If you’re just getting started with SEO you might be realizing that it’s unlike any other form of marketing that you’ve implemented before. There are lots of moving parts and variables that determine SEO success. The nature of SEO can sometimes be frustrating to website owners, but there’s no denying that SEO is a necessary marketing component today. After all, the majority of people that are looking for information or a product or service are conducting their research online and using a search engine.
Here are 5 things about SEO that all website owners must understand:
SEO is long term
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about SEO is that website owners won’t see results overnight. Unlike paid advertising, where you can see the impact in a short period of time in terms of exposure, it takes time to generate organic search exposure. In fact, there might not be much improvement in search position or website visitors from the search engines for months. That doesn’t mean that it won’t ever come. The search engines rank websites based on many factors, but one important factor is how trusted the website is and it takes time to earn that trust.
SEO requires content creation
Content marketing and SEO go hand in hand. SEO has become less about building links and is more about earning natural inbound links. In fact, any link that you create on behalf of your own website today should be “nofollowed”, to tell the search spiders that you are creating that link to generate traffic and not just to manipulate your search ranking. Natural links on the other hand, which are created by third parties, can be “followed” and help to improve your ranking. Think about what others are likely to link to and share. That’s right- your informational content like blog posts, videos, white papers, etc.!
SEO requires social media marketing
Social media is another marketing requirement in order to succeed with SEO today. Social media marketing shouldn’t be operated in a silo. The strategy should be developed alongside the SEO strategy and the content strategy since social signals are now a part of the search engine algorithm. When content gets shared in social media it sends a signal to the search engines that that page of content is valuable.
Quality trumps quantity
Old school SEO may have been about quantity. The more links the better. Now, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s not about how many links you have, it’s about the quality of your inbound links. If you have lots of links it’s doubtful that they are all good and your site could end up with a penalty.
Customers and clients are the target audience
It might sound crazy, but in order to do well with SEO you need to focus less on the search engines. The search engine spiders aren’t the ones that are going to be buying your products or service, so don’t market to them. Market in ways that will capture the attention of current and potential customers and clients and the SEO success will fall into place.
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