If you were to ask a room of digital marketing consultants, “What’s the best plan for creating content for startups?” the overwhelming majority of them would swear by the skyscraper blog post strategy.

I’ll give you a hard and fast definition of the skyscraper technique deeper in this article, but from a big picture standpoint, it’s essentially about overwhelming the reader with an encyclopedia-style article that covers everything under the sun related to a search term.

It’s a significant time commitment, because you have to check what’s currently ranking and out do it. And, given the time constraints startups are under, most of them take one look and give up before they even get started.

But what if there was an alternative to earning your search ranking without having to produce giant guides? What if, instead of beating the top posts by word count, content agencies a more Spartan approach and win with simplicity and elegance instead?

https://youtu.be/qjI7dEcF2mI

If we are taking a customer-first approach and making the searcher’s experience the top priority, then serving up dense copy blocks that provoke a TLDR (too long didn’t read) response often doesn’t align.

And why would Google simply default to rewarding the longest post, when a shorter, more succinct post may give the reader exactly what they’re looking for, in less time?

This idea of matching the intent of the query (ie: how it can best serve the person who typed the phrase into Google) is the topic of this article, podcast, and corresponding video. 

I’m not suggesting SEO, organic content marketing and the skyscraper technique aren’t still effective approaches to content for startups. 

But, as you’ll discover after this summary of my talk with Nigel Stevens, Founder of Organic Growth Marketing, they’re no longer the only viable way to secure a top ranking in the modern world of B2B content marketing. 

Why SEO and organic content are important

SEO and content are two sides of the same coin. 

Search engine optimization helps your business get found in a Google search.

And content is the vehicle you use to differentiate yourself and be seen by the Google algorithm. Without content, there’s nothing for Google to index and return to searchers.

“When you look up anything in Google (the results below the paid part…), my job is to propel companies to the top of those listings for the type of queries that align to their customer’s journey,” explained Nigel.  

SEO can also be broken into two categories:

Foundational: If someone is looking for you, can they find you?This is really about brand search. If I’m doing business with you already, or trying to check you out online, will you show up when I search your brand name and services? 

Going a little deeper, do you have a knowledge graph Panel? Can I see your tweets? What about links to your social media profiles? All these things reinforce the level of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness people have when they evaluate you.

Growth: This involves creative content to connect with customers across multiple touchpoints. 

Growth-based SEO is all about those “know, like, and trust” factors of marketing. Repetition and visibility helps people get to know you, then they become familiar, and begin to like you. And, over time, they will start to trust the thing, person, or brand that has become so familiar.

You could say that repetition and visibility are what drives sales in B...