You may have heard the phrase "content is king" before—but what does it mean? From a search perspective, today’s web environment favors websites with plenty of content. Google’s spiders crawl content to find keywords, so you need as much content associated with your website as possible.

So how do you drive SEO leads through keyword-rich web content? Follow the five steps below to publicize your content and drive better search rankings.

Everyone is blogging. It’s a huge new corporate trend. Today’s model of “content to commerce” means driving leads through thought-leadership, offering potential customers useful information in exchange for their business. But that isn’t the only reason to have a blog; if you focus on conservative use of keywords as you blog, you’re acting as a publisher that will help drive better SEO rankings and send more leads to your online store. Throw the old rules of press releases out the window; it’s the 21st century, and the concept behind the press release is rapidly changing. Issuing a press release through a service like PRWeb or Business Wire gives you the ability to incorporate key search phrases into the body of your release and link the words back to the appropriate pages. Remember: be careful of keyword stuffing. Most press release services will offer feedback warning against it, but Google will penalize you. You don’t need a public relations firm to promote your business anymore. A simple email request to contribute to a partner’s blog or an industry-focused news site can go a long way. While some more prominent publishers may be wary of including a lot of SEO-focused links, others will be perfectly happy to let you incorporate your links in return for free content. If you’re running a long-term campaign for discounts, affiliates or other promotions, focus some of your SEO efforts towards driving traffic to these landing pages. It’s a great way to diversify your key phrases and multiply your paths for bringing in leads.