I'm thrilled to speak at the upcoming virtual event: LEARN. This event includes more than 40 sessions on social media and digital marketing, and I am presenting on SEO. Inspired by Awkward Band Photos on Facebook, I elected to educate the audience on the latest and greatest SEO tactics and techniques via band photos.
To give you a sneak peek of what you can expect from my session on November 22nd, here are 3 ways to rock your search engine optimization results.
1. Don't let large egos—or a Yoko Ono—get in the way of marketing success. Create a strategic alignment between sales and marketing.
Don't let large egos—or a Yoko Ono—get in the way of success. Create a strategic alignment between sales and marketing.
While you might butt heads, we both know you're better when working together, not apart.
Since I optimized my first client website in 1996, I’ve learned that my success as a search marketer is largely out of my control. Beyond the continual changes to search engine ranking algorithms, my biggest challenge was getting what I needed from clients in order to do my job (think content, code updates, etc.). More importantly, I understood that I may not retain a client over time if my efforts to increase visibility and drive traffic did not directly translate into leads and sales. To address this issue, I start the conversation up front regarding internal sales and marketing structure with my clients, including key people, process and tools. If a prospective client is lacked a sales and/or marketing automation platform, I all but required them to implement some sort of lead capture, nurturing and qualification system before we could do our jobs effectively. If you are not taking your sales system seriously as a search marketer, you may be out of a job in the months to come.
2. Create high-quality content—low-quality content gets penalized by Google.
Notice the dude in the picture above looks like his head was taped onto the album cover? That is the equivalent of creating low quality content in order to fool Google into improving your organic search rankings. With recent Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird algorithm updates, Google forced the hand of spammers, whether it is for generating poor quality content or links to drive or monetize website traffic. Marketers that have fallen into the “easy money” grey and black hat world of article spinning, outsourcing content creation to Third World companies (or middle school students) in the past are now safely knocked out of search results. I’ve always recommended and required my clients to do good marketing, including creating compelling, unique and timely content, which means they have not been penalized by Google. Follow that simple Golden Rule, and you too may be surrounded by a harem of Disco-era ladies.
If Google was around in the 70s, it would definitely penalize this album cover.
And this one, too.
3. Give users—and your Fans—what they want as quickly as possible. Ensure your website loads quickly; slow site speed kills.
Rihanna's been everywhere because she releases an album every year. This keeps her relevant and fresh. She delivers her content faster than most other artists today.
Rihanna's success lies in part because she releases a new album every single year. This keeps her relevant and gives her Fans what they want in the shortest amount of time possible. As you know, today's audiences have very short attention spans.
How does this relate to SEO? In short: Google rewards fast websites and penalizes slow sites. Google has spent the last 15 years trying to create the ultimate search engine ranking algorithm. One of the more recent advancements is to determine the quality of user experience, which can be measured, in part, by website download speed. Long before Google’s algorithm rewarded fast sites, the first step I took when coming on board to an ecommerce company in 2002, was to decrease website download speeds. Conversion rates shot up immediately, which was the sole objective at the time. Google is now rewarding you for providing customers with a better experience AND you’ll make more money in the process with improved conversion rates. That’s killing three birds with one stone.
Learn 14 secrets for rockin' search engine optimization results.
Join me November 22 at LEARN, the virtual event for digital marketing. During my session, 14 SEO Tips as Told in Band Photos, I will walk you through the latest search engine optimization (SEO) research and trends, and then reveal 14 best practices for SEO, as told via band photos.
Event Date: November 11-22, 2013 | Location: Virtual | Register now!