Advisors: Why The New SEO Is Actually All About Content Marketing

In part 1 of this series, we looked briefly at an overview of what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) used to be versus what Search Engine Optimization is now. One thing that we know for sure is that what used to work, doesn’t work anymore. One of the biggest game changers in SEO over the years has been content marketing.

The old SEO was largely focused on researching your target keywords and then building an SEO campaign around those focused keywords. It was understood that search crawlers looked for keywords in website content, and that it was most effective to use those keywords in titles, meta-descriptions and the first 100 words of an article. Content was created and those targeted keywords were inserted in all the right places. If you were an Advisor that was early to market, and there wasn’t a lot of competition around your keywords, chances are you would see some success.  Traditional SEO focused more on trying to rank high using target keywords and less on trying to fulfill the needs and requirements of the people using these keywords to make searches.

SEO used to be a strategy that was fairly easy to take advantage of. It didn’t take a rocket science to trick Google into ranking a poorly put together website high on their search results page.

But then…

Online competition increased, consumer awareness improved, and out went the days of a keyword focused SEO strategy.

Unlike old SEO strategies, the new SEO puts focus on value, quality, and engagement. Keyword research has become far less important than good content marketing and content creation. Today’s SEO is in large part a combination of creating and sharing great content. It has become about communicating with your current and future customers without trying to promote your Advisor services, a method of helping your prospects by teaching instead of directly selling. The idea is that if you are creating valuable content focused on questions and topics that are relevant to your business, and your client’s and prospect’s interests and challenges, your content should naturally contain the keywords for which you want to rank.

Google is now looking for more active engagement with your site’s content. This is why unique and valuable content is more effective than ever. High quality content offers Advisor’s clients and prospects unique and applicable information that they can engage with, like and share. If more people are referring and sharing your content, you have a better chance of getting ranked higher in search engines than if you were to solely target the ‘’right’’ keywords.  Additionally, creating high quality and unique traffic helps to drive more traffic to your website, drives client engagement and leads, and has a long-term effect for your web presence.

So, what are three of the most important things Advisors should be doing to get help drive traffic to their website?

• A dynamic website – Search engines love websites that are constantly being updated with unique and fresh content.  When content is constantly updated that means that your website is always changing.  When Google spiders come to audit your site to see if anything has changed, they report their findings back to Google; they report back whether your website is of high quality (or not) as a result of whether it is constantly updated with new, unique, and quality content. A dynamic and constantly changing website is good for you because this not only means that Google will send spiders to your website more often, it also means that your website has a better chance of ranking for your targeted keywords.
• Blog, blog blog! The new SEO is all about great content.  New content builds trust and keeps your visitors engaged and coming back. Your blog articles should be focused on quality and share-ability.
• Be Active on Social Media! Social activity allows you to build links and engagement (likes, shares, tweets etc.) around your website content.
  • Infographics, E-books, Guides, Webinars, How-tos, Case Studies, Interviews, Research and Original Data, Reviews…are all great ways to share information and insights.

Today, SEO is in large part a byproduct of excellent and unique content. By taking time to invest in sharing and creating high quality content, you can educate your clients and prospects, and build a credible, industry-leading business in the process.

I think this is a win-win that we can all agree on.