No Shirt, No Content, No SEO Service – Why we won’t SEO without a Content Strategy
I don’t blame companies for not understanding search engine optimization (SEO). It’s a niche area of expertise, that hasn’t been around all that long, and is constantly changing as the Internet and search engine algorithms evolve. And yet, it has become increasingly important for marketers to adapt to the changing world, and figure out how to capitalize on the Internet as a potential source of leads – before the competition. I feel like this is often the stimulus that pushes marketing managers to reach out to digital marketing agencies, like Philly Marketing Labs, for help with SEO.
Unfortunately, many traditional marketers don’t understand the truly symbiotic relationship between content and SEO – at least initially. I think this leads to their sometimes being a misconception of the SEO process, and expected SEO results, and this is essentially what leads to this chasm of “search understanding.” The world of organic search has changed immensely over the last several years. Acknowledging this change and how it impacts our clients and the services we provide, we at Philly Marketing Labs have made it official policy that we will not take on new clients for search engine optimization if they do not already have, or are not willing to invest in, a long-term content strategy.
You can no longer be successful in organic search without content.
Is your website useful to the people that visit it? In today’s digital landscape, it’s not enough to sprinkle on SEO to an already finished website – that alone will not make you rank on the front page of Google. In reality, SEO really needs to be “baked in” from the beginning. SEO is not just page titles and meta tags anymore. Modern SEO has great emphasis on site architecture and crawlability, site speed and server stability, and content – more so with each Google update, it seems. Essentially: Content is the lifeblood of the Internet and your website. It brings visitors to your site, keeps them there, and makes them come back. Without content, you will not attract organic visitors or be able to keep visitors on your site for very long when they do get there.
We take on clients for whom we believe we can drive results.
As a digital marketing agency, our success relies on the results – and success – that we can bring to our clients. We take great pride in the fact that our average client engagement is measured in years – not months. We are able to do this by consistently meeting and exceeding client expectations.
Success in organic search requires a long-run content strategy.
We are happy to help (it’s also okay if we don’t), but we at PML feel that having a long-term content strategy is something that is essential to success in organic search and, really, that is the core reason for why we won’t implement SEO without a content strategy. To be successful in organic search, in the modern digital landscape, really requires a well thought-out content strategy. The kind of content strategy required depends on the company, and industry, but typically the best results are seen from sites that blog at least 2 times per week and up. Furthermore, there should be some thought put into the content. It should be keyword research informed so as to use the best keywords, it should be designed around the target market (one way of doing this is using Personas), and around the different phases of the buying cycle. SEO alone, with thin-to-zero content, just will not drive results – it’s not the way the Internet works any longer. Websites need unique content that speaks to their visitors in order to be successful in the long-run. That is why we no longer take on clients for SEO engagements if they are unwilling to also work on content.
