Published
12/16/2015
Categories
Marketing

What Is Search Engine Optimization in 2017?

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Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is not what it used to be!

In the olden days… you could just optimize your site truthfully and be found. Then, as the Internet grew and competition swelled, fabricating pages and backlinks to your site became the rage. Google of course swatted that down eventually and now becoming visible via Google becomes more a black box every day.

What’s clear is that merely optimizing pages is generally not enough anymore unless you’re in a very niche industry target super specific keywords. Furthermore, fabricating pages and backlinks will quickly sink your rankings. Now more than ever, the quality of your content, *and how you syndicate it*, is what matters.

Gain Visibility With the Search Engines

No longer should you concern yourself directly with tuning the perfect pages, nor should you obsess about your backlinks, instead, your SEO strategy should focus around your audience’s information and/or entertainment needs. You must create content that your audience will want to consume, and spread it around through the channels that best target that audience.

Begin with a content strategy, and then supplement that with a social media & site outreach strategy. The two work together to put helpful and valuable information on your site, and then make people aware of it, people who will care and be interested, and will then link to it and share it with others themselves.

Consider getting your clicks not necessarily from the first page of Google… but from the sites that are already visible on the first page of Google for your key search terms! Many times these are social media sites, industry directories, review sites, blogs and other topical content aggregation sites. Getting featured prominently in any one of those results can be better than even page 2 of a Google result.

Developing Content and Amplification Strategies

For your content, imagine primarily how to deliver unique value to your audience. Inform them, educate them, share your accumulated knowledge and expertise. Share your opinions and ideas and tactics. This approach will generate original content for your site that distinguishes you from other sources of media on the Internet. Google and other industry focused sites will reward you.

Do not be concerned with giving away too much for free. The buyers in your audience will not want to do it themselves, they’ll want to pay an expert, and your helpful & informative content will lend to your authority. This free sharing of information will not only draw your content into search results, it will actually do a lot of selling for you and deliver buyers more ready to pull the trigger with you.

A complete online marketing campaign may include some pay per click advertising, a remarketing campaign, an emailing campaign, regular social postings, involvement in industry-specific forums & blogs, and display advertising on targeted sites.

There are many options to consider and a lot of content to produce to really make these strategies work. If you sense that you’re lacking the time or expertise to properly evaluate and executive the best choices for you and your business, then hire a professional online marketer.

A professional online marketer will know how to quickly analyze your market and suggest the most likely successful paths to becoming visible. That online marketer will also be able to help you produce the content you need. You do not have to write it all yourself, or design the graphics or produce the video yourself. You must be the source of inspiration, but there is a world of ghost writers, graphic designers, and video producers out there who can help formulate your thoughts into the appropriate medium.

The marketing professional or agency you hire should have resources and relationships in place to help you produce the content you need.

________________________ Endertech is a Los Angeles Tech Company offering Digital Marketing and SEO expertise in addition to our web development services. Contact us for your free consultation.