As a building materials company, if you are using Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you are probably wasting your money. Before you invest in SEO, you need to invest in content and here’s why:
Content Trumps SEO
- You probably think you are improving your rankings on search engines with SEO. If someone types in your company name you shouldn’t need SEO to show up on the first page. The competition for the most popular search terms is tough and is made tougher without good content that is updated frequently. For most companies if they stopped their SEO, nothing would really change.
- Without good content, you make the job of your SEO people more difficult. They are forced to try to game the system. The search engines are looking for quality content that answers the questions of people who visit their sites. Without good content, your SEO people have to try to stay ahead of the changes in the way search engines rank pages.
- Many SEO firms have no experience in building materials and will give you bad advice. They frequently like to talk in technical terms so you are left in the dark. Every time Google announces a change your SEO firm will send you an email telling you how the world would end for you if you didn’t have them working for you.
Ideally you should have both SEO and content. But if you can only afford one, content trumps SEO alone everyday.
If you need to learn more about the value of content marketing, this infographic from Hubspot does a good job of showing you how important good content has become.
Start a Blog
The best way to develop and post content is to start a blog. Most building materials companies don’t have a blog or a program to develop and post new content on a regular basis.
The few building materials manufacturers who do have a blog, usually have a lot of worthless content. They post content that is either just an ad for their product or meaningless stuff about awards or events. The content tends to be all about them and with little or no benefit to the customer.
To start a blog, think about the questions your customers are trying to answer online and then write content to answer those questions. You should add a least one post a week. These can be written internally or by your agency or an outside writer.
So few building materials companies have started a blog that the ones who do will blow past their competition. Smaller companies don’t have to outspend their larger competitors when they can outsmart them with great content. Learn more about how some smaller companies are using content to beat the bigger guys in my review of eleven siding companies.
Once you are developing and posting good content, then your SEO firm can really do a job for you.
Contact us if you like to discuss how we can design a content marketing program to help you grow your sales.
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“Content is the beginning,but promoting that content is how you get it moving! I can completely agree with your point of view here. good article!”
Mike Foti
President
Innovate Building Solutions
“One again, great information Mark. As the saying goes “in the land of the blind, the person with one eye, rules”. Great content is the way to be recognized as a trusted source!”
Mark Thomas
Sales Manager
Quinju
“They go hand-in-hand. These strategies should not be independently implemented.”
Jessica L. Robinson
Digital Strategy Leader
Dow DuPont
“Absolutely true.”
Stacy Fitgerald -Redd
Marketing & Communications Pro
North American Insulation Manufactures Assoc.
“Great insight!”
Mark Sedar
National Sales Manager
VisionREZ
“Very Informative Mark! Thank You.”
JD Vacey
Senior Component & Mechanical Designer
