Quality content and SEO are like Sonny and Cher … bacon and eggs … hugs and kisses. They complement each other.

In fact, they are better together.

Just like Harry is better with Meghan and peanut butter is better with chocolate (admit it!) — SEO works better when your content is high quality.

Here’s why …

Higher quality content boosts your CTR (click-through-rate).

Although the exact formula the elusive Google gods use remains a mystery, Google sees a high CTR as a reason to elevate your site’s ranking. When you get more users to click your links to discover intriguing content, the higher the chance your search engine rankings will improve.

Better content generates all-important backlinks.

Another ranking factor for Google and other search engine algorithms is how many other high-authority websites link to your content (backlinks). If you deliver quality content that is informative, entertaining and relevant, the likelihood that others will link to your content is much stronger.

Making quality a priority over quantity and speed allows you to naturally use relevant keywords people are searching for.

And as we know, keywords are the crux of SEO. Your content must include the keywords and phrases people are querying so that Google and other search engines will serve up your content in search results.

And while SEO might be the primary reason you are researching content marketing options, content marketing isn’t just good for SEO. Here are a few other things content marketing does for your business when you put SEO together with high-quality content.

Your Marketing Content Is Your Brand Ambassador

Your content is building a relationship with your prospective customer even when you’re not around. Effective marketing is a conversation — and any conversation is only as good as the content it’s founded on.

Your website content is there for your customers 24/7, whenever your prospects happen to come by. Your standalone marketing content (e.g. white papers, e-books, guides, infographics) lives on in your subscribers’ inboxes, shows up in their social feeds, and is delivered to your target audience when they google how to solve their problem.

Your content is the hardest working brand ambassador you’ll ever have.

Your Content Shapes Relationships

Your content helps customers know, like and trust you — critical if they will ultimately do business with you. Content offers you the chance to provide customers with what they need to solve their specific pain points, and it displays your brand personality so prospective customers get to know your company just by engaging with the content.

Imagine you’re the CEO of a food and beverage manufacturing company, and you’re looking for an ERP consultant to guide you through the process of installing and launching a new ERP system across your organization. You’re scrolling through various consultant websites, and you come across this …

What are the chances you’re going to trust this company more now? Now the relationship is off on the right foot.

Content Supports Word-of-Mouth Marketing

In order to keep the valuable referral network channeling customers your way, you need to keep your company’s name and services top of mind. One of the best ways to do that is to commit to consistent content delivery.

A steady drip of high-value content provides the nudge others need to remember your company when someone they know could benefit from your services or products.

Content Extends the Conversation

While effective marketing is a conversation, it typically takes more than just one conversation to close the deal. Content keeps the conversation going long after you hang up the phone. It allows prospective customers to learn more about your company’s products and services on their own time when it’s convenient and relevant to their needs.

How is your content working today?

For your content to do all this heavy lifting — to improve your SEO, be an effective brand ambassador, be able to shape relationships with your customers, support word-of-mouth marketing and extend the conversation — your content marketing strategy needs to be designed to personally connect with your target customers..

If you’re not seeing the results you’d like from your content, here are some things to consider:

• Perhaps the conversation has been too one-sided and it’s not serving your prospective customers. Is your content too salesy?
• Is your company speaking a different language in your content than your customers are using?
• Is your content strategy out of alignment with your goals or your customers? Do you even have a content strategy?
• Are you delivering new content consistently or is this task getting put on the back burner?

While quality content and SEO are a duo that shouldn’t be separated, quality content delivers many more benefits than just improved SEO. It’s one of the most effective and cost-efficient tactics in your marketing toolbox.