As you’re on a website that sells content marketing services you would think that the answer we give would be a resounding, “YES”, wouldn’t you?
However, the real answer is, “It depends.”
From a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective, if you’re in a smaller, less competitive market you can probably get to the top of the search rankings with only 4 or 5 pages of content and a few good backlinks.
But if you’re in a more competitive market and search rankings matter to you, having good content and a decent amount of it is almost always necessary.
Not sure about that? Do a Google search as if you were a prospective client looking for the services you sell. Something like, “Accountant in Houston”
First thing that you’ll likely notice is that page one is almost completely dominated with high authority sites. Google recognizes those sites as high-authority because they have a ton of content. Lots of links too but it is mostly the content that drives up the domain authority.
You’ll likely see only 2 or 3 actual local accounting sites on the first page. If you click through to any of those you can bet that they have an active blog, news section or they are otherwise putting out decent content and adding to their sites on a regular basis.
Right or wrong, content is what Google is always on the lookout for and content is what they reward.
Aside from better search rankings, creating and sharing content has a few additional benefits and they’re just as important.
Benefits of Good Content to a Local Business
If you’re a local business owner and you’ve been at it for any length of time, chances are pretty good that you know what you’re doing. At least, one would hope that is the case 🙂
People want to do business with experts – especially if the task is something important or requires a significant investment on their part. Open heart surgery, replacing a roof, getting dental implants would all definitely fall into this category.
On the other hand, deciding who to get to deliver your Chinese food probably wouldn’t.
In the former case, the prospective client will want to know that they’re dealing with the best and that their risk is mitigated as much as possible. There are only a handful of ways that they can be assured of that.
- Reviewing reviews or testimonials
- Reviewing past projects
- Being assured of some sort of satisfaction guarantee prior to purchase
- Researching the business online
It is #4 where content marketing comes into play. When you post helpful and informative information about whatever it is that you do, you are often differentiating yourself from your competitors.
Ideally, each article, video or blog post solves a problem or answers a question your ideal prospect is likely to have if considering your product or service.
By offering these solutions for free, you are building trust with people you haven’t even met yet. After all, experts are proud of their knowledge and tend to share it with others as much as possible.
Prospect consume this knowledge and begin to see you as the local authority and they also begin to feel as if they know you.
What all this means is that they are much more likely to contact you rather than your competitors and when they do, they’ll be much more likely to want to do business with you.
In other words, you’ll get more leads coming into your business and those leads will be much more qualified making your job of selling them infinitely easier.
And isn’t that the main reason we all do any marketing in the first place?
