Over the years, I have met with and consulted many marketers and business owners both large and small who are interested in search. They have heard about it, or have been told this is something they should do. Invariably, they come with a few preconceived notions of what constitutes search success, or wasn’t sure how their website can work as part of the production consideration funnel. Some know how to optimize a site, yet do not think long tail.
Any good marketers would know the value of throwing away preconceived notions and building in buzzwords like “flexibility” and “adaptability” into their planning and campaigns instead. The market is never static. So why should your website, and least of all, your approach?
Here are some things for you to consider when you’re considering search. Based on what I’ve heard are preconceived notions out there.
Meta tagging is integral to search engine optimization success.
Everyone knows the importance of good meta tagging for effective search engine optimization. Keywords, titles, description tags and other informational HTML cater toward search engine spiders’ indexing strategies for sure and certainly play an important role. But they are by no means the most important part of optimizing your site. So what is? Read on.
Abandon all baggage. Let’s start with a fresh site and get that optimized.
No harm in that. Or is there? Google has an ageing delay for all new domains, which means that if you’re starting a site from scratch and using a new domain, you can expect to join the back of the queue. Which means twiddling your fingers for up to a year before your site will pop up in Google regardless of the keywords built in.
Alright, I can’t wait. Aren’t there techniques that can get me instant results?
Yes, there are. But why should you? Or rather, why shouldn’t you? There are black hat search engine optimization techniques – such as keyword stuffing, invisible text, or cloaked pages – that can land you higher search rankings. They can also lend your site in SEO jail. You can learn to trick the search engine spiders but these spiders are like humans (and viruses) – they evolve and adapt. And can get wise to your tricks, very fast. Once sniffed out, the search engines can ban and penalize your sites. So search the horizon for the long haul. Don’t let short-term solutions seduce and blind you.
I am already at the Top Ten on any search engine. Let’s celebrate!
You think? Search is not a one-time exercise. This is possibly the biggest phallacy any marketer can commit. You can reach the Top Ten. But can you stay there? Search engine spiders can find you, but they may not necessarily index you if you don’t provide a compelling proposition over your competition or engage your users over time. They work for search engine users, not you.
So by all means, celebrate. But plan your next move. There is always something to improve and optimize. Competition aside, consumer search habits and passion points can change. Your business and marketing strategies can also change. So update, update, update.
Intuitive keywords + delivering successful links = search success
True, to an extent. You can draw people in. But can you keep them there, and better yet, create talkability? Great copywriting for search will enable people to find your site, but what’s more important is relevance to the audience and keeping them engaged with your site. Otherwise they will just leave. Instead of focusing solely on luring people to your site, you should spend time focusing also on how your content is presented and can engage them. When audiences are emotionally engaged and can easily find what they want on your site, they will talk about it. So understand your customers, and write and build your site for them rather than for search engines. This will in fact enable more chances of exposure for you both online and off. When word of mouth is great online, search engines pick them up too. Conversely, search engine spiders can actually be blocked from crawling sites that are not well designed. Remember, content and usability help ensure high rankings, not to mention word or mouth ratings.
Ranking is everything
Not true. While having a high ranking can’t hurt, what’s more important than the number of qualified leads you receive is the eventual outcome from those leads. A campaign’s success is predicated on measurements against business and marketing performance indicators – dwell time on website, sales leads, conversions, etc. Measure only those which is important to your campaign’s success indicators instead.
