Are you sick of trying to navigate social media algorithms or panicking every time there’s an outage that could affect your social enterprise? We get it.
Regular algorithm updates and the unveiling of fresh digital strategies can make you question your marketing efforts, but when it comes to successful approaches, SEO is here to stay.
SEO is a more sustainable and reliable way to grow your social business with qualified leads.
We live in an age where information is only a click away, where most people turn to Google for insight. SEO is here for businesses who want to play the long game, and not only rely on social media. Developing a sustainable SEO strategy takes time and diligence.
Let’s go over a few important details first:
SEO Is This, Not That
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is sustainable and a long-term strategy for social businesses. When approached from the right angle, social impact businesses can reach their stakeholders, investors, and audience while also ranking on Google!
SEO is NOT:
- Creating pages and posts of repeat content
- Something you can set and forget about
- Stuffing keywords
SEO is:
- Catering to your audience, not just search engines
- Engaging and searchable for your ideal clients
- Built for the long-run
SEO strategies are often misunderstood, mostly because Google is constantly changing their guidelines for SEO. Reaching key stakeholders and your audience while growing your business is possible with the right SEO practices put into place.
We teamed up with Julia of Julia Renee Consulting to create a course called “How to Use SEO & Content to Rank on Google and Reach More Clients.” for impact-driven businesses who want guidance!
The Connection Between SEO and Content Marketing
Content marketing and SEO actually go hand-in-hand. Do you know how they complement each other?
You’ve probably heard “content is king” plenty of times, and it’s true, but to a certain degree. While content may reign ‘supreme’… distribution is queen, and she wears the pants in this relationship. Think of SEO as a part of distribution for your mission-driven business and how you can reach the masses.
You can write incredibly engaging content, but without the proper SEO practices (distribution), your audience may never get the opportunity to engage with you or learn about the impact you’re making.
When you craft intentional and valuable content, you can reach your target audience before they even search for your services on Google. If you’re ready to tailor sincere content that will be discoverable by your audience, here are a few points to keep in mind.
How to Implement a Sustainable SEO Strategy
Be clear on keywords –
You can’t move forward with content creation if you’re not sure who your content will be geared towards. Take some time to define your target audience so you can generate content that matters, whether it’s video, social media, blogs, etc.
This also means start researching what keywords they’re looking for. How do they search information? What are they looking for that your impact business can provide answers to? Don’t just think of short keywords (ie: social change), tailor your keyword searches for longtail keywords.
Longtail keywords are more specific and niched, but this means the people searching for these words are ready to buy, work with you, or invest to help you create change.
READ: Keywords 101: How to Use Keywords for SEO Optimization – written by Julia Renee Consulting.
Care More About Your Audience than Google –
Google is important, but who’s behind the screen reading your content?
Humans.
And humans want relevant, interesting, and engaging content. As a social enterprise, you’re producing content to help your audience understand the impact you have and how you’re actively creating change. If you’re only writing content for Google, your audience will quickly notice.
One way to understand more about your audience is to constantly analyze your website’s Google Analytics. Where do they come from? Where are they finding your content? What are there interests outside of your social impact business?
From there, you can create a correlation list to understand what your audience cares about to create content that is interesting and fresh.
Optimize Your Content –
Lastly, optimized content will ALWAYS help your sustainable SEO strategy. Optimized content includes:
- Correct headers
- Appropriate backlinks
- Reliable outbound links to trusted websites
- Images with alt tags
- Keywords
- Short paragraphs
- Lists and images to break up large chunks of text
As we mentioned in the beginning, SEO is not a ‘set it and forget it strategy’. Optimized content is always being edited, tweaked, and revamped to include more relevant information, updated links, and updates from the writer.
READ: 9 Expensive SEO Mistakes You’re (Probably) Making – and How to Fix Them FAST – written by The Content Factory
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Sustainable SEO Strategy for Content Marketing
Social enterprises, purpose-driven businesses, and not-for-profits can easily implement SEO strategies for a sustainable content marketing campaign. By following these first 3 steps:
- Research long-tail keywords
- Understand and frequently review your Google Analytics
- Optimize your content for easy readability
Bonus – update your old content periodically with new information and refreshed links!
Are you looking for more guidance on these three steps as well as some bonus info? Trade in your confusion for some clarity when you sign up for the ‘How to use SEO & Content to Rank on Google and Reach More Clients‘ course!
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Want more content goodness? DOWNLOAD your very own Content Generating Machine to help you go from idea, to content, to community, and clients!
