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How SEO Plays A Part In Modern Marketing Strategies

Monday 6 October 2014

13 minute read

By Sarah Burns

First of all, we're advocates of quality content, over Keyword Stuffing methods. SEO comes into its own when it is partnered with fantastic content, solid social media strategies and responsive web designs.

SEO always has been a hotly-debated marketing method, because it was once so awful in it's methods and capabilities.

All of the previous Google algorithm updates, changes in the internet and the way the public consume online content has meant huge changes for SEO types.

It is because of these developments that we want to share our knowledge of SEO and how it's going to integrate into your marketing campaigns...

Let's sort the obvious out...

We know that a lot of SEO companies work hard to distance themselves from former tactics such as Keyword Stuffing, however there is so much out there about how SEO will be long gone soon enough, that it must be faced.

"If you’re focused on your audience, their needs and building compelling content to support those things, then most small nuances of SEO don’t make that big of a difference to you." 

- Mike King aka iPullRank, Digital Strategist and Inbound Marketer, with a core competency of SEO. [Source]

"Google search algorithms strive to deliver the best most relevant content to the searcher. It only makes sense that content continues to hold the throne... Social media is clearly not going away. Understanding your target market and delivering quality content is essential."

- David Hanaford, Sumall. [Source]

"Google rewards for consistent content creation that shows your company is genuinely adding to the dialogue on the Internet; and human beings appreciate great content, resulting in links, greater engagement, and social sharing, all of which are ranking factors in 2015."

- Evan Bailyn, CEO at First Page Sage, Bestselling Author, Speaker. [Source]

This infographic from Kuno Creative sums up a lot of the theory surrounding SEO and its future... [Source: Infographic]

 

Keyword Stuffing and more "so last year" tactics

In fact, they're more than just last year, they're pretty ancient.

Keyword Stuffing was the way in which SEO companies would literally encourage you to think of what you wanted to rank for and they'd put it in your content in any which way they could. It was literally "stuffing" your content with keywords, i.e. Keyword Stuffing. 

Now we focus on naturally high quality content that ranks in search terms because it is relevant and already popular. You should still consider keywords and if you're blog is about SEO include it in the title (like us!).

This year and beyond, we're all about the user experience and being a worthwhile source of online information, not "we're in your face because we've made our content ugly, but searchable".

Other SEO marketing tactics that have been thrown to the wayside have been discussed previously in our blog before, available here

If, on the other hand, you're looking for simple and good ways to improve your search ranking, check out this blog for the modern ways of doing Search Marketing

Social Media Optimisation creates search opportunities

Ten years ago our consumption of social media was very limited, if we had any. Nowadays it is often the central focus of our online communications, particularly in our personal lives. If we want a holiday, a new vacuum cleaner, car insurance we look for reviews, we look for social verification that this provider is a good one. 

Today, we don't ask friends offline, we send them a WhatsApp message, Facebook message or a direct message on Twitter...

Any company who employs social media - which you should - has an automatically stronger chance of ranking on Google's higher search pages.

Why?

You have more content going back and forth across the web, users are sharing your content with more people, they are discussing it with each other. You have more ways of republishing, repurposing and making people aware of your individual pieces of content through your one or many social media channels.

Google has started listening to these social channels, meaning that SEO results are now affected by tweets, retweets, Google+ authorship and Facebook shares.

Brief summary: If you do use social media it affects your search rankings, if you don't use social media it also affects your search rankings - keep that in mind

For your customer, not for you

If you've read our previous blogs, you'll know we love to write content that works for our customer. We love to create content for clients that works for their customers.

You should be writing for who you want to find your content. Are they looking for "funny pictures of giraffes"? Well, go ahead and compile some pictures.

They aren't? Don't do it then.

Our focus on buyer personas is pivotal in getting the quality content selection process spot on.

It is the same from an SEO point of view. It is about creating content that is relevant, not stuffing keywords in hoping that customers will use them - it'll turn them off reading your full piece and turn them off you.

Optimise content naturally for the topic you're discussing, but if you feel like you're just looking for a space to put a keyword in or you're adapting your text to do so, it's a big 'no' from Thrive. 

It's all about "the experience"

Forget the term, 'search engine optimisation', instead, focus on, 'search experience optimisation'. All of us as online consumers want to type in keywords that bring up relevant results from seemingly reliable, relevant companies. 

You don't want to get someone's attention for two minutes and have them click away when they realise you're not what they were looking for. Nobody wants poor click-through-rates and high bounce rates.

You need them to stay on your website and interact with your content. 

"The amount of traffic to your page matters less than how qualified that traffic is, particularly if you want to make sales and new leads through your website (which presumably you do as a company)."

What next?

You don't have to have "insider" or "specialist" knowledge to make SEO impact your campaign like you did 10 years ago. Instead, the focus is rapidly shifting - you have to know your audience, create great content and produce a visitor experience that is worth having.

To discuss how we can support your business, get in touch with our team today, via hello@thriveability.co.uk.

If you're looking to embark on a website build project, whether it's completely from scratch or a site refresh, our ebook will give you the knowledge to make your project as stress-free as possible.

The Website Design Handbook for Businesses

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