by Latrone Walters/ The Mind Resource Chief Learning Officer
Nowadays, Almost every business or organization exists in 2 separate worlds: the physical world and the digital world. Kind of like The Matrix. But unlike the Matrix movie, you can’t take a red pill that will allow you to seamlessly awaken from your sleep to travel in and out of the these realms. The awakening to how we can effectively create a welcoming environment for guests in both realms takes time, attention, and organization.
The same goes for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Due to the vastness of the web it is easy to get lost in the excess of information that the internet provides. But with correct foundational knowledge of what SEO really is you can contribute through your web presence clarity and consistency that people will appreciate.
The term “SEO” is loosely thrown around as a buzzword in today’s typical digital marketing campaigns, but the average web user is not really sure what it should consist of. By opportunistic marketing agencies, using the word to gain relevance without truly informing people on SEO’s best practices, there is more confusion than clarity in the marketplace.
The right SEO campaign will not only improve your company’s level of performance, but will also connect your company with long lasting customer relationships and reputation. To do this we must highlight to inform the public on the major misconceptions of SEO, so that more businesses can choose a SEO strategy that truly optimizes their website’s performance. So lets see how far the rabbit hole goes.
1. SEO is all about keywords and backlinks. FALSE
Search engines like Google,Bing, and Yahoo have only one goal in mind when it comes to clients and web searches: getting quality and relevant information to its users. When you realize that these major search engines spend multi-millions of dollars on ways to ensure users get to quality and secure websites you may also begin to realize that the less relevant information on your page, the less likely that these search engines will recommend your site. Also the less secure your site is, also the less likely that popular search engines over time will want to promote it.
It hurts the validity of a search engine if it is constantly flooded with websites that contain incomplete and inconsistent information. That also applies when concerning your websites security. So any “real” SEO campaign is going to first help a website focus on the organization of the site, the navigation of the site, and it’s security certificates. A campaign should not be trying to up traffic to a site that is not in itself optimized to manage that traffic. That is how so many businesses have been duped by digital marketing companies. because they sell you on paid ads, backlinks, and keywords before focusing on website validity (ie: Title/Meta tags, security, content, and navigation).
In short a good SEO campaign will make sure your site is up to date, secure and with relevant content channels in your industry.
2. There are shortcuts in SEO that can speed up your traffic and keep it there. FALSE
Although it is true that there are shortcuts and tricks to flood traffic to your page quickly, in the end, if you don’t focus on quality content and the external channels linking to your website. Your success will be temporary. Search engines like Google has technology designed to ensure users get to the highest quality of information. And they are trying to improve that technology daily. So yes, you may be able to use “black hat” tricks to rank your website fast. But the Artificial Intelligence in modern search engines are improving to eliminate the tricks of the trade so to speak.
That means when the AI discovers that your site’s performance is driven through spammy tactics it will take action to demote or remove your website. And it will come around. It may not be today or tomorrow but the algorithm will verify that your website is actually optimized for website traffic. Make sure that the digital marketing company that handles your SEO strategy is looking into short-term, mid-term and long-term results. If done correctly, not only will it maintain residual visits, but will also rank higher as search technology improves. Once again your website must be optimized on the front end and back end for long lasting results. There are really no shortcuts to long lasting success.
3. You have to run SEO campaigns indefinitely to keep your site in top rankings. FALSE
Your website and its performance is an investment. Initally, yes you need to put some upfront effort to ensure the website has quality measures and balances in place. But if it’s done right once for a reasonable period of time, you can keep residual traffic that will convert with minimal maintenance.
After that you can focus on the channels that connect to your website. Like social media, telemarketing, and networking with a more impact. A mistake i see alot is when young companies focus their investments on social media and referrals without optimizing all of their channels. That’s what a real SEO strategy will cover. Yes, you can work initally through just social media and referrals but you will lose alot as you try to scale your company and/or add in higher end offers.
These businesses lose a percentage of what they could truly capture in the marketplace. A true SEO campaign will shore up any inconsistencies in a company’s marketing and/or transactional channels. What that means is that across the board, cold to hot prospects have a better chance of converting whenever they go to look for your business. If your business has high end products/services and you promote through Facebook or Instagram and they hit your site through a landing page, an informed higher end consumer will verify all of your known outlets before they pull the trigger.
As a reputable business, you want to ensure that your digital marketing is solid so that they don’t convert to your competitors. A respectable digital marketing agency realizes this and will propose a type of SEO strategy from the onset that focuses on your website performance. Then they will show you how this will improve success through your other marketing channels.
Remember, in the future, the search engines and users will be more informed leading to them looking for businesses and organizations with the know how of shoring up their digital marketing channels. That’s if they want to grow and expand their reach.
Well there you go. The 3 misconceptions and what to look for out of your SEO campaigns. Many times we witness that businesses don’t realize how much more business they could acquire through valid digital marketing solutions. Here at The Mind Resource, we show you how. So that you don’t miss out on the flow of opportunities that come with effective SEO strategies. When a plan comes together it really is a beautiful thing and it can change your business in a positive way for the future. “After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill- the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill- you stay in wonderland and I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” -Morpheus, The Matrix