Are you confused by all the different types of Web site content you need to have written? Which pages of your site need SEO? Which keyword phrases to use? What is SMO? What is the difference between copywriting, article writing, blogs... Recently I heard the whole process with all its written components referred to as "content marketing", and I hope that term sticks; it certainly makes it easier to refer to a complicated process. For that reason, I have adapted the term on this site and plan to use and promote it in the future. But I digress. As for your content marketing strategy, to be successful, it must be aimed in two directions: from the inside – out, and from the outside – in.

Sprucing Up the Home Site for All the Guests to Come

On-Page SEO

First, with so-called "landing pages" containing advertising copy and new articles, you promote and guide traffic to your site, reaching out from your home base. You need to give the search engines some new information to "crawl" over all the time; that's what moves up your site "organically", naturally in the rankings, as opposed to those pay-per-click sites that pay to be at the top of the search results. Consumers have little trust these advertisers are actually good at what they do, because they didn't earn their place at the top. Once you raise your rankings organically, your fans will help to keep you at the top. But tempting as it is, you can't stop there. It won't last. Unless you keep writing, frequently offering interesting updates, the "crawlers" – software search engines use to assess a site's content – determine your site inactive and "demote" it, move it down the page as a stale site with nothing to say. By then, your customers have already left. Obvioiusly, that's not an option, so the show must go on.

Frequenting the Modern-Day "Watering Holes" and Moving the Party to Your Home

Off-Page SEO

The next big step is to venture into the external Web realm to inform others about your company and your brand, and show them the way to your site. By regularly posting new articles and blog entries that link back to your site on myriads of sites of interest to your industry and customers, you are essentially paving the way to your virtual door.

Leveraging the viral power of the social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter is the hottest thing right now – for a good reason. While no one may know about your exciting new blog, you can tell all about it on Twitter and bring everyone to the home site to read and comment on it. The Web community takes over and does what it's meant to do: it spreads the word, and if you establish a good reputation, it sticks. In spite of its unattractive name, "viral" marketing refers to "passing on" information, spreading it like a virus. Only this virus is nothing short of a miracle worker. This process is known as Social Media Optimization, or SMO.

Conclusion

There is no official full-proof strategy to SEO and SMO. It's not an exact science with rigid rules, it's more like an art, craft and science woven together into one process, and the process is bound to keep evolving. One thing's for sure: the more you (or I) write, the better results you will see. All this writing is a lot of work, and the work never ends, but it truly pays off. This generation craves immediate gratification, and the mass outreach capabilities of the Web serve that need; yet, SEO and SMO take time and perseverance to succeed. Oh, and a Web content writer to write "infectiously" well.