When it comes to SEO success there’s no denying that content is king. With approximately 27,000,000 pieces of content shared everyday, websites with active blogs receive 97% more active leads. So get your content right and you’ve created a solid foundation to support all your other SEO efforts. Read on to find out how content marketing can boost your search engine ranking and online presence.How does SEO and content fit together?Simply put, SEO demands content and content marketing is the content. There’s no such thing as SEO without content. The only way to successful content marketing is to have SEO and vice versa. They go hand-in-hand and work together to achieve a mutual goal - getting your site recognised by the search engines - so the importance of crafting content for search engine success cannot be overlooked. Every search performed at the engines comes with an intent - to find, learn, solve, buy, fix, treat, understand and so on. Search engines place web pages in their results in order to satisfy that intent in the best possible way. Therefore creating content that addresses searchers’ needs will improve your chances of earning top rankings.What are the signals of SEO-driven content?Content that offers qualityThe first question you need to ask yourself is, “am I producing quality content?” While “develop quality content” might be the most repeated suggestion in the SEO world, it’s still sound advice that shouldn’t be underestimated. Quality content is content that offers your visitors something with real value and serves a purpose. Something of substance that’s unique, different and useful that they won’t be found elsewhere. Something that’s well-written and provides authority in a certain area.So start by finding out what your consumers want to know. Remember, the only reason your content exists is to serve your prospective customers and clients. So whatever you write, keep in mind that you have to provide some sort of evolution. Because if your content doesn’t hit the quality mark, no matter how much time you spend optimising it, all the SEO benefits will be lost.Content that’s researchedA fundamental component of SEO is keywords. SEO demands keywords and content marketing means using keywords - but how do you apply these keywords? Your content needs to be written in the right language - the language your customer is using when searching. By employing the keywords you’re targeting strategically throughout your content, you have a better chance of people finding your site among the results.Last month we discussed the importance of keyword research. So before you start writing your content, make sure you have a comprehensive list of the right keywords and phrases you’re going to use and want to be found for. Then, once you’ve written the content that you feel is going to convert well, incorporate your keywords. When writing your content ask yourself, “have I actually used these keywords in my content effectively?” Bottom line, if you want your pages to be found for particular words, it’s a good idea to actually use those words in your copy. There’s no precise number of times - just think about the words you want to be found for, then use them naturally on the page. Make note: don’t try to trick Google by overstuffing your content with keywords because this will definitely backfire.Content that’s freshSearch engines love new content so by producing relevant content that matches the real-time pulse of your industry, you can increase your sites chances of ranking well. Think of it this way - content marketing is an active verb with an ongoing action. You don’t just do it and then stop. You do it and then keep doing it. SEO demands consistent output and therefore content marketing requires consistency. Fresh content gets rapidly indexed and registers higher in the SERPs than older lower value content. So when this fresh content appears on a site with historic authority, you can be sure it’s going to have a SERP boost. Content that’s richDid you know that web pages that rank on the first page of Google typically have 2,032 to 2,494 words? By making sure your web pages are filled with detailed content that users find useful, you’re more likely to rank higher.SEO also demands linkbacks and the best way to introduce linkbacks is by publishing great content and letting the masses linkback to it. And the only way to linkback is to have content worth linking to. Content rich sites tend to get more linkbacks and social traffic, which helps them generate more traffic overall.Are you ready to take your digital marketing to the next level by crafting content built for SEO success? Have a chat to the passionate and knowledgeable team at Bang Digital today.