So often I hear companies focused on their ranking for a specific keyword, but rarely do I hear the focus being on the number of website visits or website visitor conversions. There is more to your online marketing than being the number 1 spot on search engines. I challenge you to start thinking of and measuring SEO differently. SEO can definitely help your online marketing efforts in other ways than just rankings on search engines.
The following are some other roles and benefits that SEO provides in your online marketing.
Content Ready For Sharing
By applying the best SEO practices like using keyword insertion in on-page content, using related meta tags and consistently publishing new content, you have set yourself up quite nicely to share it on social networks and via email.
I find the biggest barrier to social network interaction is having valuable things to share. Now that you have content targeted to your buyer personas, put it out there. Share both your new content and recycle your old content. This can help you nurture leads, gain new fans or followers, and increase the amount of loyal customers you currently have.
You can also use that same great content in emails to leads and customers. Some great uses are in lead nurturing campaigns and e-newsletters. And to top it off, the great thing about some email service providers is that the email can be published as a web page and then that page is indexed with the search engines. You just killed 2 birds with 1 stone.
Great User Experience
Your SEO efforts can also create a great user experience for your visitors. Using a page title and meta description that are legitimately related to the page will allow your visitors to know exactly what to expect when you show up in their search results. Once they visit your site they will be happy that they haven’t wasted time on a webpage unrelated to their search. Even more than that, they are more likely to stick around the site and convert into a lead.
Overall remember online marketing is not about tricking internet users into coming to your website. When it comes to your SEO, you always want to be clear about what your business and content is about. You always want to strive for a great user experience.
So with all that said, you should not only feel a little better about the time and/or money you have devoted to your company’s SEO, but you should begin to think of the advantages of SEO differently. And hopefully you can start expanding your method of measurement for online marketing, such as by the number of unique visitors, number of inbound links, or number of keywords you rank in the top 3 for.
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