanding wit, slang, rhythm, and tone, I don’t believe copywriters have anything to be concerned about. But in order to save time and money, I believe we will gravitate toward more automation.
SEO specialists will find this kind of AI technology beneficial since it allows them to automate the creation of copy components like title tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags.
5. Marketers of Content Should Include Answer-Based Content
When they search for material online, today’s customers are mostly interested in finding answers. ‘How’ is the most popular keyword type, accounting for 14% of all Google searches today.
Customers are now more inclined to resort to gadgets and ask queries, whether it be by typing into a search engine on a laptop or mobile device or by utilizing voice search. Regarding the craft of writing copy, this is an intriguing development for content marketers.
“It’s harder to rank in the organic space for just blank keywords, but it’s still relatively easy to get real estate for question-and-answer based content,” claims Toon.
Implementing FAQ schema is another action you can do to enhance content SEO. This might be a FAQ page schema or QA (people submitting various responses and voting on them). This is “really simple to do,” in Toon’s opinion, and it also provides you a chance to appear in the People Also Ask section of search engine results pages.
The Future of SEO and Content Marketing
As you can see, content marketing and SEO have undergone a lot of recent improvements that provide you chances to increase engagement and conversions. The secret is to understand your audience and their problems so you can provide content that is genuine and gives solutions.
Customers today want to believe that businesses are speaking to them personally. It is clear that people are using question-based searches to hunt for answers and that they want interactive information to immerse them in the experience.
It involves producing SEO-friendly content that promotes your business on search engines and other important channels, including social media. You might not need to start from scratch either; perform a content assessment to identify any existing materials that were successful and see whether they can be updated or repurposed.
Get writing, planning, and studying to see what you can come up with. It’s an amazing moment for material.
