Good content has the ability to offer something unique and valuable for your audience. Frequently heard around any digitally-focused organization includes a discussion about content strategy, developing fresh content and leveraging it for video or social distribution.

Since the Google Panda update a year ago, fresh and relevant content is more important than ever. Blogs, videos and images are seen as opportunities to develop this type of content further on a more frequent basis, and have it show up though Universal Search with different file formats. However, what we really need to ask is: Will anyone care?  Is it adding something of value (inform, educate, entertain or inspire)?

At the SMX West conference in San Jose this past week, a common theme emerged: the importance of understanding your consumers. Not just who you want you your consumers to be, but who your consumers are now. Through website analytics, advertising analytics and keyword research/competitive tools, keyword insights provide a foundation for developing a successful content strategy. This is not to be abused with keyword stuffing, but to help with the ability to fuel several things:

• Know and understand what content should be created. Are there questions consumers are asking that your brand can produce content to answer? If questions are being asked, there is an opportunity to offer something relevant and valuable.
• What devices are people using for different keywords or searches? Is there a trend here showing an opportunity within mobile or tablets? If so, make sure your content is showing up and created with the user experience in mind, and consider when, where and how they will engage with this content.
• Don’t forget to focus on the SERP experience – keywords, titles, meta-description, content, and user experience.  If no one can find it there is no point in having it.

With Google receiving over 1 billion keyword searches per day and 20 percent being unique searches, consumers are using the platform throughout the entire buying process from searching for information to making a purchase decision and fulfillment. Understanding what consumers are searching for throughout the process, what can be created to uniquely make their search more relevant, and ensuring your brand is showing up is essential in a successful content strategy.

Tags: Content Strategy, Google Panda, Keyword, Search, Search Marketing, SEO, SERP, SMX West

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