5 Small Business SEO Tips from 5 Top Content Marketing Influencers

No matter the field you belong to, acting on advice from the pros is a sure-shot way of reaching the top. Content marketing and SEO are no different. And as a small business that may not always have the means to devise and employ extensive strategies, you need small business SEO tips that work. And we bring you exactly those, from the biggest influencers in digital marketing who know what they are doing.

SEO can seem daunting to beginners but it is pretty basic once you get down to it. And no one explains it better than the key influencers in the digital marketing niche that we mention in this blog post.

Read on as we share with you 5 SEO tips from 5 top marketing influencers when it comes to all things content!

1. “View SEO and content marketing as partners, not either/or adversaries.”

– Joe Pulizzi (Content Marketing Institute)

If you are a part of the content marketing world, there is absolutely no possibility that you’ve never landed on Content Marketing Institute for some research.

And this small business SEO tip from the brains behind the platform, Joe Pulizzi, is a keeper.

We often see discussions that revolve around the topic, content marketing vs SEO. But the discussion should be about how businesses should leverage the power of both things as part of their digital marketing efforts.

SEO and content marketing must go hand in hand if you truly want to get your message across to the audiences. You need to indulge in content marketing for SEO and SEO efforts to promote your content.

But why is this the case?

No matter how stellar your content, you will not be able to lead people to it if you do not indulge in proper search engine optimization.

Conversely, you may have a spectacular SEO strategy with just the right keywords and backlinks that your competitors would kill for but if your content isn’t worth it, it is effort down the drain. Why? Because leading people to the content and making sure they “see” it is one thing – having them stay and actually enjoy the content is an entirely different story.

So make sure that your content marketing and SEO strategies are inter-related. This will allow you to create content that people want to consume and make sure those people (and others) actually see it!

To find out more about how SEO and content marketing are related, check out this blog post:

SEO & Content Marketing: What’s The Link?

2. “Encourage other trustworthy sites to link to you.”

– Neil Patel

Inbound links are a staple when it comes to SEO content marketing.

But before we go any further, what exactly are inbound links? They are hyperlinks that bring people to your site from an external site.

Neil Patel, content marketing guru, encourages us to work on getting other sites with high traffic and that people trust to link back to our sites.

What does this do?

Simple – it diverts traffic from the other site to yours.

But that is not all it does. Obtaining inbound links also helps you achieve all of the following:

• Better search engine rankings
• Increased visibility
• Improved brand reputation (because a trustworthy site linked back to you)
• Enhanced trust from consumers if trusted digital influencers are linking back to your site

But there’s a catch. You will ONLY be able to use this strategy if your content is up to the mark.

You don’t want to lead potential customers to your page, only to have them disappointed because they didn’t find what was promised or what they were looking for.

Here are some of the top ways in which you can get inbound links:

• Create meaningful content that people automatically want to link back to.
• Try to create evergreen content whenever you can – it will always remain linkable.
• Guest post on trustworthy, reliable sites in your niche.
• Comment on relevant blog posts with useful information.
• Include influencer marketing in your strategy (the biggest social media influencers in the niche can bring you the biggest benefit from inbound links).

Read about all this and more in greater detail here:

Does Your Business Really Need Link-Building In 2020?

Since there is so much emphasis on content in order to secure high-quality inbound links, find some great content curation tips in the following blog posts. They’re a great starting point for any SEO web content writer:

Content Marketing – Everything You Need To Know

Content Marketing Strategy From Scratch – Ultimate Guide

9 Tips For An Effective Content Marketing Plan

How To Choose A Content Management System In The SEO Context

Content Marketing Key Takeaways From 15 Experts

3. Steal Your Competitors’ Best Keywords

– Brian Dean

Brian Dean is the CEO of Backlinko and you can tell from the name that this guy knows a thing or two about SEO.

So when he gives you SEO advice, you want to take it.

Even if he is encouraging you to steal. *winks*

Here’s the thing: you and your competitors have something in common – you have similar products and services and, hence, a similar target audience. Heck, you may even have the exact same target audience – people that each of you is trying to pull in your direction.

What does this mean?

It means that what is working for their target audience will likely work for yours too.

But that doesn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that you can go ahead and copy their work. Plagiarism is a no-go in the world of digital marketing – from an ethical point of view, sure, but also because originality is one of the key factors based on which search engines rank you. If you copy content from elsewhere on the internet, your ranking and reputation will suffer.

So, what do you do?

Well, all you need, to rank as high or even higher than your competitors, is the keywords you know they rank for. Once you have that information, you can use those keywords to create content that is entirely your own, whether the information you share is unique or the way in which you present it is.

In short, your keyword research strategy should include time dedicated to this particular activity.

Want to learn more? Here is a blog post about some tools that can help you out with the whole process:

The 8 Best Tools for Finding Competitor Keywords

4. “Gain search authority with volume, value, and variety.”

– Michael Brenner

Volume. Value. Variety.

Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, calls these the 3 Vs of content marketing. And boy are they Very important content marketing tips!

Let’s talk about each of them.

Volume – For search engines and people to recognize you as an authority on a topic, you need to produce a large volume of SEO copy.

You want to show people that you are knowledgeable about all aspects of your area of expertise. But more than that, you want to share that knowledge and expertise with them so they can benefit from it too.

In other words, you want to provide them with value. Which brings us to the next point…

Value – Your audience should gain something from consuming your content – it shouldn’t just be filler.

Pointlessly creating content for the sake of creating content isn’t the key – you need to provide your customers and potential consumers with value. You can do this by:

• Increasing their knowledge about things that interest them.
• Answering any questions they may have.
• Telling them things they didn’t know they were missing out on.
• Sharing tips and tricks that benefit them in some way.
• Entertaining them through your content.

This list can go on but you get the point – make sure your content is more than just fluff.

Variety – There shouldn’t be repetition in the content you create. But that’s not all.

While it is understood that you shouldn’t talk about the same things over and over again, you also shouldn’t be using the same content types repeatedly.

Text, images, video, audio, the opportunities are endless. Mix things up a little and keep your audience engaged!

5. “Titles Titles Titles!”

– David Rowse

David Rowse of Problogger has some of the best small business SEO tips for beginners and the experienced alike when it comes to ranking on search engines.

And one of the most important ones is to focus on the title of your blog post.

Why is this important?

Well, one of your top aims is to have people consume the content that you create – you don’t want all your time and effort going to waste if no one reads the content.

How is this linked to the title of the blog post (or any other kind of content)? The title is the deciding factor between whether a reader will click on the blog post or not – you need it to be attractive enough that they do.

Some tips for creating stellar titles include the following:

• Use your main keyword in your title – that’s what your audience is searching for and that’s what you want to give them.
• Restrict your title to below 65 characters (so that all of it shows up in search results).
• Answer questions, in the title, for questions you know your readers will have.
• Alternatively, ask the very question in the title.
• Use numbers (“5 tips,” “7 hacks,” etc.) as readers are attracted toward list-type formats.
• Leave the readers curious about exactly what they can find inside without being vague.
• Be CREATIVE! Think out of the box and practically MAKE your readers click on the title.
• Make large claims in the title about what you’re going to help the readers achieve through the blog post – but only do this if you actually deliver in the content.

This is one of the easiest SEO traffic hacks you can implement – it requires very little additional input and just a tad of extra creativity.

Point to remember: Stellar titles have to be paired with great content – if a great title leads to below-average or even mediocre content, your visitors may be fooled once, but never again. So focus on that element too.

To sum things up…

We have implemented all these tips as far as our content is concerned and we’ve see noticeable differences in how we rank and how people view our content.

The pros are pros for a reason – they know what they are talking about.

And you will only benefit if you listen!

Are there any other SEO tips you have learned from the leading content marketing influencers that you have found to be effective?

We would love to hear about them! Let us know all about them in the comments section.