Content Marketing Is Not the Way to Go

Despite their investment and best efforts, their blog articles and e-books were not getting the traction they expected. Many businesses started content marketing programs in order to improve their organic search ranking, but this has become increasingly difficult to do due to increased competition, the amount of content available, and growth in paid search advertising. Classic SEO thinking would suggest that content marketing is the way to go, but recent conversations with clients have revealed that they are not seeing the results they were hoping for from their investment in this area. If you're finding that there aren't many results for the terms you care about, and your audience isn't finding what they're looking for, it's going to be difficult to compete. The recommendation is to focus on creating content about the terms in the short term, and focus on competing for the more popular keywords in the long term. Google has never been interested in helping you build an audience for your brand; in fact, they've always been opposed to it. Google designed web search in a way that results are commoditized, so that advertising featuring what the searcher is looking for is more appealing. The amount of searches for a keyword and the level of competition for that keyword are both indications of how popular a topic is. A high search volume might mean that there is a large audience for the topic, but it could also mean that people are having trouble finding content that is differentiated from everything else on the topic. Popular searches might mean that the audience is frequently trying to find good quality content, which could be mistaken for frustration. A low search volume might mean that there is a small audience for the topic, which might make it not worth ranking for that keyword. Approximately 30% of individuals who use search engines are unable to find what they are looking for on their first try. Google has no desire for users to have this same experience on any other channel other than Google. Content discovery can be defined as "content recommendations". The recommended content is provided without the user explicitly asking for it. Google is aware that more people are concerned with the number of calories in a glass of wine than those who want to know how many calories are in a bottle. The TikTok experience gets better and more relevant the more that it is used. The trend of using customer data to generate content suggestions is on the rise, and is especially prominent in places where people look for authoritative information and advice, such as on websites and e-commerce platforms. However, this trend does not seem to be influenced by Google, which is not putting an emphasis on content creation. If you're considering creating a new content marketing platform, don't focus on search optimization as the main selling point, since that era is long over (if it ever really existed). Instead, think about what would resonate most with the audiences you're trying to reach.

(source: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/seo-content-marketing-strategy)