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Content it’s the mantra. However focusing on quality over quantity should be the defining factor, according to a study published by B2B analyst company Clutch.
Nearly 80% of the 300 survey respondents in the analysis agreed that increasing the online visibility of their company is the goal of content advertising campaigns when compared with the rest who prioritised lead generation. But just how much is too much before the SEO gods were upset by you?
Creator of SEO software company Moz, Rand Fishkin, asserts content marketing and SEO are just two sides of the identical coin who ‘desire each other’. “As far as SEO goes, without content there are no rankings and there’s absolutely no chance to appear in results,” said Fishkin. To put it differently, as the report puts it ‘content marketing is only effective when it’s done strategically…that means that you can not just churn out article after article’.
89% of respondents agree the quantity is significant; when and so what should be generated? For businesses focused on brand consciousness, infographics (19% of respondents) and product reviews (18%) were the material of choice, in contrast to SEO and direct generation where research and original data (21%) was most likely.
“The rationale is that content which earns societal shares typically is formatted for amusement — listing articles, videos, quizzes — while articles that gets links and got media is more educational”, the report explains.
The content production structure earlier and of 2013 is losing traction, as Fishkin explained even though many organizations are still generating infographics. “The era of infographics is dying, and the majority of them are quite bad,” he said. “Those who have success do this in a slightly manipulative way. The embed gets linked back with quite specific anchor texts that take advantage of search algorithms”
Indeed Joel Windels, EMEA marketing manager at Brandwatch, summed it up while giving an optimistic message. “Reaching a saturation point does not have to imply the conclusion,” he wrote. “For example, the extraordinary rise of Instagram proves that the desire for information from format is still there. It simply emphasises the need for a filter quality, which consequently makes the context and messaging even more important.”
The report looked at ‘content comprehensiveness’, and Google is making it a much larger priority. Like people who chase the magical secrets of SEO, it’s not a clear-cut procedure, but Clutch asserts content needs three tenets audience intent — who’s it for? — context? .
You can find out more by reading the complete report here.