The Most Crucial Role SEO Plays in Digital Transformation: The Content Gap
Today’s digital landscape is evolving rapidly. An increasing number of customers are shopping online, and they expect brands to be available at any time of day. That means every detail about a business needs to be visible—on Google, Facebook, and other digital platforms. But there’s a big challenge facing many businesses today: the content gap. Most marketers today have become so reliant on digital that they have forgotten how important it is to provide great content on paper as well as online. If you don’t know what the content gap is, here’s the simplest explanation: It refers to the fact that consumers expect all information related to a brand or company to be available at any time of day. A solution for this challenge can come in different forms, but none is more crucial than SEO (search engine optimization). Let’s take a look at why and how you should implement SEO in your digital transformation strategy if you want to succeed in today’s market.
Why is SEO so important?
Search engines are constantly changing how they display pages on their websites. For example, Google has added features like the Knowledge Graph (which shows information about people and places) and the AMP (accelerated mobile page) to help users find more relevant pages faster. This means that pages with low-quality or no content, or pages that are not optimized for SERPs (search engine result pages) will be ranked lower. The result? Shoppers will have a much harder time finding relevant pages and may even give up looking altogether. With the right strategy, you can improve your SEO and ensure that your site ranks highly on Google and other search engines. People will be able to find your business, and they’ll be able to find the information they need when they need it.
How to Build a Successful SEO Strategy in Your Transformation Process
With all of this in mind, here are a few ways that you can integrate SEO into your digital transformation strategy.
1. Create a Content Strategy The first step to building a successful SEO strategy is to create a content strategy. This will ensure that all content on your site is relevant and helpful for your visitors. You want to focus on topics that your audience is interested in and provide them with information on those topics. You also want to make sure that the information you’re providing on your site is the same information your visitors would find on Google or other search engines.
2. Integrate SEO in Your Content Acquisition Strategy Once you have your content strategy in place, the next thing you’ll need to do is integrate SEO into your content acquisition strategy. What this means is that you’ll need to start looking for quality content to use on your site. You’ll also want to start thinking about where you want to get your content from.
3. Build Out a Digital Marketing Staff As you’re building out a digital marketing staff, make sure to include someone who’s responsible for SEO. This person should be responsible for making sure that SEO is at the forefront of their strategy. SEO shouldn’t be an afterthought, it should be an essential component of your digital transformation. Creating a digital marketing team that’s responsible for SEO means that you’ll have more people to focus on other tactics, like SEM, email marketing, and social media. You’ll also have more people to help you integrate all of these tactics together.
A Practical onsite example of a Successful SEO Strategy
The most successful digital transformation strategies integrate SEO into their overall strategy. The Bing Webmaster Center offers a great example of a successful transformation using SEO. In this example, Bing saw a huge increase in both the amount of traffic and SERP placement of organic (unpaid) results. This was likely due to Bing’s focus on providing helpful and relevant content. To understand why Bing had such a positive shift in organic traffic, you first need to understand what Bing’s content looked like before the transformation. Bing’s content before the transformation was filled with technical information, which Google could not provide in a helpful way.
The Content Gap in Digital Transformation
Now let’s take a look at why and how you should implement SEO in your digital transformation strategy.
The Content Gap in Digital Transformation: Why Is SEO So Important? As we’ve seen so far, each customer has his or her own preferences, needs, and expectations when it comes to a brand or product. That means that you need to be available and present at all times. You also need to be able to answer any questions that customers may have on different topics. With those two points in mind, we can now understand why SEO is so important in today’s digital transformation.
Why is SEO so important in Digital Transformation? First, consider the fact that today’s customers expect quality content across every channel. This means that you need to make it easy for customers to find relevant content in any channel. That, in turn, will make it easier for them to make informed purchasing decisions.
Next steps
Now that you understand the importance of SEO in your digital transformation strategy, it’s time to implement a strategy that will help you build a strong presence on the web. Here are a few ways you can get started.
1. Create an editorial calendar – Without a content calendar, you won’t know what to write or when to publish it. Start by creating a content calendar that outlines when you’ll publish content and what it will be about.
2. Find quality content – Before you start writing, it’s important that you find quality content for users. Look for topics that your audience is interested in and provide them with relevant information.
3. Create an SEO-focused onsite audit – An audit will help you identify the areas in which your site needs improvement. Once you’ve identified those areas, you can begin to implement an SEO-focused strategy to improve your SEO.
What next?
In the end, SEO is about providing your visitors with quality content. That content will only be as good as its rank in Google or other search engines, so make sure to implement an SEO-focused strategy. With the right techniques, you can build a strong presence on the web and rank high on Google. Now, you can easily find relevant information on any topic, and your brand will be available whenever your customers need it most.
Bottom line
The Bing transformation is a great example of what can happen when you integrate SEO into your transformation strategy. This transformation is a great way to help guide your own transformation. With all of this in mind, you can see that there’s an obvious correlation between content and Google ranking. You need great content to rank well, but you also need to be able to actually find that content. That’s where SEO comes into play.