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    • Tue May 05, 2009

    The Changing Face of SEO

    Search engine optimization has changed dramatically over the past few years.

    The shift is from one of web page optimization and link hounding to content and engagement optimization. In short, search engine optimization and social media are now undeniably intertwined. It has become extremely difficult to achieve any measure of success for important keyword phrases without the use of social media. (Of course the flip side to that is organizations that take advantage of social media can dominate, particularly within industries slow to adapt.)

    content optimization

    Click on the image to enlarge

    I’m not suggesting that web page optimization and inbound links are no longer important, they are, they just might not be enough anymore. It is rare these days to do any kind of normal search that does not return results from social media sites. Blog content dominates many question related searches and videos, audios, and images are routinely mixed in on page one searches on both Google and Yahoo.

    What this means for the typical small business is that you must add a blog and podcast to the mix, upload, tag, and thoroughly describe images on sites like Flickr, create customer testimonial videos housed on YouTube, write articles and press releases to submit to EzineArticles and PitchEngine, create and brand optimize profiles on FaceBook, LinkedIn, twitter, Google Maps and industry related social networking sites and get very proactive about generating positive reviews on sites like Yelp!, Google Maps, and Insider Pages or you’re not really online anymore.

    Any attempt to garner positive search results for your primary web site must be accompanied by a strategy to optimize your entire web presence through the effective use of social media. We can have another conversation altogether about the effective use of social media for engagement, but the first step is getting immersed in the content creation and optimization game.

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    Posted by: John Jantsch on May 05, 09 | 5:05 am
    Category: Marketing Strategy, Social Media | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

    Comments
    « Getting Listed in Google Maps Even More Important | Home | Is Mass Personalization Possible? »
    • You're just touching the tip of the iceberg - check out http://knowem.com for more social media opportunities
    • The whole iceberg is too scary to someone that still not convinced they need a blog :)
    • Website seems to be down
    • Specifically the "knowem" site listed in above comment
    • Seems to be working fine: http://knowem.com , why do you think it's down?
    • It absolutely is an overall strategy, not just one piece of the pie here and there. SEO and Social Media are intertwined....a great post reinforcing what we tell our clients daily!
    • John - this rings really true for me - thanks for the pointers to EzineArticles and Pitch Engine. At Rebit, we've measured a direct correlation between PR and web traffic, as well as between web traffic and orders.

      I'm strugging to get our facebook page to be relevant. I've tried discounts and giveaways, and despite what seems to be a pretty good fb page implementation, I can't get fans to join beyond the inner circle of employees and family. What advice might you have for me? (I'm trying purely viral techniques - not advertising on fb yet, maybe I should)

      Also, I'm struggling to figure out how starting a blog would help us... we support all the bloggers who blog on backup, but I don't see that we have our own "voice" to add to the discussions.
    • SEO and SM are definitely intertwined! From an SEO perspective, social media has opened up so many new avenues to build and or attract new links to your website. What I love about social media is that it's not just about the SEO value, but also building credibility and authority in your space.
    • Jon, again you are so right...but I'll reiforce what I've said here before. A one blog strategy is a 2006. Most organizations need to consider targeted blogs for as many of the keyword catagories as they can. Leverage employees as bloggers and tell the stories about your customers and the problems you solve.

      Use email to solicit content from those customers to help populate your blogs. Carhartt does a great job with this in their Tough Jobs blogs. They have about 50 keyword targeted blogs that are populated by their customers stories.

      http://blogs.carhartt.com/blog/tough-jobs/page/2
    • Chris - great strategy, love the Carhatt story (cool jackets too) and I'll write a post on this strategy, it still won't be for everyone, I'm still begging people to do one blog, but it's a great one for people who are ready to really embrace what I've talked about in this post.
    • The thing is that it is actually less work to embrace this strategy for mulitple blogs than to have to do a single blog. Freeing employees and constituents to carry the load frees business owners to focus on strategy.

      Measureing the ROI and showing the clear path to leads and business drives more efforts and investment. The real problem with business blogging is that most have zero measurment and very low expectations, therefore they don't prioritize it.

      Business that embrace the multi blog strategy never go back because there is a clear path to revenue.

      Happy to provide as many small business cases you need to make this point. :-)
    • There's a name for this SEO 2.0 model you're describing and it's been on the radar for a while :) digital asset optimization http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/06/digital-asse...
    • Lee - I know smart guys like you have been practicing this on behalf of your clients, but way too many small business owners still need this kind of conversation to get them moving.
    • You are right on target. I see daily outstanding success achieved with the "simple" strategy you described.

      I would add that I think that the effective use of social media for engagement is gaining a lot of steam.

      Thanks John for saying it so eloquently.
    • Barney
      Nice comprehensive blog post with lots of really useful info - thanks
    • Terrific post John. In a well-conceived and well-executed campaign, SEO and SM tactics are truly indistinguishable from one another. Best of all, social media marketing can be free (or nearly free), which takes a huge burden off of small business owners.
    • N00bs like me appreciate these tip of the iceberg articles, thanks, ducttape!

      The only thing that I am stuck on, is when everyone floods the internet market with their content in attempt to gain keyword optimization the content seems to get over saturated and less valuable. I wonder where SEO will go next, and if google will remain at the forefront for dictating those algorithms.
    • Thanks for some new references: PitchEngine, Insider Pages and Yelp. I'm off to check them out.
    • I liked the visual representation. If we really put together a mindmap visual image of all the factors that go into SEO it would be incredibly large.

      With all that's going on now that Google could use as factors influencing rank the game could change - revolutionize - by the end of this year if Google wanted to move that fast.

      You think they do? I'm thinking they can't.

      If they change to fast and add too many new factors, or increase the weight of these new factors that are already in the algorithms then there are going to be a lot of unhappy site owners. Millions? Sure, at least.

      Just because you're ranked in May 2009 doesn't mean in December 2009 you're going to be in the top 10 on page 1 of Google. It's scary how fast things could change. I'm guessing it will be slow - and they'll give us all a chance to adapt.

      Anyone guessing differently?
    • Great post John,
      Seems to me that social networking is bringing back the personal side of marketing whereas SEO optimisation was a very technical way of connecting.
      I really like the fact that both are now needed as it brings even more authenticity to life online and means that the hard work of building high quality content will be rewarded over time.
    • Interesting, seems like you have a good point though about search engine optimization and social media. Looks like if your not connected with the big ones, your not connected. And on top of that, it surely looks like one must diversify!
    • Very good eagle's eye view of the scenario. It has given me a broad view of SEO's future. I told an SEO in the office about the article and he agreed to it.
      The only part which is glossed over because of the mechanistic approach it to actually build personal relationships with a small set of customers. They may be able to facilitate a viral marekting campaignor in as simple a task as carrying out a survey.
    • Great blog... it’s really interesting and I really enjoyed it…
    • Getting targeted traffic is one of our biggest challenges. You have done a great job here. SEO is constantly changing and could actually be the most difficult to stay up to date with. For the beginner, just knowing the basics should be enough. Looking forward to reading more.
    • Interesting!

      I feel like there is a scarcity of good marketing today. Good marketing means which can convert the leads into sales. The only marketing that has moved me in the last couple of years is Social Media Optimization.
    • limousinehire
      Proweb Direct a seo company
      that performs search engine
      optimisation       , on websites for the serps.
    • SEO and Social media are really the top priorities of a bloggers..
      But you also need to consider the other parts of the graph...
    • Thankz for SEO 2.0 model info.... Changed
    • EdvinIRohn
      These also have two interior pockets for those precious treasures that you need to keep safe; or for hiding that small surprise gift for a loved one. These carhartt coats also have the same 30 ½ inch long backs for great wind protection for your back. What sizes can these be found in? Sizes range from Medium to 2X-Large.
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