We have seen major algorithmic changes to implement better content filters, as well as aggressive links and tactics to discriminate artificially created links that SEO consultants use to improve the keyword performance of their websites.
Changing and updating the rules is a constant in SEO, but one thing is certain today: More and more consultants and companies are investigating how to create a better buffer against the volatility of Google SERPs.
Some have been negatively impacted by the Panda or Penguin updates, but even more professionals are facing a reality in which their reliance on traditional techniques has left them unarmed for the current circumstances. Putting all the eggs of online marketing in the same basket begins to cause concern to many brands and companies that live from the conversions generated by the traffic that comes from search engines.
For every business that is creating useful and shareable content by growing its social media, and optimizing its online marketing performance, there are probably 10 or even 100 more that focus exclusively on optimizing keywords and building links in the hopes of achieving success. position themselves on the first page of search engines, imagining that if they could reach number 1 they would actually be profitable.
However, to be truly successful through online marketing today, brands and companies must be where their customers are. They have to be with them in a meaningful way and adding value. They must understand and answer the questions of their customers in all phases of the “courtship” from brand awareness to purchase and subsequent promotion as a prescriber.
As a result, there is a growing awareness that consumers use more than just search to find information and make purchases. There is also a lot to say about the usefulness of answering questions and the benefits that this can bring to attracting customers, if you do not provide personalized answers, other brands will probably take the conversion.
You can start now in your transition to a customer-centric approach, and a more diversified strategy of your online marketing with content that is easy to find and share.
The most basic and impressive thing that your company can do to take advantage of its content and increase knowledge, grow the credibility of your brand, and improve customer acquisition, is to answer the questions of your consumers or potential customers.
Keep in mind when diversifying your online media mix that your target audience is much more than the people who buy from you. It includes other important groups, such as existing clients, potential clients, journalists and sectorial media, investors, etc.
Here are three basic questions that you have to take into account:
1. Answer the questions of your potential customers
Don’t just write FAQs for it. Create stories, craft visuals, and definitely get creative in how you empathize with your customers and show them how they can go from problem to solution with your help. Of course, you must optimize this content for search engines and social media. Explore the following items to discover questions you can answer:
- Monitor keywords on social media
- Talk to your sales team to learn the most common questions from potential customers
- Check your web analytics to find the questions that have been reviewed as search engine queries and that drive traffic to your website
- Take advantage of keyword research tools to find question forms that use keywords relevant to your business
- Throw questions to your social networks and communities, they will give you the key
Finally, group the collected questions into thematic groups and use them within your content creation plan. Create a feedback loop for questions originating from social media by posting responses and public recognition of those who helped you answer.
2. Answer questions from your existing customers
Customer acquisition is generally much more expensive than customer retention, so make sure you’re creating, optimizing, and socializing content that helps, inform, and entertain your existing customers. Eg: a magazine of lifestyles, or practical ways to get more advantages and benefits of the product or service, satisfied customers will share their stories about your brand and products. Make it easy for them to do so by providing useful content and motivating them to engage.
Good customer retention can have a significant sales impact on your business. It’s important to create content to support customer satisfaction, as well as optimize and socialize that content so it’s easy for your customers to find and share.
3. Answer questions from the media in your industry
The credibility of other media can be a decisive factor in the growth of your brand awareness and improvement of branding, as well as its authority and sales. An influential journalist, analyst, or blogger has different questions and answers that a potential client or an existing client might ask. It is common to find strong opinions, compelling examples, and research that add their experience to a story.
The types of content that are often created and used by journalists or bloggers, and that could be useful in a streamlined and socialized newsroom are:
- Previous media coverage and other signed articles
- Video
- Reports and technical documents
- Images
- Press dossier about the company
- FAQs and Frequently Asked Questions about the company
- Information about the management team and founders
- Agenda and Calendar of events
- Press Releases and PR
- Links to corporate content
- Links to the company’s social profiles
To the extent that you get to know the information preferences of your customers, you can make it easier and more useful for the media to find it.
Optimization is more than just your position in the search engine SERPs, or the discovery of your content through organic searches. It’s about understanding your diverse audiences and creating content that’s easy to locate and share. Your content should answer their questions in a way that increases your brand credibility and drives your potential customers to buy.
You should be able to encourage your clients to be prescribers of your brand and attract the media to your company as the best solution to their needs. Optimization is an ongoing process that you must implement the tactics of a plan designed to achieve a particular goal.
Optimization is a cycle of constantly gathering information about the performance of your online marketing efforts and making continuous adjustments to improve.
A more holistic perspective on optimization is important to diversify your marketing strategies. This means that you must maintain a commitment to your content, your community and an approach focused on your customers and not just on search engines.
It is time to rethink your strategy and start again, SEO is much more than organic positioning within online marketing, because it also leads us to positioning within the consumer’s mind and that there is no algorithm that can change it.