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The difference between content that is shareworthy versus searchworthy

Posted by Sheera Eby on March 17, 2015

Is your content marketing plan considered shareworthy content or searchworthy? Determining the goal for content is critical to ensure driving successful results. While both social media and search engine optimization (SEO) may have similarities in content marketing, there are a few nuances to consider. Determining your goal up front can help shape the type of content to be developed.

 

 

Searchable content: A question of queries
Organic search is still the most effective form of online advertising by far. Search Engine Land reports that organic search accounts for over 51% of traffic for B2B marketers,1 with social media traffic falling well behind. In the past, SEO used a complex tool kit of tricks geared toward pushing website pages up in search engine results. Today, SEO is more about divining user intent; sites need to respond to user queries in a comprehensive and consistent way to succeed. As noted by Forbes, a great deal of SEO today is about forging relationships and building credibility;2 the source is now just as important as the content itself. And when developing content, that matters a great deal.

 

List-driven articles are one of the most common forms of content. According to HubSpot, lists are one of the most consistently popular forms of content online.3 Effective searchable content is keyword-oriented and intended to solve a user’s problems, address a user’s question and provide answers. The reason lists are probably so effective in search is that lists have stopping power. Users get an immediate sense of relief that someone has compiled the information for them already and done all of their legwork.

 

So how can you improve the effectiveness of search-focused content? Each piece of content needs to be lengthy, valuable, and most importantly, targeted. Long-tail keywords ensure that content marketing remains specific while the demand for credible authorship requires a certain investment in both accuracy and readability. SEO content, as noted, has the advantage of longevity, as it can live in cyberspace forever. Though it may take longer to gain momentum, search engine optimized content has the goal of remaining relevant for a long time to come – it is a long-term investment in the future of a content marketing campaign.

 


Social content: Consumed differently
Social content differs from searchable content primarily due to how it’s received and consumed. Social media content has to have stopping power to be effective, and generally benefits from more intriguing titles and posts. While all content needs to be informative to be successful, searchable content tends to benefit from straightforward titling (answering user’s questions) and social content titles tend to perform better when they have more intrigue.

Additionally, social content should be considered from the standpoint of whether a user would find it shareworthy, insightful enough to comment on or even “like.” It would be inaccurate to say that social content is a "quality over quantity" game.

 

Truly shareworthy content is both entertaining and insightful, but it also needs to be published at a great frequency to be truly effective. According to Buffer, social content should be posted about once a day,4 with the exception of Twitter, where content can be posted to up to 30 times a day.
Most social content does not last long. According to MarketingCharts, the first 30 minutes of social activity gives a Facebook post 50% of its ultimate reach.5 In other words, the engagement related to a Facebook post lasts a matter of hours rather than days. Comparatively, SEO content is designed to remain useful for months, if not years. In fact, most search engine optimized content will take weeks to months to gain any traction.

 

 

Hybrid content: Creating searchable, social content
Searchable content and social content are not mutually exclusive. Content marketing campaigns can create content that is both searchable and social. As a matter of fact, the two work together. As reported by Search Engine Land, social media following can directly affect search engine ranking6 in a variety of ways. When used together, searchable content and socially friendly content can augment each other.

 

Consider not only the types of articles, but the posts and promotion. The same article that can rank effectively by search standards can be repackaged with an intriguing post to get social users’ attention. By considering the entire user experience, content can be effectively used for both purposes. Jacobs & Clevenger can help you learn more about how content marketing can be effectively used. Sign up now for our free content marketing assessment today.

 

 

Sources

Topics: Digital Marketing

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