By its broadest definition, content is everything your business uses to communicate. On your website, it includes images, videos, customer testimonials, infographics, the words in your blog posts and on your web pages, and more. Elsewhere, it includes your social media posts and digital ads, plus anything you do via traditional channels, such as print, TV and radio.

When we talk about content with our clients in the context of digital marketing, we’re nearly always referring to the writing we do for web pages, blog posts, articles for third-party publication, and special projects such as in-depth guides for a specific service or product.

SEO content is created to attract the right attention from search engines so that it ranks well in response to users’ search queries. It’s based on keyword research and an understanding of who the desired audience is and what their intentions are as they search. It typically includes well-placed links to other web pages (on your own site, on others’ sites, or both), and uses keywords as naturally as possible, and with strategic restraint.

What SEO content isn’t is as important to understand as what it is: It’s not cramming in so many keywords that their use is obvious. It’s not including links to irrelevant content with the sole purpose of appearing on another, more authoritative website. Tactics such as these are not only ineffective—they can actually do harm and keep a client’s website from ever ranking well in search results.

In the first phases of our SEO work, a great deal of time is spent on a technical review of your site to uncover opportunities for improvements and fixes, researching competitors’ digital marketing, in-depth keyword research, and on-site optimization tasks. After that setup work is done, the best way to keep improving your search engine rankings is to regularly create new content. This helps us target competitive search terms, promote any new services or products you’re introducing, build trust and authority, and keep site visitors moving closer to engaging with your business.

There’s been a lot of confusion about the difference between content writing and content marketing over the years, and it continues today. In our agency, content writing is creating marketable content, while content marketing is not only content development, but also how that content is marketed or shared (although you can’t have the latter without the former). Content marketing is about building relationships with the right audiences by educating and engaging them, whether that’s through social media or a blog post.

Long-form content has grown in popularity over the years in response to signs that Google rewards longer content with better rankings. While Google tends to keep definitive information close to the vest, data shows the advantages of publishing long-form content with at least 1,200 to 1,500 words (and much longer in some instances). As Search Engine Land notes, long-form content can help position you as an expert, improve your search engine results page (SERP) rankings, grow your audience, and make sharing and engagement more likely.

At DAGMAR Marketing, we recommend long-form content for most of our clients in most situations. The goal is not to make every piece that’s published meet an arbitrary standard for length, though, since some topics—such as an announcement about a company award or a change in pricing—simply don’t warrant a long narrative.

We have a team of experienced writers who create these types of content and more for clients across a spectrum of industries:

• Blog posts
• Website copy
• Landing pages for PPC campaigns
• Display ads
• Emails
• Articles and guest blog posts for third-party websites

Businesses of all types and sizes can benefit from high-quality content. Our writers’ industry experience includes:

• Law firms
• Retail stores
• Real estate developers
• Financial institutions
• Pest control providers
• Healthcare facilities
• Golf courses
• Restaurants
• Private schools
• Technology companies
• Design/build construction companies
• Logistics and transportation companies
• Media companies

At DAGMAR, our content writers know how to achieve these goals:

• Create interesting, well-written content that helps readers learn about your business—how you can help them solve their problems and why you are the best one to do that
• Include all of the signals that the search engines will use to gauge how relevant your content is to users and how well it syncs up with the users’ intent
• Do both of the above in natural language that’s easy to understand

Writing optimized content well is about finding the balance between what’s useful to the reader while playing by the search engines’ rules. It’s an art and a science, and our writing team is adept at both. We have deep experience in traditional advertising and marketing, digital marketing and much more.