Content May Be King But It Doesn't Reign Alone

Is content promotion a part of your brand's SEO strategy?

This question may throw you off guard, but it's absolutely essential to ask. When it comes to an effective and successful search engine optimization campaign, content is at the core?but not just any kind of content. The content created must be original and engaging, offering valuable information around a specific topic. When marketers publish unique content that strikes a chord with their audiences, it is much more likely to be shared and attract links from other websites.

There are various forms of content beyond the written word. Content consists of infographics, videos, images, contests, guides and more. Visual assets are great marketing tools because they appeal to the eye and can be easily shared on social media and personal websites. Marketers must decide what type of content will relay their message best and resonate most with their target audience.

However, great content means nothing if no one sees or reads it.



And it's tough to get noticed out there, due to the exponentially growing amount of noise and competition online. Since 2000, the number of existing websites has increased from a mere eight million to nearly one billion, according to Netcraft.com. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult for branded content to break through the clutter and into the search results, let alone get read.

To combat the reality of this challenge and effectively impact SEO, it's important to not only produce quality content, but also promote it effectively. As BuzzFeed's Jonathan Perelman once said, 'Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.' Taking Perelman's words to heart, more and more marketers are choosing from a variety of content promotion platforms to help get their content in front of relevant audiences.

Well-known content promotion vendors, Outbrain, Taboola and AdBlade offer paid services that successfully promote content in an advertorial or native way. With access to hundreds of thousands of authoritative, publisher sites?think CNN, Politico and ABC News?many content promotion services, like those mentioned above, have the ability to present your content to targeted audiences made up of millions of people.

That, in itself, makes paid distribution well worth the investment.

By engaging in paid and earned channels to distribute their content, marketers can significantly improve their sites' key performance indicators (KPIs) such as clicks, conversions, and readership. In short, distribution leads to shares which expand your content's reach and ultimately result in additional links and mentions, better known as earned media.

While more traditional public relations tactics like media outreach and social media marketing will help with content distribution, they are no longer methods that can be used alone due to the competitiveness of the digital space. A content promotion strategy is a requirement to cut through the overload of content online and get your own content in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

The digital landscape is always changing, and SEO can be complicated. But armed with quality content and a solid content promotion strategy, you'll be prepared to tackle any curveball the web throws your way.