We all know now that taking to the internet is an absolutely essential move for marketing a business. An overwhelming majority of people depend on the internet to find what they’re looking for — whether it be a product, a service, or information. A cornerstone of any internet marketing strategy is search engine optimization (SEO). There are a few different benefits of SEO, so it’s important to start using it (or hiring SEO services to). Part of good SEO is content marketing, which, put simply, is the creation of some valuable content (articles, infographics, videos) aimed at a specific audience with the goal of inspiring customer action. Here are three things you need to know about it.

1. It shouldn’t be your only internet marketing strategy.
Content marketing is really important — over 75% of marketers who have search engine optimization strategies in place use content marketing as a part of that. However, it shouldn’t be the only thing in your bag of tricks. There are a number of different internet marketing techniques that will help encourage customers to come to your business, and you should take advantage of them. The benefits of SEO are obvious, but small businesses still need to have a solid social media presence, use email, and use pay per click advertising, at least.

2. It takes time.
What you really need to know about a content marketing strategy is that it’s going to take some time to work. One trap that many small business owners fall into is expecting to rank on the first page of the Google search results soon after they start implementing a content marketing strategy, but that’s not a reasonable expectation. Part of the purpose of content marketing, of course, is to increase visibility with SEO. It’ll happen, but it takes some time, so be patient. Content marketing takes time to implement, and content creation takes skill, knowledge, and time to do (which is why it’s sometimes outsourced to an SEO company).

3. Always create for your customer.
This is another trap that small business owners fall into. It’s tempting to create content for search engines according to what the algorithms dictate is “good SEO,” but it’s really important to remember that you want people to consume this content. The purpose is to bring people into your business by providing them with interesting, valuable, and engaging material. There are more than 27 million pieces of content shared on the internet daily — and if yours is not original, compelling, and valuable, it won’t be one of them.

Do you have any other questions about how content marketing plays a role in the effectiveness and benefits of SEO? Feel free to ask us in the comments section.