There’s no way the digital marketing industry can continue to thrive without a fundamental understanding of online marketing fundamentals. In this article, we bring together some most common questions you might be asked by people who are new to SEO and other aspects of digital marketing, but I hope it helps you sort through your thoughts.
A few years back when I first started out in SEO, I had several conversations with different brands, asking me what I was doing for my business and why. A number of them talked about how much they were concerned at not being found on search engines because all their online efforts were focused on organic content.
They didn’t care if searchers were coming from somewhere that wasn’t on search results or something like “people-search”. For an established company where search engine optimization was already a core part of its strategy that was growing rapidly, I felt there was nothing else I could do.
Over time, however, I noticed something else I knew was happening even before I knew anything about search engines – a shift in the nature of traditional media and advertising. By now, that knowledge became clear when I had a small client-facing team building an influencer program.
Our task turned into one of creating thousands or maybe millions of YouTube videos and then sharing those as Google My Business. The result is that our client was able to reach more people of various demographic and target audiences, regardless of whether they used Search Engine Optimization or not. This shift began with the success of social media influencers.
In today’s digital marketing world, marketers spend billions of dollars around ad campaigns, display ads, social media and more. Not everything needs to be done around paid search and paid TV ads.
Advertisers need not worry about reaching just anyone with any type of search intent. Instead, they should think about the right audience and target demographic, making sure that they know what type of products/service they want to convey to that audience. This means targeting products based on what people actually buy and use.
These types of insights require a deep understanding of what users search for, what makes them search for such types of searches or the specific types of queries they take up while searching for what they may purchase.
When it comes to the type of data people search for on specific terms, their needs may change over time. If a user searches for a product using a certain term (such as “dog food”), that user may change his/her behavior to include buying another type of dog food product such as chicken noodle soup.
But while the user searches for dogs, he may also search for cats, or other animals as well. All these changes come down to the user’s personal life and what he / she likes to buy in the moment. Now let’s say a person decides to become a better and more active listener. That same user now wants to listen to news podcasting podcasts or audiobooks.
He/she will likely search for “how are dog owners going to lose weight” instead of buying a cat food! And there will become an increase in their interest or desire for listening to podcasts to learn how to improve their health. It has been shown that listeners have less tolerance for interruption.
So far, users and advertisers both have worked very well with each other. As the old saying goes, “it’s not what happens in New York, it’s how it happens.” With modern technology, the best businesses and artists are utilizing new methods of connecting with consumers to create brand loyalty and revenue.
To achieve this goal, their marketing strategies must constantly evolve to match this changing environment. While many companies still utilize traditional forms of marketing, here is a list of ten essential elements of digital marketing that require every marketer to consider.
Today’s digital marketers face incredibly challenging challenges. Today’s businesses require more sophisticated, immersive, interactive and competitive online experiences. According to research published in JAMA Network, 79% of U.S.-based internet users say they are spending 30 hours per month looking for entertainment and content.
The average time spent by teenagers to search for a movie online is 20 minutes. Another study shows that Americans spend approximately $1.8 billion annually for TV advertising. With so many consumers actively seeking entertainment, now is the perfect time for businesses to explore all sorts of ways to elevate audiences to feel like they are watching a premium event such as a sports game or drama.
The goal is to find a way to offer the viewers an experience that feels like they are getting the goods. Consumers are looking for high quality services such as personalized recommendations, personalization and engagement – all things that make shopping fun and engaging.
What does SEO mean?
Here is what businesses must look at SEO (search engine optimizer) as. Search engines are where websites are ranked on the web by using keywords and phrases on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and organic search results to drive traffic to targeted website pages.
Search engines play a crucial role in helping audiences identify and find relevant information for the products and services they want to see and hear about. SEO requires businesses to develop excellent website pages and pay attention to search engine optimization to help brands stay connected to current consumers.
We are seeing increasing adoption of marketing automation tools, including Hubspot, which help businesses automate basic aspects of online marketing and reach more potential customers. Let’s take a deeper dive into SEO (search engine optimizer) and how businesses can leverage it to boost sales and grow revenues.
As online marketers, your job is to design your site, optimize it for keywords, and publish posts regularly and professionally. Your site will be optimized when your users have searched for related topics and entered phrases with those keywords on the page.
You can use SEM (search engine optimizer) to optimize your site for keywords to boost organic search results. This method works well for smaller brands since the cost is low or the return on investment is significant based on a site’s popularity. However, this kind of work can sometimes take much longer to complete.
If your goals are smaller or have limited time and resources, I recommend outsourcing SEO tasks to digital agency firms who can streamline the process and get rid of many complexities involved in SEO. For larger organizations, this can be accomplished through dedicated teams working closely with the SEO team.
Now that we understand the basics, let’s move onto some of the most important concepts. Here are ten lessons everyone should learn at least once learning about SEO:
1. Understand Keywords:
Keywords are words, or short statements found on search engine results pages that search engines use to rank the most popular searches. Think of keyword phrases such as “how to start blogging”, “how to write content”, or “how to build a following”. Understanding keywords is critical to driving exposure for your website or blog.
On average, there are roughly 3 million terms that make up the top 100 search engines – more than half of the total search index. If you are launching a blog or website, knowing how many people search for keywords you wish to target is a crucial starting point to determine the strength of your results.
Knowing how long searcher patterns are typically between 2 to 3 months is helpful too. Keep in mind that searchers don’t always follow a logical sequence of events. Research indicates that 80% of the most well-known search engines are dominated by a handful of factors. Among those, Google ranks the first. This may be one reason why users usually begin searching for things on Google in a particular period of time.
Then, they add related terms to their query and they keep repeating what they search for. Some websites can be seen ranking highly for their desired keywords with little effort on their own. In such cases, their search volume may actually be much lower than what they desired. To maintain organic growth across multiple search engines, you need to understand what people are looking for in terms of content, audience, location and time frame. Only after you have this understanding, you can find ways that can help you generate that content.
2. Increase Content Frequency:
People interact with brands daily. Increasing the frequency of publishing content is a great way to provide your audience with content that suits their interests, preferences and time-box.
The key point is how often you publish content that keeps search engine visitors on your site and helps your target audience stick around the site. Even a 1% increase in the number of visits over the next 12 months can equate to a 25–60% increase in your monthly search rankings.
For instance, if you publish 1,000+ pages per month — roughly 2 to 4 times per year (the numbers can vary) — and your organic rankings go up by 50–60%, you are speaking volumes. The key is not only about the amount of pages you publish daily. Rather, keeping visitors on your site is about having regular readers who are eager to consume the material you publish.
Although having regular users who follow your editorial calendar is extremely beneficial, keep in mind that regular reader retention isn’t necessarily beneficial for organic ranking. Unlike click baity traffic that uses email signatures to drive website traffic, this is not effective for organic rankings due to the inability to send email notifications in real-time that indicate when readers have viewed your content. An additional benefit of writing content on a regular basis is that you can share it with the entire world. If you are running a business, the ability to provide content via social media channels and platforms such as Facebook pages and WhatsApp.
