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RSSWhite Hat SEO experts can’t seem to get their heads out of the spam philosophies. If they are not out there publishing thousands of unnatural links across the Web they are sending out emails asking other people to create the links for them.
Welcome to the world of “Content Marketing”, which is just another delusional name for “manipulative linking strategies”.
Real content marketing is built on distributing branded content to the masses. That has nothing to do with “guest posts”, infographics, and chasing keywords with machinated blog schedules.
You are spamming the search engines with your faux content marketing practices.
Here are some problems with your “content marketing”:
Start With A Content Strategy
Any content that needs a strategy is clearly not serving a consumer-oriented purpose. To be consumer-oriented there is no direct, measurable payback in the content marketing process.
Real content marketing builds a market. Fake content marketing seeks links, conversions, visitors, traffic, etc.
What’s the difference? Is it a subtle difference?
Actually, there is no subtle distinction here: a market building campaign CREATES DEMAND. You’re not creating demand with your SEO fakery. You’re measuring links, conversions, visitors, traffic, etc. Which of those types of metrics measures demand?
Your “content strategy” is not focused on creating, stimulating, building, or reinforcing demand — therefore it’s not content marketing. Please spare me the fancy rationalizations. If you think you can defend “content strategy” you have way too much to learn about real content marketing to be participating in this discussion.
Perform Keyword Research So You Can “Target Content”
Again, if you’re not building demand, you’re not practicing content marketing. There is no keyword research that builds demand.
In other words, if people are already searching for KEYWORD ALPHA the demand already exists so no matter how much content you throw at the keyword you’re not engaging in “content marketing”.
If you want to be a content marketer you have to give the consumers a reason to CREATE NEW QUERIES. That’s not just brand-related queries, either. Content marketing leads to questions, speculations, and general uses of the content that the marketers never expect.
You can do keyword research AFTER you create the demand and call that Secondary Influence Research for Resonance Modeling Performance or some nonsense like that but first learn to create demand.
Create Great Content
Geeze, Matt Cutts already said that.
Frankly, you don’t need great content to create demand. Why? Because you’re introducing something new to consumers. You’re allowed to make mistakes, do stupid things, look like a damn fool. The consumers will either connect with the new concept or not.
If the consumer connects with your marketing campaign you will see the demand. If the consumer fails to connect you will see no demand. It’s the simplest metric in the world and you can use any cheap, incompetent analytics software to measure it (even Google Analytics).
You do not need “great content” for content marketing. You do need “great content” to chase keywords. Chasing keywords is NOT “content marketing”.
Optimize Your Content
Optimize it for what? If you’re doing this right you are building the market and that means you’re the first mover. In fact, it means you’re the ONLY mover.
So what the hell are you optimizing? How do you optimize when you are the only kid playing in the sandbox?
Promote Your Content Via … blahblahblah
Okay, by now if you haven’t gotten the memo: Content Marketing IS the promotion.
You do not promote content marketing content. That is like saying you hire civilian soldiers, trust your criminal police organizations, expect politicians to put their country first and political aspirations last, etc.
Content Marketing IS the promotion. Therefore, you cannot promote content that was created for “content marketing”.
Any SEO who slaps his head at this point and says, “Right — do NOT look like an idiot by talking about promoting content for content marketing” has officially gotten the clue.
Distribute Your Content
I’m going to let this one slide, although it has been screwed up by several different “content marketing” experts.
Since the content marketing IS the promotion then clearly you need to distribute some content (but that could be achieved with a simple post on your own blog, adding a product to your inventory, etc.).
Here is an example of content marketing: many independent authors are occasionally offering free downloads of their eBooks from Amazon’s store for 24-72 hour periods.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, THAT is content marketing on the Internet. Do they need to tell people about these free downloads? Absolutely, but you don’t need to hire an SEO agency to publish guest posts and who-knows-what-else in order to “get the word out”. There are simpler ways to do that (by starting with your friends and co-workers, for example).
Spreading the word about free content is not the same as publishing content all over the Web.
Build Links To Your Content…
Any SEO who builds links to content created for content marketing obviously has no faith in his/her content.
Assuming you have actually done some content marketing it’s okay to use a few links (on sites/accounts you already control) to tell your friends, customers, audience, etc. that the content is out there.
But if you’re building links you’re chasing keywords and if you’re chasing keywords you are NOT engaged in “content marketing”. The promotion will bring you all the links you need if consumers connect with the concept; otherwise, all the link fakery in the world is NOT going to build demand.
What does content marketing do? It builds demand. Content marketing builds markets.
If What We’re Doing Is Not “Content Marketing” Then What The Hell Is It?
For years I have called this kind of SEO practice (that is, “the chasing of keywords”) spamming the search engines.
If you’re chasing keywords you’re spamming the search indexes. Why? Because clearly you’re trying to muscle in on someone else’s conceptual turf.
Now, you can do keyword research to see if you’re satisfying consumer interest adequately. That is, if people are coming to your site looking for “brilliant red diamond-encrusted shoes” and you don’t have any content that matches that query, you need to plug the hole.
And if you have content that IS relevant to “brilliant red diamond-encrusted shoes” but no one is finding it (and there is nothing else out there), that is a keyword opportunity.
If the SERPs are already loaded with relevant content for highly active queries and you’re trying to get a piece of the action you’re just chasing keywords and that means you are spamming. You are creating unnecessary content. You are not providing unique value. You are spamming, spamming, spamming.
And the moment you say that isn’t what you’re doing you are LYING, LYING, LYING.
Stop being a liar. Admit the truth. It will be easier for you to spam if you don’t devote so much energy to pretending you’re not a content spammer.
Sharing Content Is Okay, But …
So when you share content (through Tweets, LIKEs, PINs, whatevers) you may or may not be “content marketing”. You still have a right to tell people about what you’re doing. That doesn’t make you a spammer.
Sharing is good.
But sharing content is NOT “content marketing” — not in and of itself. If your sharing doesn’t build demand then you’re not content marketing.
But I Have a Better Mousetap
So everyone who tries to muscle into established keywords is convinced they have something better to offer. That may be true in your case but you’re still not “content marketing”. You’re just adding another Web page to the index, another product to the shelf, following in the footsteps of pioneers who built the market.
On the Internet not all demand is created through content marketing. Sometimes it’s created or stimulated through public relations (NOTE: that does not mean “publishing press releases”). If you can get the media interested in a story about your (client’s) business and the public reacts positively that might very well lead to new demand. So even if 100 news articles contributed to that demand that is NOT CONTENT MARKETING.
Public relations and media relations are distinct from content marketing. So building a better mousetrap doesn’t mean you have to use content marketing to build demand. Content marketing has to bring something new to the consumer experience in order to be content marketing. A new blog post doesn’t count. A new social media account doesn’t qualify. New infographics, new widgets, new product listings — those are not content marketing.
Better mousetraps may very well be needed in the marketplace but if the marketplace already exists you’re just competing for existing demand.
But Everyone Is Now Saying “Content Marketing” …
It’s true that this horse is already out of the barn. A lot of people are now using the “content marketing” euphemism for their spammy SEO practices. The search engines will sort it all out eventually.
Meanwhile, back at the SEO conference ranch, we can expect about 2 more years of these awful presentations that misuse a concept that has been around for over 100 years. Eventually we’ll see an adjustment in the presentations but for now just practice rolling your eyes whenever another “expert” steps up to talk about “content marketing”.
If they don’t go into how you create new, previously unexisting demand they don’t know what they are talking about.
