How to Combine SEO and Content Marketing (The Ahrefs’ Way)

SEO and contented selling are antithetic selling channels. But you don’t person to take betwixt them. They’re complementary.

In fact, you should harvester them for greater effectiveness successful your marketing.

Two main reasons:

1. Content selling and SEO are similar peanut food and jelly—they enactment good together

Content selling is the process of creating and distributing contented to pull and clasp customers.

Here’s however SEO helps contented marketing:

• It tells you what your assemblage cares about — If you cognize what they’re searching connected Google, you tin make the benignant of contented they privation to see. This is known arsenic keyword research, a cardinal facet of SEO.
• It creates predictable distribution — Sparktoro’s study showed that 63.41% of each US web postulation referrals travel from Google. Most of our blog postulation comes from hunt engines too.

SEO is the process of improving a website’s visibility successful hunt engines to get much traffic.

Here’s however contented selling helps SEO:

• It helps you get much hunt postulation — If you privation much hunt traffic, you request to fertile for much keywords, which requires you to marque much content.
• It makes SEO much effective — Thought enactment contented acquires backlinks, gated contented generates leads, and income enablement converts postulation into sales.

2. The aforesaid magnitude of concern successful effort, money, and clip tin make results for some contented selling and SEO

We’re the cleanable example. Our contented ranks precocious connected Google and generates hundreds of thousands of monthly hunt visitors:

It besides attracts links and shares connected societal media due to the fact that we marque definite each portion is unsocial and not conscionable regurgitation oregon “AI content”.

Finally, each portion of contented introduces visitors to our merchandise and educates them connected however to usage it to lick their problems. (Keep connected speechmaking and you’ll spot it successful enactment too!)

It hits each contented selling and SEO goals at once:

• Acquires hunt traffic ✅
• Builds thought leadership ✅
• Attracts links ✅
• Generates income (over the long-term) ✅

How bash we bash what we do? Believe it oregon not, there’s a method to the madness. Here’s 1 enactment that summarizes our full SEO contented selling strategy:

We make and support high-quality, product-led, search-focused contented astir topics with concern imaginable and hunt postulation potential.

Let maine interruption down however we harvester SEO and contented marketing:

If you privation to get hunt traffic, you request to people topics that your imaginable customers are searching for.

The easiest mode to find these keywords is to usage a keyword instrumentality similar Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer:

1. Go to Keywords Explorer
2. Enter a fewer wide keywords related to your tract or niche
3. Go to the Matching presumption report
4. Filter for keywords with postulation imaginable (TP)

Go done the study and prime retired the keywords that are applicable to your site. For example, if I were an ecommerce store selling java equipment, this could beryllium a imaginable keyword to target:

A keyword’s concern imaginable is however casual it volition beryllium to transportation your merchandise portion covering a definite topic. It’s our ‘trade secret’—it’s wherefore we tin easy present our merchandise and its features successful each portion of contented we create.

Here’s however to people a topic’s concern potential:

So, taking the supra example, the taxable “best java grinder” would people a “3” (provided we merchantability java grinders) whereas a taxable similar “does decaf java person caffeine” would people a “1” oregon adjacent a “0”.

You should prioritize topics that people precocious connected concern potential, i.e. a “2” oregon a “3”.

What does each of the jargon mean? Let’s interruption it down.

Search-focused

Part 1 of being ‘search-focused’ is uncovering keywords that radical are searching for. Part 2 is to fig retired why they’re searching for those peculiar keywords. This ‘why’ is known arsenic search intent.

Given that Google’s extremity is to ever fertile the astir applicable content, we tin look astatine the hunt motor results (SERPs) to uncover hunt intent. Take your people keyword, participate it into Keywords Explorer, scroll down to SERP Overview, and click Identify intents:

So, we tin spot that searchers looking for the keyword “best java grinders” privation elaborate reviews and adept recommendations connected the champion java grinders. Not lone that, we tin besides spot that searchers privation a list that is fresh.

If we’re targeting this topic, making it search-focused means matching this hunt intent—we’ll request to make a database of the champion java grinders for the existent year.

Product-led

Product-led means ensuring you’re not conscionable creating contented for the involvement of it; you’re besides ‘selling’ your product. You privation to beryllium alert of which usage case, feature, oregon work you privation to weave into the narrative. Naturally, of course.

Scoring a topic’s concern imaginable would person done 90% of the enactment here. If you’re creating contented astir a taxable that scored a “3”, past your merchandise transportation would beryllium natural. For example, we could easy adhd links backmost to our java instrumentality store aft covering the champion java grinders. Or, if we marque our java grinders, we could transportation them arsenic 1 of the best. (That’s wherefore I accidental the concern imaginable people is our concealed ingredient.)

The situation comes erstwhile you’re covering topics that people a “1” oregon “0”. It’s not impossible, but you’ll request to beryllium creative.

For example, I precocious covered the topic “SEO specialist”. It had a concern imaginable of “1” and was pugnacious to see a merchandise pitch. Fortunately, I noticed that immoderate occupation listings asked for acquisition with antithetic SEO toolsets (including us.) It was the cleanable segue to present our merchandise and certification course.

High-quality

This is subjective. Everyone’s standards are different. But here’s however we deliberation of quality:

• Accurate — No hype, nary lying. Every connection we marque should beryllium arsenic close arsenic possible.
• Clear — No fluff—delete each unnecessary words and sentences. Use jargon lone erstwhile needed. When necessary, make illustrations to grow connected ideas and concepts.
• Helpful — Being product-led is important but the contented should not conscionable beryllium aimed astatine pitching. The contented should beryllium focused chiefly connected helping visitors lick their problems, portion creatively weaving our merchandise into the context.
• Unique — One mode to marque your contented unsocial is to person tegument successful the game—conduct experiments, tally information studies, and constitute from idiosyncratic experience. If having tegument is difficult, past interrogation practitioners. Focus connected did, not could.

The deterioration of your contented is inevitable:

• Search-focused — Your rankings whitethorn driblet due to the fact that of competitors. Or you didn’t adjacent fertile the archetypal clip round. Or your people topic’s hunt intent changed (e.g., the connection corona’s hunt intent changed during the void years of 2020-2022.)
• Product-led — You whitethorn person caller features, services, oregon usage cases to introduce. Or your squad has depreciated definite features oregon abandoned immoderate services.
• High-quality — Statements whitethorn go inaccurate implicit time. Or your unsocial thought was truthful palmy that everyone other copied you (and outranked you.) Or you mightiness person amended ways to reword sentences and paragraphs. Or conscionable simply the ideas, screenshots, and contented has go outdated.

That’s wherefore you don’t physique a bid way and disappear. You person to actively support it to support it working. (I’m looking astatine you London tube.) Same goes for your content.

The mode to support your contented is to behaviour regular contented audits. We bash this each quarter—Each writer connected our blog squad goes done their portfolio of articles and selects astatine slightest 3 pieces to update. Each writer whitethorn besides take a mates to bash a afloat rewrite.

I highly urge going done our contented audit template truthful you tin spot what went incorrect with your contented and what to bash with it next.

Final thoughts

SEO and contented selling whitethorn beryllium antithetic selling types, but that doesn’t mean you request to bash 1 to the exclusion of the other.

Both channels are highly compatible and arsenic you spot above, tin beryllium designed arsenic an full strategy that hits each important selling objectives.