content writing: a marketing strategy

Deeya Nayar-NambiarCore Faculty- BMM

Self-Finance DepartmentGhanshyamdas Saraf College, Mumbai

27th Nov 2012

Introduction The business of words conveyed best in the right sentences, paragraphs, grammar and

spellings, has become the strong tool of online marketing in the era of globalisation.

The best business is one which can communicate well and reach out to millions of people across the world.

With the internet revolutionising the various forms of media, it is content writing that has gained prominence as a means of communication.

This is mainly because “content writing is a branch of content marketing, which aims at writing in a way that draws the targeted audience to the site in engaging them to active participation. This participation may include readers commenting on blogs and social networks, clicking ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ or ‘Tweet’ about the written post or uploaded video.”

Further, to enhance the content visibility on the search engines like google and yahoo, more and more writers are making use of keywords, better known as search engine optimisation (SEO) for search engine marketing (SEM) of their end product.

Background of the studySearch Engine Optimisation (SEO)

A good content strategy often begins with the use of search engine optimization (SEO) technique to obtain higher number of visits to the site.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can be defined as an Internet marketing strategy that helps to improve the visibility of a web page or a website in a search engine’s (e.g. Google, MSN, Yahoo) search results.

A web writer makes use of keywords, searches for new keywords and works on specific keywords to get new traffic.

Background of the Study (Cont.)Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

It is necessary to mention search engine marketing (SEM), which in short, “is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).”

It is a rather broad term that utilizes the technology of search engines with the goal of “combining the two processes of search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC)”.

It would be better to say that, “no SEM campaign is complete without SEO.”

Background of the Study (Cont.)SEO in SEM

An SEO content writer would take into account some of the questions as to :

Who is the audience? What do they like, talk about or want to know? Where do they spend their time most on (for example, social networking

site, online games, reading books)? Why should the content be written? What should be the objective of writing? When should the right content as a source of information be transferred? How to keep track of the visits?

Background of the Study (Cont.)SEO IN SEM

Along with content writing, a web page is also seen to carry advertisements and related links to other sites that contain content to similar keyword search. Apparently, such ads and links also include the keyword in the given link.

To achieve good content writing and content marketing positions, the path requires constant analysis and evaluation to know the right approach that would best fit the targeted audience at a specific time.

There are various keyword analysis tools such as the Google Keyword Tool that help uncover ‘the words most often employed by search engine users’.

This would optimize the site to rank well for specific terms; which in turn would ensure a company could dominate the front page of search results.

Objective of the StudyThe main objective of the study is to understand the role of Search Engine

Optimisation (SEO) content in Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

To analyse the search pattern of internet users that indirectly support content marketing, thus creating business opportunities.

HypothesisThe specific keywords that are part of search engine optimisation in a

content and tools of marketing strategy, is directly related to the search patterns displayed by the internet users.

Research MethodologyThe present study is exploratory in nature. It is also analytical as it

examines the nature of search pattern displayed by internet users across the globe.

Sources of Data :

The data needed for the present study has been collected from the secondary sources. These include a varied range of websites and web pages including blogs that appeared on the search engine www.google.com.

For the purpose of the study, web pages were randomly picked. Each page was studied closely to identify the variables that were commonly found.

The pages on the search engine were examined from the point of view of the use of the keywords in the title, content, comments, links and tags, and descriptions that appeared below the images, end of the page, right below the headline etc..

Sample of StudyA set of six questions collected from the internet search based on the

suggestions posed by google was used as sample.

The search was done using the 5W’s and One H model used by journalists – who, what, where, when, why and how.

The study was mainly done using some of the interesting questions that were asked by the internet users frequently.

These were the questions that came up several times while searching for the main keyword.

Further, under each searched question, the study of 10 sites that were randomly picked from the web pages listed in the google search engine has been analysed.

Analysis of Data The websites for the study answered the following questions:

1. Beginning with “who”. The randomly picked, most commonly searched, and interesting question was “Who is God”.

2. Beginning with “what”. The randomly picked, most commonly searched, and interesting question was “What is love”.

3. Beginning with “where”. The randomly picked, most commonly searched, and interesting question was “Where can I download free movies”.

4. Beginning with “when”. The randomly picked, most commonly searched, and interesting question was “When will I die”.

5. Beginning with “why”. The randomly picked, most commonly searched, and interesting question was “Why am I so tired”.

6. Beginning with “how”. The randomly picked, most commonly searched, and interesting question was “How to speak English”.

Findings Who

The detailed analysis of the question on “Who is God”, the keyword search was done using the word “God”. The results showed that the keyword God appeared 58.5 times on an average from 10 websites.

Question Keyword TitleDescripti

onContent

Comments

Links Total

misc tags

Who is God? God 1 3 60 14 78

Who is God? God 1 0 22 2 25


Who is God? God 1 36 30 67



Who is God? God 1 1 12 17 31


Who is God? God 1 1 50 15 67

Who is God? God 1 2 211 18 16 248

TOTAL 10 13 439 18 105 585

Who

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total

Links

Comments

Content

Description

Title

Findings (Cont.)What The detailed analysis of the question on “What is Love”, the keyword search was done

using the word “Love”. The results showed that the keyword “Love” appeared 73.6 times on an average from 10 websites.

Question Keyword Title Description Content Comments Links Total

misc tags

What is love Love 1 3 42 119 7 172


What is love Love 1 2 26 38 67








TOTAL 10 17 331 227 151 736

What

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total

Links

Comments

Content

Description

Title

Findings (Cont.)Where

The detailed analysis of the question on “Where can I download free movies”, the keyword search was done using the word “movie”. The results showed that the keyword “Movie” appeared 47.1 times on an average from 10 websites.

Question Keyword TitleDescriptio

n ContentComment

s Links Total

misc tags

Where can I download free movies Movie 1 16 1 47 65

Where can I download free movies Movie 1 8 3 12


Where can I download free movies Movie 1 3 20 2 13 39







TOTAL 9 9 126 152 175 471

Where

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total

Links

Comments

Content

Description

Title

Findings (Cont.)When

The detailed analysis of the question on “When will I die”, the keyword search was done using the word “Die”. The results showed that the keyword “Die” appeared 13.8 times on an average from 10 websites. (Interestingly, there were more than 30 sites that used the keyword search in quiz, question and answers, death calculators etc.).


misc tags

When will I die Die 1 28 7 36



When will I die Die 1 7 8

When will I die Die 1 1 4 1 7






TOTAL 10 6 77 4 41 138

When

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total

Links

Comments

Content

Description

Title

Findings (Cont.)Why The detailed analysis of the question on “Why am I tired”, the keyword search was done using the word

“Fatigue”. The results showed that the keyword “Fatigue” appeared 26 times on an average from 10 websites.(Interestingly, there were more than 20 sites that used the word tired and fatigue interchangeably. There were also more than 10 sites that used the same content through different sites).


misc tags

Why am I so tired Fatigue 1 0 25 0 25 51










TOTAL 9 7 154 19 71 260

Why

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total

Links

Comments

Content

Description

Title

Findings (Cont.)How

The detailed analysis of the question on “How to speak English”, the keyword search was done using the word “English”. The results showed that the keyword “English” appeared 53.7 times on an average from 10 websites.


misc tags

How to speak English English 1 2 66 55 124

How to speak English English 1 40 37 78



How to speak English English 1 1 15 24 4 45

How to speak English English 1 14 4 19





TOTAL 10 13 230 38 246 537

How

0

50

100

150

200

250

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total

Links

Comments

Content

Description

Title

ConclusionWhy has content writing gained a strong footing in business today? Thequestion can be answered differently. Firstly, good content writing with its SEO techniques is a business that manages to

draw audience to websites. On the other hand, the SEO aspect of the content along with the number of visits, and number of sharing of that content, would hold the key to bring it in the first page of the search engine. In other words, SEO is a business of SEM.

Secondly, SEM is a business that makes use of SEO and PPC advertisement (Pay-per-click) to increase visibility and promote websites. Here, specially designed search engine marketing practices involve business concept of money, customer and profit.

Thirdly, with the global economic scenario witnessing ruthless competition amongst “global businesses, manufacturers and retailers, producers and distribution channels, sellers and buyers,” most of the small and big businesses are indulging in online business promotions.

“The movement is more from offline efforts to capture customers to online relationship building to win customers.” At such a point customised SEO contents and SEM techniques help to create greater visibility.

Therefore, it is rightly said that in web, content is the king.

Limitations and SuggestionsLimitations:

The present study is entirely based on secondary data from the internet.

The findings can be considered as the perspectives of the content writer and content provider purely from the search engine marketing point of view.

Search engine optimization (SEO) makes use of complex keyword

strategies, backlink building many other techniques to make a website more attractive to search engines, which has not been dealt in detail in this study.

Suggestions:

The present study holds a scope for understanding the trends of content marketing in online journalism including e-papers.

Bibliography Books

1. Stovall Glen James : Writing for the MASS media, Pearson Education, Sixth Edition2. Gaur Sanjay: e-Journalism, Yking Books, 2011

Websites

1. Herbert, J., Working Towards Practical Theory of Journalism, Staffordshire University, UKhttp://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1254&context=apme2. Tobert Andrew, Why SEOhttp://www.wordtracker.com/academy/why-seo3. Content & Search Engine Ranking Factorshttp://searchengineland.com/guide/seo/content-search-engine-ranking4. Online Marketinghttp://yellowearthtechnologies.com/onlinemarketing.html5. Trond Lingbo, What’s in a Word? The Role of Keyword Selection for Business Growthhttp://searchengineland.com/whats-in-a-word-the-critical-role-of-keyword-selection-for-business-

growth-1173846.What is Content Marketing?If You’re Not Content Marketing, You’re Not Marketinghttp://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/

Thank You