Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the well-embraced methods to get your blog or web content widely known, and to promote brand awareness. However, with the modern development of content marketing, and better copywriting, is SEO still the best way to be seen?
Teaching how to be better writers
Matthieu Tran-Van, the Global Program Director for Google, thinks it is. In a recent interview, he shared his views of how content marketing is finally becoming the new SEO. Five years ago, while working in an agency, Tran-Van was already pushing the use of content marketing to his referrers. Teaching them how to become better copywriters, and better community managers, to show that the niche previously taken up by SEO could be replaced by good content marketing strategies.
Content marketing requires broader skills
Tran-Van also believes that there are reservations in the world of SEO writers. One of the barriers of SEO professionals is their dependence on tools such as the search console, hare and in-line reading of code. “Many have never honed their editorial skills,” he says. “And they need to realise who their audience consists of.” Another obstacle they face is the standard economic model. As an empirical discipline, SEO relies on exact on-site optimization and net links, and using content marketing, for them, is a step too huge to take. The craft is very specialized, while content marketing requires a broader skill set.
America is more adventurous
In the US, content marketing has really taken off, due to the need to be more “avant-garde” and because the digital innovation is stronger. In Europe, the SEO agencies focus more on SEO because of their cost structures. Content marketing would have a major impact on their cost structure, and would require more expensive invoicing to their client base. As it stands, implementing a content marketing structure in a company that is SEO focused would be too complicated and costly. Many parts of the SEO business are perfectly honed by the professionals, such as netlinking, homepage optimization and silo structuring.
The need to revamp oneself
However, Tran-Van is convinced that content marketing can be the new SEO. A few years ago, many SEO agencies disappeared because they had not anticipated new changes in the industry, and were not prepared, leaving them out in the cold. Tran-Van believes that, if the profession does not attempt to “reinvent” itself it could leave more businesses behind the times. Tran-Van also states that with the rise of content marketing in other parts of the world, the market will dictate its own changes, eventually.
Embracing the changes in the market
The big question now is whether the content marketing will take over, or there will be an “uberization” of the SEO industry. Tran-Van feels that any SEO professional who does not “embrace” the content marketing concept will be taking a huge risk on their future. “This transformation towards content marketing seems to me a “must”,” explains Tran-Van.
Evolution of content marketing
And it could be true. Evolution in anything is an obligatory passage in time. With the structural evolution of content marketing, it is bound to take over eventually. And as painful as it may be, in order to survive, one has to adapt to the changes. “The future will tell us what it is”, he says. “But personally, I am convinced that this shift will absolutely have to be taken.”
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