In the early days of digital marketing, the internet landscape was simple and verdant, the horizon was clear. Building a web presence and bringing customers to your content was a more straightforward process than it is today.
The SEO strategies that worked so effectively in the pioneering days, however, are threatened species in a digital marketing jungle transformed by Google’s Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird algorithm updates.
Search has become more organic, more fluid; marketers who had once done only the SEO two-step need to learn some new moves. Social media may be, in fact, the main venue where customers notice your brand, sip a gin and tonic, and take a spin on the dance floor. In these social platforms, you can get to know your customer.
This seduction scenario is like, and unlike, any other. You need to know the key words your customer is using, so you can respond with the right words at the right time. Case in point: The content for the ExxonMobil website used to bandy about the term, “commercial vehicle lubricants.” It wasn’t speaking the language of its potential customers, whose searches were for things like, “best oil for BMWs”. After changing the corporate-speak, the company moved from 100th place to the top five for BMW car oil.
This anecdote was shared by a member of an expert panel recently hosted by The Guardian, which addressed questions about the new status of SEO, the role of Google+, how marketers need to respond to the explosion of smartphone and tablet use, and how to establish connections with customers through social media.
A consensus among forum members was that social media remains under-valued as a driver of traffic to brand content sites. A digital marketing strategy with strong ROI today is one that doesn’t leave a stone unturned, including social, content development, SEO, and pay per click advertising.
Social media optimisation supports search engine optimisation. Developing your brand’s social presence, social media optimisation encourages users to share brand information with their friends and brings traffic from social sites to your content. Google takes the social buzz your brand generates into account, using social signals to measure its activity. Add engaging, high-quality content to a fast-loading website (i.e., strong SEO) and you’re definitely heading in the right direction.
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