Marketing Strategies: What Counts as Content?

Over past few years, content has become an integral role of online marketing strategies. If you want to increase your site ranking on Google, then you need to create original high value content and optimize it for SEO with respect to its keywords and headlines. Your content should be written, however, for your audience, not for the search engines. Google is starting to rank content based on user intention—which is another story. For now, let's talk content.

In recent years, blogs, white papers, infographics, and videos made up the content marketing strategies for businesses. Just by posting a new blog post each week, businesses could enhance their search engine optimization. This should still be an important part of your strategy as these formats are clearly defined as content within the context of SEO.

Social media posts were more ambiguous in that regard. Marketers weren't exactly sure if they had an impact on SEO. By now, though, we know that Google factors social media posts into its algorithm to at least some extent.

The next change is for Google to start counting social media posts as content. According to a recent Forbes article, Google will now recognize Tweets and certain posts on Facebook as content, and they'll even show up in the search results:

"Content is starting to be indexed on new platforms and in new ways. Google signed a new deal with Twitter back in spring to index the bulk of its tweets as content to be displayed in relevant searches. Facebook is now offering Instant Articles to a handful of select publishers, drawing attention away from onsite-hosted content and toward in-app content, forcing users to stay in its app longer."

We're not exactly sure as to how Google will factor these posts into its algorithm. What we do know, however, is that the once definitive lines separating social media marketing, content marketing, and SEO are now fading.

Now more than ever, it's important that businesses have a cohesive online marketing strategy that blends elements from all appropriate niche practices. Since social media posts are now considered as content, marketers should consider how they can start creating original content on Facebook and Twitter to be found organically on Google.