It has been quite a while since my last post. Going on six months actually. If I recall correctly from my own preachings to clients…never go silent. Oops! Once you go silent the conversation stops and interest is lost. Hopefully I still have at least one reader left out there!Since my last post I have started a new job. I have gone corporate, focused on one goal for one company. It is quite an interesting change of pace but mostly it is a change in perspective. My role has also evolved into more than PR and AR to include advertising and some traditional marketing functions such as whitepaper development and working with the web folks to improve our SEO.
SEO is an interesting term. I have heard many call it snake oil (there are quite a few posts dedicated to this) while others swear by it. (For a laugh, check out SEO is Bull$&@*, SEO is Snake Oil, SEO is a Waste of Money). I am not sure if I am quite sold yet on SEO. I definitely see some benefit to it but as online noise increases does SEO lose its effectiveness? I mean, how many times can you put in a term to increase your rankings against 100,000 other sites before you get penalized. To an extent, SEO is still a buzz word, one people like to drop to sound smart. You know the type, those that use words they have no understanding of to “fit in”. (Social media comes to mind).
Working directly with the web team I have seen first hand how legitimate SEO (not the black hat mail order bride stuff) helps drive sales leads. Here are some things I have found to be effective. While they are a bit basic, you would be surprised how many companies are not engaged in these.
- Understand your key words, what prospects are searching for and incorporate these terms into your site. Don’t go overboard as many small companies tend to do. Keep it real.
- Content, Content, Content. What is your industry talking about? What are your customers’ pain points? Create educational (not sales) material that addresses these. While the material will likely be in PDF format, make sure to create plain text abstracts for each asset. These are more easily indexed.
- Get rid of PDF news releases. For one, opening a PDF is a pain unless you have a new computer. Offer the asset as a new, stand alone page. You can offer the PDF version for download but it shouldn’t be the main link.
- Keep the conversation going. Don’t do like me and fall off the face of the earth for 5 months! Want to incorporate social media into that ongoing conversation? Check out this post from Steve McAbee over at Wunderkind, “Developing a Social Media Plan: Research, Strategy and Tactics.”
