Those brands who get 1st and 2nd page hits with little “activity” do so because they are using paid advertisements that put them on the sidebar or at the top of search engines regardless of how active the community or brand.
Small and mid-size businesses cannot compete with large organizations when it comes to paid advertisements and the cost per “keyword” method of reaching your target audience. When the “cost per click” for the keywords that create 1st page ad placement are excessive they will quickly eat up the profits on a low margin product.
That’s why activity based SEO is so important – especially when it is supported by simultaneously developed social communities that can go dormant but be available as soon as a new morsel of content is offered for their consumption.
I believe that everything is a process and the better the process, the better the result. Let me walk you through 4 easy steps to increase SEO for your business so that it can be searched and survive against organizations with large advertising budgets.
Step 1. Develop a
Process
Developing an activity based process for
increasing SEO whether you have only manual or automated capabilities is
equally important. The best automated
processes were once manual. From manual
and consistent process, automation is born.
So as I said earlier, activity is the fuel the feeds the SEO
monster.
Create a content development
and distribution process that not only creates a conversation for your
community, but creates the community at the same time through using social
platforms for the distribution of the content.
This allows you to develop an “audience” of fans or following that are
able and ready to engage your content when it is made available.
This “instant on” engagement will immediately
catch the interest of the search engines moving you closer to the top for those
who are looking for what you or your brand has to offer. Search engines are always after what’s trending
now – your process should consider that too.
Step 2. Perform the
Process
Just as there are 4 easy steps
to increasing SEO – there are also 4 basic platforms that you need to perform
the process.
#1 –Blog (The content –
Google particularly loves Word Press)
#2 – Google+ (Because Google
has an ego and loves its own pluses most)
#3 – Twitter (A good
platform for sharing blogs through Tweets and Retweets)
#4 – Facebook (Because there
are 165 million users of Facebook in the US)
The process goes a little something
like this. Write a blog that is relevant
to the type of audience you are looking to attract. Include within the content of the blog
keywords that are in alignment with how your audience would look for you. Close with a question or a call to
action. Then post the blog, share it to
Google+, Plus it – get all your friends to plus it, and ask your following to
plus it too! Then post it to Twitter and
include a trackable link. Integrate
Twitter with Facebook page so that the Tweet posts to the wall at the same time. Create a schedule to Re-share and Re-Tweet
periodically on various days and at various times of the day. Post directly to Facebook and promote the
post.
Step 3. Measure /
Improve Process Impact
Review the statistics,
determine where the most traffic is coming from, what type of content gets the
most activity, times of day the activity increases and decreases. Modify your process accordingly to improve
impact.
Step 4. Repeat the
Process REGULARLY
SEO optimization is a continuous
process – so is content development and distribution. In order to develop an engaged following the
content must be kept current, relevant, and on track with the trends. As the trends change, so must your approach
to engagement.
The Indexed Web contains at least 13.72 billion
pages as of Monday, 29 April, 2013. That
makes it pretty clear that getting to the top of the search engines is no easy
feat. It either requires lots of cash
through advertising OR effective, frequent, and community based engagement
through blogs and social platforms. The latter
being the most trusted means of consumer research, offering the highest level
of buying confidence. My final question
to you.