Content marketing has emerged as a way for marketers to attract links through publishing compelling content. This overview provided by Copyblogger serves as a platform for successful content creation working in tandem with search engine optimisation.

Many of the determinants of the ranking position of a particular page are determined by factors not relating to the words on the page, though the location and frequency of keywords is still important.

If your content isn’t good enough to attract good, natural links and social sharing, it doesn’t matter how optimised the words on the page are, you will be missing out on traffic and possibly some key customers.

People are drawn to interesting content that is relevant, timely, educational and provides benefits to the reader. In short, it tunes in to the needs and desires of others.

The kind of SEO that content marketers are authoring are revolved around:
• Creating high-value content that achieves business objectives as if search engines didn’t exist.
• Using the power of social media to gain exposure for that content, which results in natural links and other signals of quality and relevance.
• Focusing on enhancing the natural authority of websites, pages, and individual writers, which creates industry influence and trust with Google.

Smart on-page optimisation (SEO copywriting) utilises the language the audience uses when searching and socialising, so Google sees you as the most relevant option.

Smart content marketers derive benefit from audience-focused content and by social media exposure and sharing.

Search engines need to be spoon-fed. Effective SEO copywriting tells Google which words are the most relevant ones to the people you want to reach.

You do need to begin with the ending in mind from a keyword standpoint.

Here’s a 5 Step guide to creating cornerstone content and getting it to rank well in search engines.

Key words
Choose the most appropriate keyword phrase for your content i.e. what is the most relevant question that searchers are asking that your content and business solution answer?
Then you have to make sure that your content is actually about that keyword or combination of keywords.

Title Tag and Headline
Using your targeted keyword phrase in your title tag is important but remember it is a headline and needs to read and entice as such. A compelling headline will also increase the chances of someone linking back to your title and in the process being friendlier for search engine algorithms.

Content
A well-worded and constructed article can rank highly by itself for search but particularly for a newer website you’ll need links from other authoritative sources.

The goal for content should be to answer the question for the reader so much better and more authoritatively than competitive sources. If so, then your content will be so much more worthy of linking to and improve your search results.

Content Landing Page
Having a well-constructed content landing page aids the reader in the usability of your site. The page should immediately communicate to the visitor what’s going on and provide useful links for them to navigate – much like a table of contents.

Some of the key benefits include: Retention; Bookmarking and Sharing; Linking to you; and Optimisation.

Related Content
Don’t go overboard, but do provide context when discussing advanced topics that require an understanding of the basics. Don’t assume that everyone is aware of your cornerstone resource or understands the basics. Periodically linking to your key content lets it find new readers — and fresh links.

Next time we’ll look at the benefits of creating cornerstone content and how to get readers to take the action you want.