Redefining Search Marketing: Producing Shareable Content
Search Engine Optimisation is an area that is constantly evolving. Here’s what any digital marketing strategy should base itself upon.
You might have heard that Search Engine Optimization is in a state of transition. A period of flux. I’d argue that it has already evolved, and if your digital marketing strategy hasn't recognised this then you are way behind the curve. Gone are the days where search engine optimisation consisted of overzealous keyword-stuffing and shady backlink exchanges.
Search marketing, in my eyes, can now be understood as an overarching term covering a blend of different ingredients, all of which have one main thing in common — they all stem from what should be the cornerstone of any digital campaign: high quality, engaging, shareable content.
Of course, there are certain technical aspects that will always be very important — 301 redirects, URL strings, page load times, crawl errors etc. that all need to be in good order first and foremost. Once these are all solid, your primary focus must be centred around content.
Build it and they will come. Produce truly worthy content and a lot of the rest will take care of itself. Web users are drawn to new and innovative content, in whatever form that may take. Articles, videos, images, infographics, podcasts are just a few examples. Your focus must be on producing content that offers something different.
How did BuzzFeed get so big so quickly? Because they curate content that is painlessly easy to digest, they make the act of sharing a seamless exercise, and they operate a highly active presence on social media sites. Twitter makes it almost natural for great content to build momentum, with the act of re-tweeting exponentially increasing your exposure to a wider audience.
We are now living in the digital epoch. We consume content like it is our fuel. For many of us, Twitter and Facebook are the first things we look at in the morning and the last things we check at night, facilitating our continual thirst for content. Social Media and SEO now interlock and overlap. Social networks are built around the act of ‘sharing’, with most Twitter users using the service as a medium for discovering the very freshest content, often just minutes old. Any digital marketing strategy that ignores this fact is way past it’s sell-by date — social networking sites act as the primary mechanism through which content is shared, discovered and consumed.
Identify key influencers in your field on Twitter and similar platforms and engage with them. Start a dialogue. Engage with their content enough and the chances are they’ll return the favour with yours.
If you are a brand, personalise your social presence. There’s a reason why Tesco Mobile are enjoying so much acclaim for their social strategy. Their tone of voice comes across as conversational and humanised. Twitter needs to be treated as a two-way platform, not as an extension of your press department.
Spend less time tracking keyword rankings. Instead, focus on measuring social engagement. Track shares, comments and social chatter, and work on improving these aspects. Pay more attention to referral traffic from social networks. Keep tabs on the quality of your traffic (bounce rate, pages per visit, average visit duration).
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea. Search Engine Marketing now entails producing content that gets shared. Social networks help a great deal to facilitate this sharing process. Want more visitors to your website? Give them a reason to visit.
