In Toronto’s IT and online marketing arena, content is king. Come back tomorrow for a chat with your area Every IT Solution professionals about apples keeping the doctor away.
Compared to what it really encompasses, referring to search engine optimization (“SEO”) by the widely accepted, albeit quite outdated definition is akin to referring to the game of baseball as “pitching”: it incorporates a significant aspect of a more complex concept, but it leaves many an important element out of the explanation. In truth, “SEO” is one aspect – though an overarching one, no doubt – of what’s more generally (but accurately) called simply “online marketing”.
SEO is the process of improving a website’s placement among search-engine results by employing emphasized keywords that enhance the site’s relevance to certain popular search topics. Though SEO incorporates and strives to influence the effectiveness of banner ads, paid link building, direct e-mail marketing and pay-per-click advertising, its real aim is to improve traffic to organic search results. That’s historically the most effective way in which companies get the attention of, communicate with, and eventually convert site visitors.
KEYWORDS VERSUS ENGAGEMENT
Recently, especially with the advent of Google’s vaunted Penguin algorithm update, the crux of SEO strategy has been centered almost solely on keyword-heavy articles that pandered to search-engine algorithms but ignored readability.
Google changed the game considerably. The world’s most used search engine – typically accounting for roughly half the overall website visits in the world on a steady basis – has shifted the focus to the quality and originality of content. The new game is to tailor the content you create not so much to keyword “SEO” as to an obvious overall relevance and usability.
Planning an online marketing strategy now demands a new depth of planning. Every IT Solution’s Toronto IT and online marketing professionals recognize three key starting points that will base your online marketing campaign’s foundation on steady ground from Square One…
1. KNOW THY AUDIENCE
Recognizing who will most likely purchase your product or service starts your online campaign off on a logical foot. Women age 35-50 will probably be shopping with a different set of priorities in mind than a male between the ages of 18 and 40 will apply.
With content relevance now more critical than stuffing an article with SEO-tailored keywords, this is important to creating content with the appropriate relevance and a tone that engages the target audience first and foremost above any other.
Make some rounds online. Take a genuine interest in who uses your product, and how. Take their feedback – for better and for worse – straight to heart. When online marketing gurus such as Every IT Solution’s consultants can clearly see the personas with whom you’ll be starting a conversation, it’s easier to understand how to approach them.
2. YEP, CONTENT IS KING….SO IS CONSISTENCY
If your website doesn’t have an SEO-driven, relevant, targeted blog, it should.
Your blog won’t just be providing information about your products and services. It should make your site a recognized and trusted resource in your field. Fill it with useful, engaging information. Use it to start a conversation. The more your audience trusts your expertise, the more likely they are to trust your products.
Blog at a steady pace, though. Keep content coming at a predictable rate, typically 2-3 times per week over even just four times per month. Post your content – be it podcasts, videos, blogs, or anything else – on a set day at a set time weekly. It conditions your site visitors and customers to come back expecting something fresh to tantalize their interests.
3. DON’T JUST MANAGE THE CONVERSATION…PARTICIPATE
Find ways to make it not only convenient but desirable for your audience to share your content across the various major social media channels, be it via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Reddit or any other forum.
Additionally, take comments on postings to heart, but with a grain of salt. True, the Internet is populated with heckling “trolls” who will seek only to cause havoc. However, they’re fairly easy to recognize compared with the genuine, sincere comments either praising or criticizing your product.
Don’t apply pressure to leave comments only fitting one opinion, though. If you’re to open yourself to dialogue with customers, it has to be with an availability to address both praises and gripes.
In the meantime, two more pieces of advice…
First off, don’t over-link to product pages within your site. A few links here and there can encourage click-through traffic and time spent at your site’s domain; include too minute, and it becomes an obvious, high-pressure sales pitch.
Also, have an IT and online marketing team optimize your site so that certain blogs link to particular relevant products. What your blog says may influence a buying decision one way or another.
JUST THE BEGINNING…
There’s far more to online marketing than simply this. When you’re ready, trust Toronto-based IT and online marketing consultants backed up by experience, broad knowledge, and reputation. Contact Every IT Solution today, and we’ll gladly schedule a free consultation to examine what we can bring to your brand’s online marketing horizons.
