“While tactics such as URL normalization and site structure are a few of the many technology elements comprising the brain of search engine optimization, content is at the heart of SEO.” That’s according to MarketingSherpa, which just did a research chart showing where companies are focusing their content-producing efforts.

The 2013 MarketingSherpa SEO Marketing Benchmark Survey asked marketers about where they produce content for search engine optimization.

Not surprisingly, the place most marketers focus their content-producing efforts is on webpages. The website, with its landing pages, is still the hub of conversion for many marketers, so many marketers focus on getting their webpages to rank highly by producing content directly on them.

You’ve probably heard that your website is your home base of operations — it’s where you want your customers and prospects to come. It’s the place you want to showcase.

So, it’s pretty obvious that your website should be your focal point — the place where you spend the most amount of your time making it a valuable resource.

I agree with the results that spending the bulk of your time creating content for your website should be your number one priority. But in addition to the content creation (blog posts, videos, audio, pictures, etc.), you need to make sure your website is attractive and easy-to-read.

Make sure your content is easy to find and make sure your website loads quickly.

These are “no-brainer” items, but you’d be surprised how many small businesses don’t follow these simple steps. And even more surprising is the number of small businesses that don’t even have a website! I heard earlier today someone report that almost half of small businesses didn’t even have a website — incredible!

Social media and blogs are also used by a large majority of marketers, likely to help produce fresh content for search engine spiders, as well as strengthen the social graph signals that search engines are measuring.

And two things that were interesting to me. 54% are spending time to create online video — smart! — while only 8% were doing podcasts.

I think there’s a huge opportunity in the audio/video arena for small businesses and solopreneurs. And I’m not talking about expensive video production or time consuming audio creation. Audio and video give your customers — and prospects — the chance to hear and see you and it’s through that sensory experience that they come to know you.

And you know that people buy from people they know, like and trust. Hearing your voice and seeing your face help prospects to know you.

So if you’re not producing audio and video content — START!

Finally, MarketingSherpa added this note of caution for marketers creating content for search engine optimization purposes alone — “SEO shouldn’t be the only consideration. At the end of the day, if your content isn’t helping your customers through the channels they want to use, whether that is a webpage or a digital magazine, you likely aren’t meeting your ultimate objective.”

What are your thoughts on content creation and where marketers are spending their time? Leave a comment below.

Check out the full article here.