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More than 94 percent of consumers begin researching potential purchases on Google every day (Meloni, 2012). Is your brand on the first page of search results? If not, how do you get there? The power of search engine optimization (SEO) can be harnessed by any brand, it's just a matter of how to leverage it.
SEO increases a brand's online presence and digital authority, but it’s one piece to a bigger strategic integrated marketing communications plan. Set your “big picture” digital goals first and integrate your SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) strategies to help bolster your results. For the purpose of this blog post, let’s assume one of your digital goals is to rise up to the first page of Google search rankings. Four key strategies can get you from zero to hero in search engine rankings: content, optimization, integration, and promotion. Let's take a look at each one.
Content & Optimization
The first step is to craft online content with
your customer in mind. What do your customers value from your organization? What
are their current online research habits? Think about who they are, what kinds
of content they like to consume, how they like to consume it, and then craft
your content just for them. You can use a variety of content delivery methods via social media based on your customer research, including podcasts, blogs, e-books,
microsites, whitepapers, etc. By creating unique, compelling content for your
target audience, you’ll drive traffic, engagement, and conversions, which in
turn will help build your search engine ranking.
The second step is to optimize your content
for maximum impact. “High performing content is a balance between users and
search engines. Just as your content needs to quickly capture the attention of
a user and clearly deliver value, search engines require the same consideration”
(Stern, 2015). For each piece of
content, integrate key words that aren’t focused on general terms (frankly any
of your competitors could optimize their content for the same word), but more
specific words and phrases that differentiate your company and resonate with
your target audience. Also think about the user experience and “shareability” of
your content on social media by including additional links, images, and credible sources to
boost your online authority. These tactics will aid in organically increasing
your search results.
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| webtownmarketing.com |
Integration & Promotion
As web marketing strategist David Meerman-Scott says, “The web is different.
Instead of one-way interruption, web marketing is about delivering useful
content at just the precise moment a buyer needs it. It’s about interaction,
information, education, and choice” (Scott, 2012, p. 18). Once you have developed
expert content, now deliver it to your customers! Social media is a
natural conduit to publicizing your organization’s content and an integral part
of your search engine marketing (SEM) plan. “Google’s algorithm now looks at
the social success of posts, perceiving that if content receives high sharing
volumes, it is likely information worth sharing” (Single Grain, 2015). Keep
your content tailored to each of your social media channel’s audiences and make it shareable (there's that word again). Remember, your content will sell itself if it's worthy of being shared.
The good news? All of these integrated, targeted promotional efforts are all driving to the same goal: Improving your search engine ranking and increasing your reach as a brand. From a tactical perspective, use your social media channels to engage in two-way dialogue with your customers and listen to what they’re saying about your content. This will ensure you are sharing the RIGHT content at the RIGHT time, all working to increase your search engine rankings through optimized social media channel promotion.
The good news? All of these integrated, targeted promotional efforts are all driving to the same goal: Improving your search engine ranking and increasing your reach as a brand. From a tactical perspective, use your social media channels to engage in two-way dialogue with your customers and listen to what they’re saying about your content. This will ensure you are sharing the RIGHT content at the RIGHT time, all working to increase your search engine rankings through optimized social media channel promotion.
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If You Build It, They Will Come
By creating, optimizing, integrating,
and promoting great content via social media, you're on your way to higher search engine
rankings and greater visibility for your brand. Google Analytics will help you
understand how your content performs and what content drives more traffic from
your users. Use this data to adjust your SEM and SEO strategy. Also check out this article
with more SEO tools, including information on paid ads that can help boost your
rankings.
SEO is one step to building a
greater, more authoritative brand. Climb the ladder and reach the top -- if you
build it, they will come.
How else would you use SEO to build your brand? Share your thoughts in the comments section!
References
Scott, D. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing & PR (4th ed). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.
Single Grain. (2015). How to Optimize Your Visual Blog Content For Search. Retrieved from http://singlegrain.com/optimize-visual-blog-content-search
Stern, T. (2015, March 4). A Content Marketer’s Guide to SEO: A Checklist. Search Engine Land. Retrieved from http://searchengineland.com/content-marketers-guidechecklist-seo-215310
Mary, As always, terrific post. I think one of the key points to SEO is content. Fresh and intriguing content is not an easy task to pull off. How would you suggest going about finding the best approach to creating content? Is video the first choice when creating content today? Is audio and text even worth investing in?
ReplyDeleteAlso, are there any other tools to monitor traffic flow and views besides Google Analytics? Is it the best program available today?
Hi Loren – Thanks for your comment. I think determining a content strategy all depends on the goal of the campaign (lead acquisition, consumer engagement, conversions, revenue, etc.) and the target audience. For example, if I was targeting business professionals in a particular industry and trying to increase event registrations, I would use a strategy that included a dedicated microsite, search advertising, and social media to promote the event, speakers, and sessions using keywords, images, and links. This would help optimize the content to become more searchable via search engines. As far as analytics go, I think Google Analytics is a robust platform, but again I think it all depends on the goal of the organization and campaign. Each SEO tool has different elements. Here’s a great article with additional SEO tools: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6948-seo-tools.html
DeleteHi Mary, great work as always! I like how you emphasize the importance of SEO as it relates to driving sales. If content is king, content + abundance = $$. I think it’s important for customers to know what the company’s brand is to understand its value and how it relates to them. The most important thing I learned from David Meerman-Scott’s book is that it is essential to “…deliver useful content at just the precise moment a buyer needs it” (Scott, 2013). Explain the importance of having an integrated marketing strategy that leverages content, SEO, and the various social media platforms. What does it mean for a company that’s able to put these pieces together? For example, how do they compare versus their competitors?
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew – I think an effective integrated marketing communications strategy that serves up relevant content and ranks high on search engines means the brand is well-known and well-respected. When I Google a specific product or service, I find the first couple of results are highly credible, and I usually recognize the brand. To me, this is a direct result of a company who is delivering content exactly when their buyers are looking for it. I think it also means consumers prefer this content, which reflects a strong brand reputation. From a competitor standpoint, companies who leverage SEO and SEM as part of their IMC plan definitely gain a competitive advantage. What do you think about companies who leverage content the right way? How do they set the bar higher?
DeleteCompanies that are able to leverage content the right way are better known in their respective industries and set themselves apart from their competitors. This increases their sales/revenue, which creates more opportunities for them as a whole. Content is king and those companies that are best able to own it or bring visibility to their desired content ultimately win. Would you agree or disagree? Explain.
DeleteHi Andrew - I 100% agree with you! Content is one of the best weapons a company can use to gain a competitive advantage and win over mindshare of consumers. With provocative, compelling content (and of course, the right promotional strategy), companies set themselves up for success in the short-term and long-term.
DeleteMary,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really appreciate your perspective on the integration of social media by leveraging its strength of promoting two way communications to have influence on search engine prominence. One way that I like to referrer to the construct we need to build in order to maximize impact through search engines is that it is similar to a spider web. Each of the intersections, or nodes, of the web represent the key component to the marketing plan, such as social media pages, website, advertisement, article, etc., and the “strings” of the web are the connections which tie all of components together through the use of backlinks, images, title tags, headers, and copy.
With this being said you indicate that “creating, optimizing, integrating, and promoting great content via social media, you're on your way to higher search engine rankings and greater visibility for your brand” but what type of content or campaigns could you create, leveraging social medias strengths, to better the “strings” that tie all the marketing plan together?
A great reference is Brian Honigman blog post on Positionly, http://positionly.com/blog/seo/seo-social-media, which speaks to some great opportunities that tie social media to great search engine results. Again great post.
Shawn
Hi Shawn – I like your spider web analogy as it relates to SEO and an integrated marketing communications plan. There’s a lot of back-end integration that users don’t see. All of those nodes (now I’m thinking the human brain and all of the electrical connections) connect to form a highly optimized piece of content that is easily searchable on search engines. I think one of the strongest content platforms available is a blog or website. Scott says, “blogs that are regularly updated generate high search engine rankings because the algorithms that are used by Google and the other search engines reward sites (and blogs) that update frequently” (Scott, 2012, p. 287). To further optimize, the integration factor is key on websites or blogs to connect social media feeds, similar to what we’ve done with our personal blogs for class. Together, these efforts help to build SEO, SEM, and a high-performing IMC plan.
DeleteMary this is great. I agree with you on the importance of crafting content with the customer in mind. By simply knowing the behavior patterns of your audience, you can be more informed in creating compelling information that will entice them to share via social channels. Google algorithms are crawling website content as well as indexing social media connectors. SEO is not just about optimization it's also about utilizing IMC tactics for the best results. Sharing great content that drives people to a website, and establishing credibility. What’s more, these highly targeted efforts will not just sell itself, it will help establish a foundation for a two-way conversation with your audience. What better way to listen and learn? Social Media posts are now easily searchable, which allows businesses to position itself to help increase ranking on search engines.
ReplyDeleteHow would you use social media platforms knowing this? I think it would be interesting to know your tactics on using SEM and social media with promotions. Would the strategic goal focus on search engine optimization or social media?