In the world of online marketing, few terms bring more angst to business owners than the simply acronym SEO. But Search Engine Optimization does not have to be the bogeyman that so many have made it out to be.
The solution starts by taking a step back from the picture. SEO is a bigger picture than most realize. A manageable picture. But a big one. SEO reaches into almost everything that an online marketer does.
Thus, it’s difficult to have major SEO success without orchestrating all of your digital marketing efforts around it. First things first; you need an overarching digital strategy. Next, you can’t be worried about SEO unless you have a website, preferably one meeting modern criteria such as mobile-friendliness. Tailoring your web content to your audience using appropriate landing pages and a company blog comes next. Don’t forget about links! Building a strong portfolio of inbound links through social media and email marketing are oft-forgotten ingredients of SEO.
SEO IS A LONG GAME
And one more thought about SEO and its relationship to media-mindedness:
Kit Mullins, founder of Jemully Media, is known for emphasizing that “SEO is a long game.” She’s seen that not just in the work she’s done for her clients but in her in-house work for her own agency. Jemully Media does for itself the same best practices that it urges upon its clients. Mullins has seen that SEO efforts do pay off. They don’t pay off in a month, though. It takes years to really begin to reap the rewards.
We quote from one of Kit’s blogposts on SEO effectiveness, which largely comes down to content marketing effectiveness:
“Jemully Media began in 2011. Over the years, our agency has employed writers who have not only produced content marketing for our clients, but they have also treated our own agency as one of our clients. Unlike the oft-neglected cobbler’s children, we take pride in the application of the very same recommendations to our own marketing efforts that we prescribe to our clients. The results are exciting! And we are able to use our own success as a case study.
“To date, our team has published more than 200 blog posts on nearly every marketing topic under the sun. We’ve shared tips for using various social media platforms, as well as best practices for website creation and SEO. Likewise, we have dissected various industry trends. We’ve explored oddities like marketing lessons gleaned from the Pumpkin Spice Latte phenomenon, the correct pronunciation of “GIF,” and our staff reading list as well.
“In conclusion, all of this writing serves the purpose. The articles provide a useful repository of marketing knowledge that sets us apart. Our content differentiates us from our competition, in the eyes of Google, and it differentiates us in the eyes of prospective clients, and our readers at large.
“This Google Analytics graph [see chart] shows the steady growth in traffic our website has experienced since mid-2016. First, let me point out that in the early going of your SEO process, Google Adwords and paid social media advertising are important tools to employ. As you can see from the chart, there are spikes of traffic during the times we increased our Adwords campaigns. We are a fan of paid ads, at key points in the marketing process.“You will also note that by the Fall of 2017, our organic content had gained enough traction that we were able to stop spending large amounts of funds on our paid ads. Then, we were able to invest even more heavily in writing content.
“This is the path that Jemully has taken, and the results speak for themselves. It is also the path that we recommend to clients. Get serious about content marketing. Be your own media. Create and expand your brand’s persona and expertise through thoughtful content generation. It’s something we’ve been saying for years, but content marketing and SEO are intertwined more than ever before.”
For the full text of her remarks, see Kit’s blogpost on “The 5-Step SEO Process.”
