Fully Leveraging SEO: Two Out of Three is Bad
Search engine optimization (SEO) should not be on any company’s “wish” or “to do” list any more. It is absolutely a critical component to branding, community building and perception—and all those things are critical components to sales.
There are three main components necessary for a robust SEO plan: good content, relevant links and social media integration. Many organizations have built their SEO strategies based on the first two but neglected the third. But make no mistake: In today’s always-connected, instantaneous digital world, social media is evolving as an essential piece to SEO.
The cornerstone of SEO always revolves around the content your company is putting out. The better quality, more educational and relevant the content is, the more it will be optimized.
To effectively leverage keyword search you must ensure your website and other digitally published content is valued by your target audience. What are the hot trends, buzzwords and issues facing your industry? The content on your website needs to include and address them. This goes beyond press releases on products and services and incorporates commissioned industry-leading research, contributed blogs and other information that is relevant. It’s about the user experience and education that you are giving with the content you are providing.
The second step to better utilizing SEO is to bring in links from other sources that align well with the content you are already providing. This brings the user experience to a higher level. Hyperlinking to sources, other industry blogs, associations, news feeds and other aggregated content providers gives your users and potential customers more context and tools. It provides more integrity to what you are producing and gives your own content more value. The more the content is valued and linked to other valued content, the more it will come up in searches.
However, here is where many companies stop. They provide solid content and incorporate relevant links as added value and leave at that. And for a while that was enough for an effective SEO plan.
That is no longer the case. Social media efforts are now essential for SEO. Many people now get a good portion of their information through social media. You need to know what social media venues your customers are using and then have a strong presence there. Incorporating social media into SEO gives your company greater reach and awareness and puts information where the user wants to receive it.
SEO is always evolving and your strategy needs to evolve as well. It’s not a big mystery, but it is a bit of science and should be given serious attention. If your SEO is not working well, it is time to evaluate your content, connection and social media efforts. SEO leads to exposure, which leads to branding, which leads to sales. In this case, only two out of three is bad.
