A Guide to Content Marketing for Fishing Businesses

“There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing there with a stick in the water.”

– Anonymous

Yes, fishermen have to be patient. But there’s a hell of a lot more to it than that—if you actually want to be successful.

The same goes for your website.

If you want to attract visitors to your site, you need to make sure your site is optimized for search engines.

Organic search is typically the most important source of traffic for many websites—if not the most valuable channel for marketing, period. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving the ranking and visibility of your site in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Google is continually updating its algorithms to ensure that only the most relevant and useful results are displayed for searchers. A big part of that is constantly going after spam and penalizing nefarious SEO tactics that try to game the system in an unethical way.

In other words, SEO is a constantly-changing game with rules that continue to change as time goes on.

Imagine if in Monopoly, the board, the tokens, and the numbers on the dice kept changing every time you played. An hour into the game, you finally finish building your last hotel on the Greens, but suddenly instead of you getting money when other players land on your space… they don’t pay you anything.

Oh, and by the way—starting tomorrow, railroads are only going to pay $1 when someone lands on them. And if you own Baltic Avenue… Go directly to jail.

That’s a little what SEO is like.

Or maybe think of it like this:

The time of day, water/weather conditions, the time of year, the tide, etc. all affect your strategy and tactics while you’re out fishing. You need to adjust your approach along with the conditions to stay successful—that’s the whole point of fishing reports and weather forecasts, right?

One day it’s overcast and the fish are up shallow, so you’re flipping jigs under docks

The next day it’s hot and sunny and the fish are holding deep, so you’re dropping baits to them.

The following week the water is muddy, so you’re using different lures—or fishing different areas altogether.

If you go out instead to the same spot trying to catch the same fish in shallow water, day after day, when the conditions have changed, you’re going to be a lot less successful than a fisherman who adapts.

The same goes for SEO. The conditions are always changing, which means your tactics need to be able to change along with it. You need to be aware, able, and skilled enough to adapt to changing conditions to be successful.

But then again, just like a snook is never going to say no to a well-placed pilchard, there are certain SEO principles that will always hold true—no matter what conditions Google throws our way.

Given that Google wants to provide the best possible experience for its users, certain SEO principles remain constant—like creating quality content. This is a core essential that every fishing guide & business owner should implement on their website.

Let’s take a look at what quality content is, how to create it, and how it can help your fishing business succeed online.

Content is (Still) King

This is an oldie but a goodie—and it’s as true now as it ever was. The reason why is simple: Google’s ultimate goal is to provide searchers with the most relevant and useful results for their queries.

How does Google determine what’s relevant and useful?

One way is by analyzing the content your website provides.

If your content is thin, poorly written, or doesn’t match up with what the searcher is looking for, your site isn’t going to rank well.

On the other hand, if your content is informative, well-written, and relevant to what the searcher is looking for, your site will rank higher.

(There’s a lot more to it than that—but when it comes to “relevance” to search queries, that’s the gist.)

Of course, you can’t just stuff a bunch of fishing keywords into your content and call it a day.

Not only will this irritate your visitors—who will promptly hit the “back” button, signaling Google to rank your content lower—but you may also get a long-term penalty for keyword stuffing.

Your content needs to be informative and readable, while still being optimized for your target keywords.

Think of it this way: if your fishing website is the hook, your content is the bait. You need both to be successful.

Why Content Marketing?

This is a question you might be asking yourself while reading this guide—especially if you hate writing.

Or if you don’t have room to add one more time-consuming thing to your plate.

Or if you’d honestly just rather be fishing.

I get it. But trust me when I say that content marketing is worth the effort.

Not only will content marketing help improve your SEO, but it’s also an excellent way to build relationships with your audience.

By providing informative and helpful articles, blog posts, infographics, videos, etc. you’re positioning yourself as an expert in your field—someone that your audience can trust.

And when your audience trusts you, they’re more likely to do business with you.

Search Engine Optimization, Content, and You

Some marketers treat SEO and content marketing as 2 completely separate things, but they’re really intertwined.

Years ago, you could get away with ranking your site purely based on heavy-handed factors like keyword density, metatags, and backlinks. Today, your digital marketing strategies need to be much more sophisticated—and that includes creating high-quality content that’s interesting and informative.

(Instead of just cramming in fishing keywords everywhere.)

From a Search Engine Optimization perspective, quality content is an essential component of any successful SEO strategy. Not only does quality content help you rank in the SERPs, but it also helps you attract organic traffic—not to mention those elusive, highly sought-after backlinks.

For a fishing business (or just about any business, really) the best content marketing directly answers questions that your target audience is searching for.

Let’s say you want to rank for specific fishing keywords in your local area. (Say, “fishing guide” or “fishing charters.”)

To do that, you’ll need to create content that’s optimized for those keywords.

You need Google to recognize you as an authority on those topics, which means:

• Your content needs to be well-written and engaging so that visitors actually want to read it.
• It needs to answer a real question or help with a genuine problem that your audience is searching for.
• It needs to be informative so that visitors learn something from it.
• It needs to be useful so that people are more likely to share it.
• It shouldn’t be overly “salesy,” or you’ll turn off visitors (especially those who come in from search queries).
• It needs to be well-optimized so that Google can easily understand what it’s about.
• It needs to be long/in-depth enough to thoroughly answer the searcher’s question.
• It needs to be original so that Google doesn’t penalize you for duplicate content.
• It needs to be relevant to your business so that it helps you achieve your marketing goals.

Easy, right?

Alright, maybe not.

Quality content marketing isn’t easy—but it’s definitely worth the effort.

Getting Ideas for Relevant Fishing Industry Content

Fishermen are always looking for new tips, tricks, and information, so if you can provide that, you’re sure to be successful. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas for your fishing content, there are a few things you can do to try to get the creative juices flowing.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Use common customer questions as the basis for a blog post
2. Write about your fishing experiences
3. Share tips and tricks for other fishermen
4. Do a Q&A with a fishing expert
5. Share your favorite recipes or cooking tips for fish
6. Write a review of a new fishing product
7. Share photos and videos of your fishing trips (especially if you’re a fishing guide)

Again, the key is to create content that’s interesting and informative, and that answers a real question or solves a real problem that your audience is searching for.

If you can do that, you’ll be well on your way to content marketing success.

The Bottom Line on Fishing Content Marketing

Content marketing is a vital part of any successful SEO strategy for fishing businesses. By creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content, you’ll not only be helping other fishermen solve real problems and answer real questions—you’ll show your authority in the fishing industry, attract organic traffic, and rank higher in the SERPs.

And that means more customers, more bookings, and more sales.

And that’s what it’s all about.

Ready to get started with digital marketing for your fishing business? Page One Fishing can help. We’ll work with you to develop a strategy that’s tailored to your business goals, and we’ll help you create and promote high-quality content that will help you achieve them.

Click here to contact us or call us now at (850) 308-5952.