A good SEO strategy requires the development of a great content strategy.

Often times in my IT consulting business I come across clients who come to me with the frantic notion that somehow, overnight, if they could just find the right SEO configuration, they can miraculously save their sinking business from rapid decline.

Unfortunately, this will never happen, as most often when a business finally decides to take their web marketing program seriously it is usually too late.

The demise of the dormant website

All too often, businesses neglect to recognize the full potential of their online presence (until it is too late), and instead, place most of their attention on savvy product development strategies.

As a result, their powerful tool of a website lays dormant, and serves no greater purpose than a bumper sticker on an inoperable vehicle.

So, why do I say SEO doesn’t really matter unless… because SEO really doesn’t matter unless you have content that is worthy of interest.

Simply, you can have all the SEO bases covered, but if you don’t have good content, then your visitors will see no reason to stick around.

Just because your website looks good…

In simple terms, if you find tall, dark, and handsome most appealing, then hey, all power to you, but once you engage tall, dark, and handsome, and realize there’s no substance, then all of a sudden, tall, dark, and handsome is no more than something to look at.

But for most of us, we need substance, some sort of connection that goes beyond a simple preference for a particular appearance, and this is exactly the same guiding theory behind web marketing.

Devise a content development strategy

SEO really doesn’t matter unless you have no substance in the long run. If you really want to rank, then before trying to find a magic formula in SEO , it is advisable to devise a content strategy using your blog.

So, are you saying SEO doesn’t matter? Hell no! But, before you develop the bad habit of thinking SEO in and of itself will save the day, you really need to think about developing rich content that will attract customers to your blog, and hence to your products.

All too often, businesses try to do it the other way around. They try to build an awesome looking website with all the user-ist friendly features on the market, only to realize (often too late) that it was content is King, and SEO follows soon thereafter.

The importance of having a blog

What does this mean for your business? Well, for starters it means you not only need a website, featuring your products, services, etc., but also you need a blog, and a content strategy that will allow for you to publish fresh new content on a regular basis.

The way search engines work in the simplest of senses is they scan the web for fresh, new, consistent content, because old news is old news, and the vibrancy of the world wide web is based on originality, especially when it comes to content.

So, before you go out an spend tons of money on an SEO program or specialist, take a shortcut, and simply start building a following through your blog, at which time you can come up with unique ways to direct them to your products.

Use your blog to speak about your products and services

Unfortunately, the old adage of letting your products speak for themselves no longer applies to online marketing, as it works the other way around, and in order for you to drive customers to your products, you need to speak for them.

Once you’ve developed a content marketing strategy, then it will make perfect sense to begin looking at SEO strategies, but not unless you have dedicated yourself to building content that is worthy of interest.