Getting the Most Value Out of Your SEO Campaign

The undeniable marketing potential that lies in the hundreds of millions of web searches conducted daily has planted search engine marketing firmly on the minds of business owners, website owners and marketing directors alike. These days, everyone knows that it is vital to be visible to users when they search on relevant terms. This focus as well as the ever- increasing costs per click on the paid search side, has led to a greater level of interest in SEO – ranking organically on relevant search terms.

It is important however to view SEO from a value perspective, not a rankings perspective. Let’s be honest with ourselves, there is room for just 10 listings on the search engine results pages for any given search term. This means that you must view SEO strategically, with a focus on creating value. So how does a company do this? Well, I will be highlighting some key points below:

1. Focus on the bottom line, not rankings

Like I usually say to my clients, look at SEO the way you would look at any other component of your advertising mix. When you do this, you are able to focus on the results that really matter to your business, rather than obsessing over how many keywords you have in the number one spot on Google. Say for example, you were trying to reach the 18-24 female demographic, then you probably wouldn’t be buying a spot during ESPN’s Sports Center. It probably isn’t going to work. The same applies to SEO – focus on understanding the language that your target audience uses in searching for your offerings, and optimize around that. When businesses fall into the trap of focusing only on rankings, they end up with a false sense of achievement when they rank number one on certain terms, and it is only after much time and effort that they realize that their newly-attained rankings are not so valuable after all. Focus on driving sales, leads, and revenue through the selection of the right keywords, and you’ll be on the right track. More on keywords next…

2. Do your keyword research

This is one topic that never gets old, as far as I am concerned, and it ties in with the idea of focusing on your bottom line. Keyword research and analysis is the MOST important component of an SEO campaign. This is because search engine optimization requires the investment of time and effort, and you do not want to use up your resources in going after the wrong keywords. This is especially true in very competitive verticals. If you spend all your time optimizing for a keyword that does not convert well, you simply will not see the kind of ROI that you would with a better converting keyword with similar search volume.

3. Focus on the long-run

In order to be truly successful at search engine optimization, you must focus on relevance, relevance, relevance! Let’s face it: if you launch a credit card information site today, you have just about zero chance of achieving top placement on the major search engines for a term like “credit card information. However, unless you plan to shut down the site in the next two years, it is important to work at building up a reputation for yourself as being relevant on the subject of “credit card information. This means developing unique, useful content on the subject and ensuring that your site revolves around that subject. By developing unique content, you are able to send out the right “keyword signals” to search engines and also attract relevant inbound links.

As far as short-cut SEO tactics are concerned, I am a firm believer in cutting these out as much as possible, and investing time and effort in building a reputation of relevance on the the subject of your choice. Think about it, what made Google the juggernaut that it is today? It’s simple – they had the most relevant results for users’ search queries. Their credibility, and yes, their stock price are tied to continuing to remain relevant. This means that short cut tactics will not help your business in the long run. The rankings are called “organic” because they are supposed to be natural. Focus on being as relevant as possible, and you are on the way to being seeing great value from SEO.

So there you have it – by paying attention to these three pieces of SEO wisdom, you will be putting your business on the right track within the search engines.