Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an integral part of every company’s content marketing strategy. However, ranking up in the search results is hard not only for new brands but also for well-established ones. They need to maintain their positions as others constantly try to chip away at the coveted top spots.
Kevin Miller and Bridget Reed, CEO and Director of Content, respectively, at GR0, joined me on last week’s episode of Optily Radio about their tactics for increasing organic traffic. GR0 is a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO that has expanded in leaps and bounds over the past two years. They have helped many DTC eCommerce businesses scale their organic traffic with content marketing and by systematically optimizing their pages.
Among the many great topics we explored about SEO and how they came to start GR0, three of the big-ticket themes we touched on were:
- Setting realistic goals and expectations when it comes to organic strategy
- Best practices for new brands looking to rank
- The future of AI content
For a taste of this episode, check out the teaser below. I recommend having a listen to the whole half-hour episode because it’s full of amazing insights.
However, if you’re short on time, I’ll go into the three topics I outlined above, so just keep reading.
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Realistic expectations for SEO and content marketing
Both Kevin and Bridget stressed the importance of ensuring that their clients understand the long-term nature of SEO strategy. No company is going to see results in a matter of days or weeks like you would with paid ads. As a result, it’s crucial to stress that organic strategy is a marathon, not a sprint.
That being said, a company needs to be aware of this from the get-go and be prepared to invest the time and resources needed to ensure success. This is why the team at GR0 first evaluates the needs of the client to see if content is the best strategy for them at this stage. While they don’t offer services in other areas of marketing such as paid search, email marketing, or social media marketing, they still look into all the options to decide what the optimal strategy is at that particular moment.
The key is to have an honest conversation and ensure all parties are on the same page first. Once that is established the work can begin.
Ranking well as a new brand
Since the age of the content is a big factor in SEO, I had to ask the experts what the best way for a new brand to break into the first page of the SERPs. Kevin’s answer was straightforward: issue press releases. These generally inexpensive pieces of content go far and wide, across many reputable sources. Although they typically contain only no-follow links, Kevin says that these links are still important in ranking. This is especially true when they come from well-regarded sources like news outlets.
Press releases should be issued when you launch your company. Then, afterward, you should put one out whenever you have a major update, like a new product line or a new major feature.
Another tactic that the team at GR0 uses to build up backlinks is to feature clients as subject matter experts for articles. While you do need to be quick on getting back to journalists, this is a powerful way to build up your backlinks and reputation as an industry expert.
AI content generation for SEO and content marketing
AI content tools are all over the content marketing sphere nowadays, but how effective are they? Bridget commented that while these tools can definitely be a powerful supplement to the human writer, they aren’t going to be taking any jobs away any time soon.
Both Bridget and Kevin stressed that Google can tell human emotion and that a machine simply can’t replicate that. We’ll be able to use AI writers for the bulk of the content generation, but a human will still need to go through and clean it up.
AI will make content creation more efficient, but it’s not replacing humans, yet…
