SEO stands for search engine optimization.
And for many business owners that means getting your site (or pages of your site) on page 1 of Google and the other search engines based on the keywords that people use everyday looking for your products and services.
However, it involves more than that.
Much more, in fact.
For example, when I was discussing a proposal with a leading economic research firm in NYC their main question centered around the need for a 6 month of 12 month commitment. In my contact person’s mind wasn’t SEO simply a “one time thing” to fix elements of the site?
SEO and content marketing
SEO does begin with getting the elements (i.e. “meta data”) on your site set up properly.
And if you’ve read enough of my articles you know that begins with keyword research, then targeting the right keywords for your core business and making sure that the meta data on each page of your site is optimized correctly.
But that only amounts to getting the basics in place, which, on their own, are simply not enough to get you to the top of page 1.
Not anymore, at least.
Why?
Because search engines (primarily Google) simply don’t work that way.
Look at it from the perspective of a search engine for a moment. How can they properly differentiate between millions of sites all targeting the same keyword or cluster of keywords to show the most “relevant” results?
In other words, what factors are involved to help you rank up at the top of page 1?
Well, Google has sort of pointed the way… if you’ve been paying attention.
And it amounts to:
- new content posted on your site
- unique content posted on your site
- authorship
- link structure
- local citations
That’s primarily it, in a nutshell.
Which means that to move forward you need an effective content marketing strategy as the core aspect of your web presence in order to rank ahead of your competitors. That means turning your site into a blog site (i.e. hosted WordPress site), or adding a blog component to your existing site.
And a lot of companies have done this.
Back in 2008 when I mentioned blog sites to business owners they had no clue what I was talking about, or wondered how a “blog” could work for business.
Now most people get it.
But even those who “get it” still haven’t connected ALL the dots… i.e. how adding content to your site works with ongoing SEO as an effective marketing tool.
Building trust in your market
Why does adding content to your site matter?
For starters, Google (and the other search engines) can “see” when you add new content. And by adding new content to your site you are showing that your site is active and relevant.
Look, there are millions of abandoned sites on the net, sort of like abandoned cars left on the side of a road. And you can imagine that the last thing a search engine wants to do is list dead, useless sites as a search result.
So relevancy is directly tied to posting new content on a regular basis.
And it has been for some time.
In fact, it’s so important that Google has been cracking down on “content spam” — junk articles that are NOT written for human consumption but are only posted to create backlinks to a website.
Now, when you are adding new content to your site what are you basing that content on?
In other words, if you’re going to all the trouble to actively engage your readers (and get new ones):
- What are you writing about?
- What topics do you select?
- What do you choose to focus on?
- About what will you educate your prospective customers or clients?
It should come as no surprise that keyword research is a great place to start when you’re thinking about new topics, and to guide the creation of content about topics you already know a lot about.
Content marketing is about demonstrating expertise and setting yourself up as the “go to expert” in your niche or industry.
So content marketing is not just about updating your site for the sake of updating it.
Done the right way your content should:
- target a keyword of it’s own
- demonstrate knowledge and expertise
- tell a story
- build trust
- update your site (remember, new content is KEY)
- get posted/shared on social sites like facebook and twitter
- build community or a following
Now, you might be asking how often do you need to post new content?
The answer to that question really depends on a number of factors, such as the number of keywords you’re targeting, how competitive those keywords are, and how often your competitors post content, to name a few.
At the end of the day content is KING (Huffington Post anyone?)
The web is driven by content… in fact the internet is like a vast library or market place. And the ONLY way to stand out from the crowd and stay one step (or many steps) ahead of your competition is by ranking ahead of them for the keywords that really matter.
And that can happen only when SEO becomes an integral part of your marketing mix.
Does that make sense to you?
As an aside the economic research firm signed up for a 6 month commitment. We were able to get them found for a handful of keywords that are important to their business, including “economic research firm” (top of page 1). Now we’re in the process of working on a 12 month commitment to help them rank better for other keywords in their niche.
And we can do the same for you…
Schedule your website review today
Since early 2008 I have worked with dozens of clients and helped them get more than they thought possible from their websites. And I know I can do the same for you…
There are three ways to schedule your FREE website audit:
- call 888-542-2936 and leave a voice message, including your name and URL, or…
- send an email to: support@bestwebpresence.com,
- or click the link and complete a short webform.
Online success starts by taking the first step…
In working with clients I have been able to diagnose problems, road-blocks, issues and oversights that have prevented business owners like you from achieving their goals. To discover how I can improve your current web-marketing efforts to generate MEASURABLE results for you let me review your website, and then we can set up a time to discuss my analysis by phone.
