Symbiotic relationship between two dissimilar objects in nature benefits both, albeit two different ways. For instance, Honey Birds (confined to sub-Saharan Africa) are well-known for their interaction with humans. Also called honeyguides, they deliberately lead humans to bee colonies so that they can feast on the leftovers after men have collected their honey. The rhino and egrets are good friends, though they have nothing in common. Nevertheless, the rhino enjoys relief from the attack of ticks embedded on its skin when the egret picks them up and gobbles them with relish.

The same is true with Content and SEO, although they are poles apart in their performance and practice. While the content serves as the lifeblood of website, SEO improves it through various means. Yet, to consider one without thinking about the other would be a fallacy.

SEO is a powerful tool, but Content is king

Yes, you must have heard over and over again that Content is King when it comes to SEO success. Incidentally, that’s one of the reasons why the  Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors starts with the content ‘elements’ where the very first element is content quality.

“Once you have got your content right, you have built the underpinnings to support all of your other SEO efforts”, announces a foremost SEO guru.

 

What do you mean by quality content?

Ask yourself some of the questions outlined below in regard to your content and if you can answer them correctly, you have reached your destination.

• Have you provided a reason for visitors to spend a few seconds reading your pages?
• Have you offered true value, something of substance to your visitors that they can find unique and useful; so different from others?
• Have you made it relevant and readable?
• Have you gone beyond producing a run-of-the mill brochure that contains nothing but bragging?

 

SEO and Content: Compatibility is Key

When you are considering content, more precisely in terms of content marketing, some controversies crop up about the role of SEO. Does SEO fit with content marketing? Are they compatible? Is one more important than the other? Understandably, the ideal way to resolve the issue lies in establishing a balance in which they can work together in providing the highest value for your business. But here again, another issue comes up as Google’s new algorithm sends out messages in no uncertain manner that ‘creating high-quality content is more important then ever’. That surely does not mean that SEO is now a second class citizen.

Incidentally, in a recent PR Daily article, Sarah Skerik, PR Newswire’s vice president of strategic communications & content, wrote, “Google interprets user actions as important indicators of content quality, working on the assumption that people won’t like, share, post, or click on content they don’t consider useful or interesting.”

To sum it up all, there seems to be some simple tactics that you can use to improve your content’s searchability, such as creating longer articles or posts, including a call to action, writing naturally (while also incorporating key words), and using images.

 

Things to Keep in Mind to Improve the Content-SEO symbiosis

Create your content with one foot on the marketing boat

Concentrate on using stronger verbs, inspiring themes, engaging paragraphs culminating in sales. Also, get a draft done that will be happy with the way you are communicating.

Select your keywords

Go through your content to evaluate the keywords you intend to focus on for SEO. Alternatively, use Google’s related search to help define significant search terms and phrases that others have already searched for. This will help you finding new ideas to improve content-SEO symbiosis.

Be a little more technical

Go back to your marketing draft and rethink pieces of it based on your selected keywords and phrases. Find ways to naturally weave these into your content. As you’re writing, also use Article Titles (seen by users), Page Titles (what search engines see), and Meta Descriptions (what search engines see), making sure they are all different. Page Titles allow you to rev up your SEO with juicy keywords. Meta Descriptions are often pulled as the two-line description that’s displayed in the search. This can allow for a more creative Article Title, whilst getting the SEO juice you want.

Make sure your content still remains unique

After checking all the issues outlined above, make sure your content still remains engaging and communicating your message.

Keep also in mind that the Content-SEO symbiosis largely depends upon multiple rounds of refinement where each must be allowed to play its own significant role.