Remember back in the old days when a Yellow Pages listing and a well-placed advertisement in the newspaper were all it took to market yourself? If so, you’re definitely showing your age right now. But more importantly, if you haven’t already, forget the marketing tactics that you used in the 90s and 2000s. Marketing has changed, and if you want to adapt with it, you’re probably going to need to hop on that inbound train sooner than later. This means two things: Content marketing and SEO.

Understanding Content Marketing and SEO

I don’t want to use the same, boring cliché that everyone says when they talk about content marketing, but there’s a reason why Googling the phrase “content is king” gives you 450k results – it’s true.

A good content marketing strategy can transform your marketing efforts in the following ways:

• Good content attracts more followers who, in turn, share your posts with their online friends.
• Content marketing helps you establish yourself as an expert in the industry and lets you speak with a voice of authority on all things related to your product.
• Content marketing and SEO go hand-in-hand; Maintaining an active blog will do wonders for your site traffic.

Have you noticed how most companies have blogs these days? One of the main reasons why is because of the SEO advantage (thanks, Panda) that comes from blogging. But is there a set number of posts should you be publishing in order to get those blogging benefits?

Blogging Done Right – Not as Hard as You Think

One of the biggest challenges that small and medium-sized companies face when rolling out a content marketing strategy for the first time is finding the time and money to create and publish content regularly. This is because there’s a lot of confusion regarding how much you should be blogging every week to get that first-page Google SEO rating you’re looking for.

With the help of some research compiled by HubSpot, here’s what we know about content marketing and SEO:

• Companies that published 16 or more posts a month increased their traffic by 3.5x and their leads by 4.5x when compared to companies that published 0-4 blog posts a month.
• B2B companies publishing 11 or more posts a month generate 3x more traffic than those publishing 0-1 post a month.
• Titles that have between 6-13 words generate more traffic on average.
• Compound posts (blogs that increase views over time) only make up 10% of posts published, but generate nearly 40% of site traffic.

As you can see, blogging is an important part of boosting traffic and making sure that your site is easy to find. But not every company has the money or manpower to spend on creating that many blog posts per week, does that mean they lose out on content marketing? Not necessarily.

Truth be told, a magic content marketing formula doesn’t exist. Yes, companies that publish content more frequently do benefit from more traffic overall, that’s just one slice of a much larger pie. An effective content marketing plan depends on more than just frequency, it needs a good strategy and publishing content alone is not a proper strategy. Factors that are equally as important as publishing include pinpointing your target audience, branding, and coming up with creative ways to increase your revenue. Once you’re able to come up with a strategy that factors in all of these components while also placing value in publishing content, you’ll be able to take your business to the next digital level.

Also, remember that content promotion is just as important as publishing. Don’t forget to share your content and engage with readers on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and anywhere else where you’ve built an online presence.

Brandon is a copywriter who takes a keen interest in technology, digital marketing, and consumer behavior.