What is Search Marketing? A Beginner’s Guide
As a multi-platform content creator jockeying for space in your chosen market, you know that value of compelling content.
“Content is King”, wrote Bill Gates almost 25 years ago regarding the growth and economic potential of the internet. And this has held firm over the years, with some believing that content continues to grow in importance even today.
But you know that great text is nothing without an audience: at Forbes, Peter Himler describes this marriage of ideas with the addition, “Distribution is Queen.” But how can an up-and-coming content creator strike the most effective balance between firm editorial control and best practice SEO structure, seemingly competing ideological camps?
Search marketing
Search marketing is the answer. By utilizing professional search marketing agency resources, you can achieve the best of both worlds with your written word. That’s because there are innumerable avenues to growing organic traffic, not just choppy search engine optimization (SEO) additions.
The first thing to note regarding SEO practices is that content editors who’ve mastered the art of flowing transition and organically integrated buzzword usage are not unicorns; they truly exist. So your first consideration when optimizing any page or post on your site should be whether to take the time to improve your own game or outsource this task to a professional closer who will put the finishing touches on your work for you. This choice is entirely up to you, but it’s important to evaluate the tradeoffs you are making with your decision.
Outsourcing provides high quality content that will make a strong impression on Google crawlers, but it may cost you a pretty penny. Learning the craft yourself, on the other hand, requires a long term trial and error period that may require future edits to long standing posts. It also requires an intensive study that will take away from your primary focus: generating thought provoking content. However, on the other side of the tunnel is SEO independence.
Other considerations
Other services provided under the umbrella of SEO work include targeted advertising, local listing management, and targeted improvements to user experience. All of these are jobs that are outside the scope of your average writer. These secondary components are critical to a well-rounded optimization strategy though and cannot be forgone or taken lightly. Competition in the online arena is brutal, so building the edge on your opponents and maintaining it are vital to your success.
User experience (UX) improvements are particularly important to customer conversion. The first impression will last with new visitors to your page and a clunky landing page or difficult to interpret categorizations will only drive traffic away from your services, products, or resources. Improving UX is a constant effort that takes a dedicated study of how visitors interact with your pages; this can take the form of mouse tracking, metrics on average page view times, or a study of chatbot interactions.
Chatbots, in fact, are a great place to begin when working to foster healthy customer experiences. This is interesting considering their ironic relationship that both dramatically improves customer service while simultaneously infuriating those same users they were implemented to help. Additionally, research into how your offerings stack up against your competitors can help you make dramatic improvements to your site’s interaction with viewers.
Utilizing powerful search marketing techniques will help keep you a step ahead of the game and continue to provide increasing Google rankings, driving improved click through rates and customer conversions. It starts small, but beginning with compelling and well-designed content will grow your presence and your pocketbook before your very eyes.