When it comes to having a successful online marketing mix, you cannot miss out on SEO and content marketing. Both tactics are closely linked and work in tandem to get results for your website. Together, they are capable of making your website reach the top and sustain the position there, in addition to building trust and credibility for the brand. Since SEO and content marketing go hand in hand, it often gets harder to make a distinction between the two. However, it is important to understand the difference between them because you will be spending on them after all. Let us explain both the tactics in detail and also highlight the difference between them.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO includes a set of practices that push traffic for the website from the search engines. The traffic boom comes by optimizing the web pages to appear on top of search results.  Further, it also includes tactics like local search map results and link building across the authoritative, niche-relevant websites to bring qualified traffic to the site. SEO requires you to follow search engine algorithms to bring relevance to the site and improve the user experience it delivers. When sites excel on all these fronts, they are bound to reach the top of search rankings and pull the target audience with ease. Further, the well-optimized ones are also capable of getting more conversions for the business because of the quality user experience they deliver.

Content marketing

As the name suggests, content marketing involves online promotion by creating high-value content and delivering to a targeted audience. The strategy promotes a brand by providing value and engaging the audience rather than advertising directly. The objective is not to just push sales but build relationships with the audience and consolidate the reputation of the business. Content includes different variants that are published online such as text (articles and blog posts), images, infographics, videos, podcasts, case studies, presentation templates and banners. They can even have user-generated pieces such as user comments and product reviews shared directly by the customers. The focus, in recent years, has been on informative, long-form content pieces that address the user intent and resolve all their pain points effectively.

Understating the difference between SEO and content marketing

To understand the difference between the two strategies, it is valuable to comprehend their key objectives. While SEO mainly focuses on the demands of search engines, content marketing emphasizes on targeting the consumers. SEO is more technical in nature and covers a range of factors such as website design, structure, user experience and keyword optimization. While there is a lot to be managed, you have several tools to help with these aspects. For example, you can learn more about free keywords tools here. Conversely, content marketing uses creative content for driving traffic. While you need to make it engaging, ensuring that it has the right keywords is equally important.

Relationship between SEO and content marketing

While there are some identifiable differences between the two strategies, the relationship between them is close enough to confuse. The reason is that SEO and content marketing overlap to a significant extent. Integrating keywords in the content is imperative to get results from SEO, which means that your site will get more traffic and the audience will interact with the content therein. At the same time, quality content improves the authority of the website and strengthens its backlink profile with quality links. Simply speaking, better content results in better SEO and vice versa. If you can excel on one front, the other will be won automatically.

Deciding what works for you

Both SEO and content marketing have immense potential when it comes to driving sales and generating awareness for your business. But you cannot expect to achieve results with either in singularity. Rather, a strategic mix of both the tactics is what you need for securing ranking, visibility and trust for your website. While SEO does everything to impress the search engines and get you on top rankings, content relates more to impressing the customers and retaining them for the long haul. Both have a symbiotic relationship and one cannot thrive without the other.

SEO and content marketing may differ in structure and function but it is hard to isolate them from each other. These are like the pillars that sustain the load of your online presence- you need both to survive and thrive. So it makes sense to have a holistic digital marketing strategy that leverages a healthy mix of both the tactics for the best results.

Raisa Yogiaman is a content marketer at Zavvy – an employee enablement platform that combines employee experience with smart workflow automation. Her passion for HR and marketing can be found on Zavvy’s blogs.

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