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How to Choose the Best SEO Content Marketing Services

Ginny Dwyer August 22, 2023 2886 Views 9 min read Share

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What makes for the best SEO content marketing services, and how do you know if they are the right company for you? Whether the goal is to build trust, gain exposure, or influence purchasing decisions, your sought-after services will help attract highly qualified leads to grow your business. They perform all the activities to rank your website and articles higher in search engines.

There are differences between SEO agencies and SEO content marketing services. Some offer On-page optimization (improving title tags and meta descriptions, researching keywords, and writing new content—this is where Responsify fits best), Off-page (conducting link outreach), and Technical SEO (optimizing your page speed or mobile-friendliness.) We break down the differences and discover which service best fits your needs.

SEO and Content Marketing: How to Make Them Work Together

SEO is the art and science of getting pages to rank higher in search engines such as Google. Content marketing is the strategic creation of valuable, relevant, engaging content designed to indirectly promote your brand, product, or service and help gain traction to rank on the first page of Google. Combined, they include research, optimization, content creation, and keywords. Together they are your foundation for achieving business goals through content. So if you’re looking for an SEO content service, they should conduct the following:

Research

Research in the early phase begins with gathering information through insight calls or great discussions with marketing leaders and subject matter experts to gain knowledge and understand the business and the challenges they are up against, and the pain points their customers are actively trying to solve. The research begins to outline a growth content game plan for success. Much of the strategy centers on discovering target buyer personas and the unique buyer’s journey with their related goals and challenges.

Part two of the research is digging into what content is already performing best (if there is content in the form of blog posts) and where improvements can easily be made. Best SEO content marketing services can brainstorm content ideas and the keyword(s) to match the article after knowing the customer’s pain points.

Optimization

Through optimization, content is enhanced for search engines. If the existing content is not ranking and is older, re-optimizing past content is key. It can be as simple as taking another look at the current Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for the keyword and bringing an existing article up-to-date to compete with the new SERP environment.

For example, a competitor could have created a more informative post, the search intent behind the keyword you initially used may have shifted, and of course, Google’s algorithm could have changed rankings. On-page SEO takes a front seat to help with rankings. A quick look at older posts shows if keywords are used, including semantic keywords, and H1, H2, and H3 headlines are in place—basic SEO principles. Other services could include off-page SEO, as in guest posting or link building. And taking it a step further, some SEO agencies (that are not as focused on the content side of it) offer technical SEO—tactics to help search engines crawl and index your site. (mobile friendliness, broken links, etc.)

Content

Content is a crucial component of SEO. Once buyer personas are in place with common pain points, topic ideas will start to reveal themselves. Excellent services create content to meet potential customers’ needs at every stage of their buying journey.

• Informational content (Awareness) – responds to phrases like, “What is. . ., How to. . .” At this stage, consumers are searching for information. They are not ready to purchase and are solely looking for education and information. They know they have a pain/problem and need answers. In the awareness stage, consumers are not yet thinking about solutions or, even further down the road, providers for the solution.
• Consideration (Solution aware) – Consumers are in the process of making a decision. They are aware of a problem and now seeking a solution. They are still not ready to buy, a step away from the decision stage. The content written here is designed for conversion. If you’re a SaaS company, a call-to-action could be to ‘Start a free trial’ or ‘Get a demo.’
• Decision (Provider aware) – The consumer is narrowing down their choices to purchase. They decided on their solution and are comparing providers, vendors, agencies, etc.

Keywords

With the right keywords, you’ll indirectly move prospects through a funnel. Any SEO content marketing services aim to show up for keywords in search results and get users to convert into customers. The job is to choose the right keywords to go after so search engines can understand what your article is about. It becomes a science to choose the right keywords to rank for, understand keyword difficulty, domain authority, the existing landscape of the SERPs, and the art or creativity to get people to click through and engage with your article and seek out more information, by scheduling a consultation, get a free assessment, contact us—have them move to take action.

Get Your Traffic, Rankings, and Sales Up With SEO Content Marketing Services

As alluded to at the beginning of our post, there is a difference in services—especially SEO services.

Some SEO services offer:

1. Technical SEO (page speed analysis, schema markup strategies)

2. On-Page SEO (keyword research, internal linking, content implementation)

3. Link building (blogger outreach, digital public relations)

4. PPC services with their SEO

Responsify believes in the one-two punch—two forces combined—best On-Page SEO practices and stellar content. We laid out what we see as a Growth Content Game Plan with research, optimization, content creation, and keywords. And this does include researching competitors and their digital landscape — the number of blog posts, domain authority, and monthly website traffic.

Content marketing and blogging services vary, as do their prices. While other services tend to publish endless thin, weak content, we develop a custom content marketing plan built on the right keywords, creative content, optimization, and competitor research.

Custom Content Plan

Let’s look at a piece of content.

We mentioned awareness stage content. Somebody trying to educate themselves on Inbound might go to Google and search “what is inbound.” They would find (at least at the time of this writing). . .

The article, What Does Inbound Mean? A Comprehensive Guide to the Inbound Marketing Funnel sits at the top of Google as the featured snippet/Position #0. (short snippet of text that appears at the top of Google’s search results and answers the query.) You’ll boost your organic click-through rate if you get your content in the Featured Snippet.

How’d we do it?

• Wrote a detailed educational awareness stage piece with a fitting and within-reach keyword. Meaning the keyword difficulty was within our domain authority, and the article met the search intent expectations.
• Implemented On-Page SEO best practices
• Answered a common question. We gave the searchers a direct, concise definition.
• Optimized the content on the page so Google would choose to use the content in the Featured Snippet.
• We analyzed the post-progression after 90-120 days.

When choosing the best SEO content marketing service, make sure they can create content at each stage as you progress as a business. (Awareness, Consideration, and Decision)

At the consideration stage, your potential customers are searching for a solution. They are doing more detailed research on whether or not your product or service is a good fit for them. Comparison guides or case studies are examples at this stage. Case studies can be used at the decision stage too. The point of the content is to show the reader, potential customers, that the solution works by showcasing the results of a similar persona that appeals to their emotions and logic through detailed information and data.

At the decision stage, your sales-qualified leads are comparing services or agencies to make a choice. The buyers have decided on a solution category and are evaluating providers. Using comparisons, your potential buyer can better understand the right solution. An example would be ‘Tool A vs. Tool B: In-depth comparison.’ (Ahrefs vs. Semrush) We compared blogging services, 5 Business Blogging Services for Your B2B (How They Differ.) In the post, we dive into the key characteristics of working with an Inbound partner from the lens of our service and how it differs from others. We listed other competing services so the reader could research, compare, and make an informed decision.

Content Development and Content Creation

SEO is the process of building your company’s web presence to connect with consumers. Where some SEO services are drawn to technical SEO—site architecture, indexing, page speed, and mobile friendliness, which are extremely important, and others offer PPC and Paid Search, we offer more of the content marketing services with a well-developed SEO content strategy to attract and engage your audience.

We created a tailored content strategy with an editorial calendar to build out campaign concepts with keyword discovery that ranked our client on the search engine results page (SERPs). This helped grow their business by engaging and educating their ideal audience. Keyword research was based on the challenges and goals of their defined buyer persona profiles. As a case in point, we show how we helped an established B2B company scale with strategic content. One marketing campaign covers 12 blog posts with a premium offer and landing page design and development. And every excellent content strategy should include marketing and lead-generation campaigns.

Email Marketing and Lead Generation

Another consideration when choosing content marketing services is “Do they offer any type of email marketing or lead generation nurturing?” One of the best ways to increase your sales is through email marketing. You can nurture leads with email marketing once you have leads in your database. You’ve spent the time creating awesome content; share it with your leads. We’re not talking about blasting every piece of content to your database. Strategically, thought-out, segmented content to the right audience is a proven tactic to drive sales opportunities. With every campaign we create, we build out emails that coincide with the post and a social media message. Email nurturing can be done as part of the content marketing strategy with your blog content or as a more product-focused add-on with short-term, bottom-of-the-funnel quick wins.

Things to Consider Before Hiring Your Content Creators and SEO Consultants

Knowing what to look for in a great SEO management company and content service can be the difference between ultra-targeted organic traffic, better Google rankings, and increased conversions or traffic that is broad and non-intentional, will never convert and Google will bury your post so deep it’ll never see the sights of the first page. Understand their strategy and how they are going to grow your business. A big red flag is if they guarantee results in an extraordinarily short amount of time. SEO content takes time, and it is impossible to guarantee a specific rank. Google is fickle, with its search algorithm constantly changing. However, stick to SEO best practices with stellar content, and you’ll see results.

A few good benchmarks:

1. Evaluate their content quality – Content is a crucial component of SEO. Assess the quality of the content produced by the content service provider. Look for well-written, engaging, and informative blog posts, website copy, and other forms of content they have created. Verify if they can tailor content to your target audience.

2. Consider their knowledge of SEO tools – Effective SEO content marketing often involves various tools and technologies. To work smart, your service provider should use the most up-to-date tools for keyword research, analytics, competitor analysis, and SEO optimization.

3. Review their reporting and analytics – Quarterly reporting and analysis are essential to track the progress and effectiveness of SEO content marketing campaigns. Agree on specific metrics to track. Transparent reporting helps both teams make more informed data-driven decisions.

4. Discuss communication and collaboration – Communication is vital for successful collaboration. Evaluate how responsive and accessible the service provider is. Responsify has an app that handles 95% of the communication—with the other 5% being online meetings and emails.

5. Consider budget and scalability – Evaluate the pricing structure of the content marketing service agencies. All are not created equal. . . You can take several approaches with differences in each service and pricing. . .

While cost and budget are a consideration, prioritize the value and results you expect. Discuss pricing options, contractual terms, and possibly scaling the services as your business grows.

6. Seek references and recommendations – Hearing about others’ experiences can provide valuable insights and help you make an informed decision. Check out their customer testimonials or reviews on top sites.

7. Trust your instincts –  Finally, trust your instincts when choosing an SEO content marketing service provider. If something feels off or you’re unsure about their capabilities, it may be best to explore other options. Select a provider you feel comfortable and confident working with. If you’re a B2B leader or marketing professional, you and your team probably don’t have the time to spend hours every week contemplating content with all its intricacies. If this sounds like you, our team is here to deliver your content growth model.

If you decide that Responsify is best for you, get a fresh perspective on your marketing with a free assessment. Click here to book your content strategy session now!