Integrating content strategy with SEO
While both content strategy and SEO involve writing for the web, they are not created equal. Failing to integrate both from the beginning can lead to extra work and unnecessary headaches.
By Laura Gomez, Marketing Strategist
Content Strategy
Content strategy is a strategic approach to creating an entire editorial system for a web product, whether it's a whole site, a landing page, or an app. It can also involve content posted on other channels that will drive traffic to your main site. It focuses on creating content with a purpose and goal in mind, ensuring each piece plays a key role in achieving the overall objectives of the web product.
Content strategy works closely with UX and UI design, focusing on creating a simplified experience for users through both content and design.
SEO
On the other hand, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) focuses on optimizing content for search engine bots. The challenge is that humans and robots don’t think alike. While a beautifully written blog post or a killer landing page can entice humans, it might lack the keyword density needed for search engines to find it, thus not appearing in the top search results.
Integrating Content Strategy with SEO
To avoid these issues, integrate content strategy with SEO from the beginning. This might seem obvious, but these areas are often handled by separate departments. However, combining these specialties can significantly boost search visibility, enhance user experience, drive long-term organic growth, attract targeted traffic, and improve conversion rates by aligning valuable content with effective SEO.
For content creators to avoid frustration, SEO specialists to reduce unnecessary back-and-forth, and to produce killer content, both need to collaborate from the start. Here's how:
1. Define Your Goals and Audience
Before starting, clarify what you want to achieve (e.g., increase traffic, generate leads, boost sales) and understand your target audience—their needs, preferences, and search behavior. Map out the audience's journey to achieve your goal, defining the main topics for each step to guide content creation and SEO.
2. Keyword Research
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find relevant keywords for your chosen topics. Focus on long-tail keywords that match your audience's intent and analyze competitors to find keyword opportunities they might be using.
3. Content Planning & Creation
Structure your content development process with an editorial calendar to prioritize topics and keep your team organized around key dates, events, and campaigns. With your SEO structure in place, create high-quality, valuable content that addresses your audience's needs and questions. Break your content into sections with enticing subtitles, that will benefit both humans and search engines.
4. Content Editing and Optimization
After your content team is happy with the draft, send it to the SEO team for optimization. They will ensure the necessary keywords are included to achieve the desired keyword density. Once both teams are satisfied, publish the content with the appropriate meta tags and descriptions.
5. Promotion and Distribution
After publishing, have a promotion and distribution strategy in place, leveraging both organic and paid channels. Driving traffic to your site will increase its relevance, ultimately improving your overall SEO score.
Conclusion
Content strategy and SEO are not opposing forces or rival departments. Viewing them that way can cause more headaches than it solves. Integrating both teams in the content development process from the beginning, or even having an SEO expert on your content team, is beneficial. In the end, when writing for the web, you are writing for two audiences: humans and search engine robots.
Editor
Katie Blaszkiewicz
Design
Carolina Vargas
