15 ways to get smarter with your content and SEO

Content remains at the core of successful consumer interactions, engagements, experiences and conversions – especially in a new era of advanced generative AI technologies.  

Today, we are looking at a new content landscape. This is where content production is exploding to epic proportions making it harder for content to stand out, be discovered and convert.

Humans and machines must work better together to ensure content is relevant, differentiated, and helpful for the reader. 

This also includes balancing SEO and content best practices to ensure that content and sites are optimized for human help rather than robot rankings.

The challenge: Despite the tremendous resources devoted to content creation, much of it could fall flat and fail to engage audiences. This disappoints creators and deprives consumers of experiencing something new, helpful, or meaningful.

The opportunity: Marketers with a strong understanding of SEO and content best practices and the ability to utilize AI for their strategies and tactics – from creation through optimization – will quickly gain a competitive advantage. They can achieve outstanding results by striking the perfect balance between human insight and AI applications. 

Content marketing is expected to experience a massive surge in growth, estimated at over $584 billion by 2027.  

The use of AI for SEO and content is set to grow 5x this year. 

Content marketing growth

This article will explore content through the SMART goal-setting framework, which stands for:

  • Specific.
  • Measurable.
  • Achievable.
  • Relevant.
  • Timely.

S: Being specific and answering with speed wins every time

Consumers crave information that is helpful, relevant and delivered at speed.

As a result, today’s content marketers need insights delivered faster than ever, so they have specific insights to power their content. 

Content is not about what your marketing team wants to say. It is about providing insight and information that your audience wants to hear and read.

SMART content is designed for a specific audience based on your understanding of their needs, preferences and intent.

1. Understand your audiences and the markets they operate in detail 

From keyword and conversational keyword (more on that later) research to understanding the intent of your consumers – where they live, what they’re searching for, when and where in the purchase funnel – and how they interact with your brand on social media.

Knowing who you are writing content for is paramount to creating SMART pieces that serve a real purpose.

How well do you understand the competitive environment in the verticals you’re creating content for? Today, you compete more than ever for attention, eyes and clicks.

Your competitors may be other companies, but you could compete for space in the SERPs against media brands, bloggers, influencers and more.

Without that bigger picture, a bird’s-eye view of relevant search and social spaces, you’re flying blind.

By assessing how your competition is neglecting to address specific topics and identifying those gaps, you can capitalize on creating compelling content which resonates with people in the right way at the opportune time.

2. Understand and embrace generative

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