The notion that ‘Google loves fresh content’ has led many marketers to believe that producing 500 word blogs and publishing it every day is a surefire way to increase your presence on the SERPs. If this is the ‘content strategy’ – you need to rethink your SEO. Producing a lot of content without a clear goal, does very little for your brand. Much of this would classify as thin content and will not add any value. It is hence essential to place a purpose on every content that you create and share.

Ask yourself – why do you need content? Your content should be aligned with one or more of your marketing goals. Each blog post or infographic that you create must be justified.

4 simple content purposes

Reasons for producing content are plenty. You need to understand what each piece of content can do for your brand. How it can work towards your wider marketing goals. Here are a few pointers:

Link building

Content marketing is used for link building. Producing story first content which is then covered by and linked to by top-tier publications is a great way to begin. This type of content can have data-driven infographics, interactive tools and survey results. If you think of ways in which your content can be appealing to link to – you are on the right track. Guest posts are also a great way to earn links.

SERP rankings

If you want to earn traffic from organic search, you need to rank on the top search results. After the Panda update, content and its quality have gained a lot of importance. The purpose of ranking is different from the purpose of earning links. Well, firstly acknowledging the purpose of the content will help you create content for your business. If you want to rank – the piece of content you create should be the ‘best’ for that ‘keyword’. It should at least be better than what your competitors have published.

For the audiences

When content is produced for marketing purposes, it is created with the intent of educating an audience. It is created with the goal of moving clients and customers through the sales funnel. In many cases – content for ranking and content for audiences has clashes. However, you cannot create these content in silos. All this ultimately is a part of the larger content marketing strategy. When a potential customer searches for information, you must make sure that your products and services and the content you create around it answers their questions. Once the user lands on your site, the content further pushes them through the sales funnel.

Social engagement

Social media cannot be ignored – even if you want it. The content you create needs to be appealing on social media too and engage the audience there. Content there is more fun – images, videos and quizzes. You cannot create a 5000 word guide to be shared on social media. It will tank. A quiz or competition performs well on social media. So, focus on where you are sharing and the goal of sharing content.

Not every piece of content needs to satisfy all the above – but ensure that each content your create satisfies the purpose you are creating it for.