Yes, yes it’s the almost old adage again, “content is king”, but you can’t just let a very good content sit there and wait for the grass to grow. Somehow, you need to put a little effort to make your content known. So it’s time to take off that neurotic writer persona and let out that outgoing socialite-marketer side of you. You have to develop both skills if you want to enter digital marketing successfully.

An original, useful and engaging content is always good as it is. However, you must also accept the fact that the Internet is like a vast space of wasteland that also has slightly different rules of living to that of the real world.

In the Internet, there are many existing blogs, websites and social sites that compete for attention and traffic; and if you are planning on making a good online content, you must also adapt to some steps that will make your content breathe inside the virtual world. By “breathe” we mean getting much attention and traffic from the right crowd and enough social shares to make it more known or even viral.

It is never an easy task, but you can get started by getting acquainted with Search Engine Optimization or SEO techniques. Now, SEO is quite complicated and it does have many aspects but we’ll cover the basic stuff that can make your online content more search-engine friendly.

1.) The RIGHT keywords.

Fitting the right Keywords for your online content is a basic step if you want your article to be more searchable. The keywords that you use will let search engines know what your article’s main topic is all about so whenever a search query matches it, they will consider it getting onto their results page.

Just remember to use main keywords that are:

• Shorter– people tend to enter short-tailed keywords on the search box.
• Long-tail keywords are also useful but don’t overuse it.
• Choose keywords that are RELATED and RELEVANT to your topic’s subject.

Main keywords are only one per article and they are mostly the shorter ones. They are recommended to be used at least 4-5 times in a 500 word article. Overusing a keyword is not favorable to most search engines especially to Google; it will only recognize your article as spam.

Long-tail keywords on the other hand can either be one or two per article but each long-tail keyword should be mentioned only at least once in the entire article.

Free keyword search tools like Google’s Keyword Tool can be of big help if you are looking for the right keywords to use. You only need to type certain keywords and the tool can show results whether such keyword is typed in their search box frequently or infrequently.

It is important to use the right keywords, don’t use keywords that are misleading. It’s called “cloaking” and Google is not very friendly with such practices.

2.) Your social pulse matters.

Because social sites like Facebook and Twitter are always trending, search engines also take into consideration the number of shares and even the number of comments your article is getting. For them, it means that your article is something that many people find to be useful and relevant to their queries.

It may seem simple—posting and sharing your online content to social sites to get people to read it; but it isn’t. First off, you have to at least share the content with the right crowd that will surely be interested to whatever you’re talking about. So you have to get chummy-chummy with the right type of people.

There’s no need to rush though, you need a considerable amount of patience in this game so just let your site take some time. You also need to take some time in building your social connections though, so it’s okay!

3.) Gather quality links.

In SEO, links are always important. Before, it was quite easy to build links because paying is prevalent and many link farming sites accept links regardless of the relevance of the website. Thus, it created false, spammy, low-quality sites ranking fairly in search engines because like social media shares, links are also criteria of votes or popularity for search engines.

Today, search engines especially Google found a way to recognize low-quality links and it does penalize sites who still make use of such practices. So to be on the safer side, you need to get quality links for your site or content. There are a number of ways to do that but first; we have to define what a “quality link” is.

So quality links are basically links you get from reliable sources or pages that are related or relevant to your niche. It should either be from a trusted or known site or from an authoritative or famous figure in your industry.

Basically, quality links seem hard to get and yes, it sure is. Yet there’s no harm in trying and trying until you succeed. Here are several ways to get them:

• Guest posting– this requires much time and effort in your part but when you get to it, it’s rewarding. Guest posting is the act of providing free, high-quality articles to a website which accepts such (there are many actually, depending on your niche). You just have to have at least good, quality content ready and contact a relevant and trusted site who is willing to accept guest posts. You have to read and follow their instructions though, since most websites who accept guest posts have their own standards on the kind of article they will accept.

•  Engage your readers with a thought-provoking question or anything controversial. That way, some of them may be compelled to answer and link/share your post!

•  Run an activity or contest– you don’t have to spend anything to do this. It can be a logo design contest, photo contest or article writing contest; and the winner will be featured in your blog and other pages. Or if you have enough resources, why not offer a cash prize? People love contests and they would most likely share it with their friends by linking it.

SEO is definitely not dead as what some authority bloggers might say. Original, high-quality online content may be what Google is campaigning for and it is what they encourage web masters to do but in the back of all it, improved SEO techniques are still needed to let your content survive in the vast world of the Internet.

Yet as the saying goes, “content is king!” – True, but you still need to market it through SEO. That’s why Inbound Marketing services or sometimes called Online Content Marketing are making its way in the online industry. It’s a service of good quality content coupled with quality SEO techniques.

The post Top 3 Content Marketing Tips appeared first on Web Spider Solution.