SEO is dead. Search engine optimization doesn’t matter. Engaging in SEO strategy is a snake oil profession.
I’ve heard all of these epithets and more from people who don’t believe that optimizing Web content for search is necessary. Some believe that quality content will rise in search engines like Google by virtue of its relevance.
Others think tools like social media replace the need for SEO (one friend told me once his content hit the social nets on places like Twitter that it had all the exposure it needed to rank).
Protect Your Intellectual Content and Curate the User Experience
It’s probably obvious where I stand on SEO considering I offer it as a service to my clients, but I’ve got solid reasons for believing in the importance of proper search optimization.
Consider the user who you want to reach out to with your content. How important is it to communicate with someone on your own terms, on your own website, instead of on third party websites, article directories, and social networks?
Answer: Critically important!
When someone lands on your own website after performing a search, you’re imparting the value of your content first by being important enough to rank highly in the engines and secondly by directing people to take an action that accomplishes one of your goals (form submission, list building, sharing content to list a few).
Relying only on referrals from the social nets or by posts on discussion boards does a lot to bolster the importance of those websites but little for your own, unless people link to the content they land on. In the worst case your material will be reproduced without permission and credited to the plagiarist.
For this reason you need to create very detailed and easy to use map to your content, in the interest of PR, establishing ownership and building a respectable brand or business.
Title Tags are Just the Beginning…
Title tags, meta data and keywords, plus on-page SEO strategies like internal links are just the beginning of a successful optimization. Even building out your reach using content marketing distribution isn’t enough. The only way to defend your original content is to barnstorm the Web:
- Deploy Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns
- Create Screencast Tutorials
- Pimp Your URL’s (Keywords and Permalinks)
- Seed Online Reviews on Popular Sites
- Hook New Fans with Social Media Link Bait
Don’t rely on others to protect your Web property or promote your content. Remember that social media and SEO are tools for building authority, influence, and starting new conversations that help you accomplish specific goals!
Before you forget…
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