This is Brandon (courtesy of Brandon).

This is Brandon (courtesy of Brandon).

We sent a few questions about content marketing to Brandon Seymour, the SEO director for BodyLogic MD and owner of Beymour Consulting. He gave us some quick and simple things to keep in mind for SEO and content marketing in 2015.

Fill in the blank: ______________ is going to be the biggest element of successful content marketing in 2015. 

Distribution and promotion.

What got a slow start in 2014, but you are hoping picks up in 2015 in terms of SEO, content marketing, etc.? 

I think 2014 really marked the beginning of the end for “silo marketing” and specialist roles. I’m hoping that in 2015 we see more integration between the different departments. Content marketing helped break down the walls that divided SEO, social media and PR and forced marketers to use a combination of different tactics, which ultimately made them better marketers. 

Did you have a content marketing pet peeve in 2014? How can people work to eliminate it in 2015?

I’m not against the idea of creating editorial calendars, I think that they’re a highly effective tool for keeping marketing teams on track. The problem is when brands try to create a year’s worth of content all at once. I’ve worked with some clients that try to plan out their daily posts a month—and sometimes a year—in advance. When content calendars are used this way, the content ends up being rushed and thrown together. Good content takes time to develop. Editorial calendars should be agile.

How much should content marketers worry about Google changing the way search results are displayed in the upcoming year?

As Google continues to chip away at organic SERP [search engine results page] real estate with newer initiatives like Knowledge Graph results, instant answers and visual ads and SEO becomes a lot more competitive. Also, as Google continues its foray into semantic search, content marketers will need to focus more on local to reach the markets and locations they’re targeting. 

What aren’t people talking about when they discuss content marketing or SEO that you think they should be talking about?

The quality of content hasn’t really improved much overall. I still see plenty of sites spinning garbage content for the sole purpose of rankings. When “content marketing” became a popular buzzword, most people assumed that this meant they needed to create as much content as possible, when really the goal should be to create the highest QUALITY content possible. For some brands that are tight on resources, this could mean creating less content, but putting more time into the strategy, development and promotion of the content.

 Thanks, Brandon!

Are you interested in being a part of our content marketing Q&A series? Send me an email at kjerstin@contentrunner.com.