Why every SEO specialist needs to be a marketer

Search engine optimisation relies on the facets of technical insights into the orientation of search engine algorithms and provides only a little guidance regarding marketing, of which may appear to be directly, algorithmically lead anyway.

What I mean by this is that SEO consultants are at risk of continually making decisions because it will help them rank better, getting links on relevant sites, building content, but there are larger forces at work that can make an impact in the longer-term on an exponential level…it’s far less direct as an approach to SEO, but is seen to be very effective indeed.

For me at least, search engine optimisation needs to be about seeing opportunities beyond items such as:

• On-site work
• Link-building
• Content Creation
• Site analytics

SEO needs to be far more about marketing prowess…

Case Study 1.

I worked as a Campaign Manager for a national children’s charity once upon a time, before making a permanent move into search. The campaigns that I set-up had to be on the scale of where they could be self-managed…ultimately, the campaigns were not going to raise the kind of funds that I was aiming for if I had to set-up, promote and run each fundraising event.

I took the strategy of targeting the top of each industry-sector, hitting the biggest companies in the fields that I was campaigning with big ideas, backed-up with plans on how they could be effectively implemented. Some of the largest organisations turned these ideas down for a variety of different reasons, but a bi-product of this was that I could develop these rejections into a to-do list. I gradually moved down and across the industry sector’s, talking to companies about these improving plans, until I found a company to push them on my behalf.

This turned out to be very effective on many counts building relationships with Government departments, national pub chains and gaining large-scale sponsorships packages. Interestingly, the charity was relatively unknown compared to other national charities but because I was able to hit the top of the industry pyramid with creative ideas, we were able to build relationships that very effectively trickled down.

Case Study 2.

If you’re a SEO consultant reading this, you might like to think about the relationship Distilled and SEOMoz have, especially since May 2008. One reinforces the other across the Atlantic, which of course assures the reader that they are in fact reading the best content out there…like many blogs do. That is the fundamental nature of the web, and something that companies do not always strategically take advantage of.

The three points to remember:

1. Find your place in the industries pyramid. Hit the highest point in the industry where you think your skills and resources can be realised and then only work

2. Even the set-backs provide have been a chance to raise awareness to your plans, provide context and talking points in future, and of course develop your ideas.

3. SEO efforts can and are exponentially built from marketing efforts too. Joint alliances, business relationships, can really reinforce efforts to improve rankings. Awareness breeds awareness.

Your next task:

• Come-up with ideal solutions on where you can build an online strategic alliance.
• Find somebody, or a website, with similar interests and aspirations.
• Build the relationships that you already have. Maybe they gave you a link, maybe you comment on their blog a great deal (or vice versa), or maybe you met them at a conference?
• Approach the person confidently but not arrogantly, highlighting the mutual benefits.
• Be proactive in every aspect of your search marketing efforts, even down to prospective keyword research.

Who will your next online strategic alliance be with? Start thinking………now!

SEO Alignment…

When I talk to clients, I talk a lot about SEO alignment. This refers to the functional aspects of on and offline marketing activity integrating.  Essentially it’s how the direct and indirect marketing channels pull together to market the website, avoid SEO being a stand-alone activity, and provide an informed picture to search engines.

SEO Alignment

This needn’t be excessively pushy or spammy, nor need it be a search engine marketers headache, but provided the search consultant asks the right questions and are provided with the business and marketing information then plans can be put in place.

SEO Planning

The analysis and marketing plan is one of my favourite aspects of working in search marketing, for good reasons. The analysis is the detective work: highlighting the current situation, trouble areas and the very best opportunities to market the website online. The search marketing plan is essentially building this into a road-map of activity, and on a micro-level, creating a to-do list that will improve the site’s performance.

The IT and Marketing Case

Search engine optimisation is a fascinating merger of technical I.T. skills and marketing prowess. What we tend to see from successful SEO specialists is that the more effective the SEO’s marketing approach is, the better the return on investment from the technical input. This essentially means that optimising websites is not simply about engineering them for search engines, but rather that a sprinkle of marketing flare can go a long way.

Although, don’t let marketing flare and technical aspects of web dev or SEO collide by treating them as independent functions.  Let them run in a way that helps them act as a catalyst for progress for one another by providing them with overlapping agendas.  An example of this would be challenging them to work on creating the optimal, accessible website structure for users and bots.

So day-to-day, how can this be applied?

To integrate SEO, marketing and IT, it’s really a case of each area of the business (if unique) knowing the what’s and the how’s of everything. Sometimes an SEO specialist can help simply by integrating and capitalising on what is already there. It’s vital to draw marketing information from as many parts of the business as possible, maybe start by asking:

• What is the website’s purpose as part of the business or organisation? Brand-building, sales, social media / newsletter-sign-ups, educational, post-sale support, cross-selling, affiliate, etc…?
• Who are the ideal visitors? Ideal customer behaviour?
• Access to the current market research and plan?
• Are there other websites that the company owns?
• Does the company have other business partnerships, affiliates?
• SEO project team – company integration as opposed to simply the SEO consultant?

Integrating the technical and analytical activity, along with marketing flare and planning, become the new, qualitative ranking factors, where rankings can be shown to increase exponentially if all items are pulled together…SEO alignment.