I’m certain that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) was not a subject that was on the curriculum when I studied marketing.[1]
However, in the year 2011, it’s hard to call yourself a digital marketing consultant and not understand the drivers behind new customer acquisition via search engines like Google and Bing.
SEO is not as sexy as witty, or zeitgeist catching creative. It’s not as trendy as social media or as cutting edge as location based services with augmented reality, but my informed guess is that Google and Bing send more customers to your site than any of these marketing methods.
Despite the fact that most businesses say that being on the top of Google is one of their most important customer acquisition methods, marketing people (like me) have never really been given the SEO tools to help clients take control of this essential digital marketing task. There are thousands of marketing and PR agencies that have SEO in their menu of services, but in reality, most of these companies don’t know how to do it.
So how important are search engines for driving traffic to your website? The following is a breakdown of where new visitors come from for one of my sites.[2]
- Google – 49.9%
- Direct – 16.4%
- Facebook – 7.5%
- Bing – 4.4%
- Yahoo – 4.0%
- Twitter – 2.8%
So whose responsibility is it to look after the 50% of new business that is delivered this way? Is it Marketing, PR or IT? The answer is that all these functions have a part to play in making sure that your business has the best chance of being at the top of the search engine results.
Luckily, for marketing and PR people, we already have the basic skill-set required to do SEO. At the heart of good search engine optimisation is the creation of relevant content for an identified audience. If you know how to do targeting and messaging, then you know how to come up with keyword phrases that your customers use to search for your products and services.
If you know how to pitch an article to a newspaper or magazine, then you know how to pitch for a link from an authoritative website. Building relationships with influencers is a key part of SEO, so all your work building a following on Twitter and acquiring Facebook fans can add-value too.
Okay – now for the disclaimer bit – for the last few months, I have been working with a company called Linkdex who have been funded by Amadaues Capital to build a set of SEO tools that help businesses take control of SEO. The online application allows marketing people to build workflows and procedures to make the most of this new business acquisition method.
Everything they never taught you at marketing school about SEO is woven into an integrated set of tools that can take you from zero-to-hero if you apply the methodology. The secret that SEO people don’t want marketing people to know, is that anyone who knows how to use WordPress or similar CMS can rank at the top of search engines.
Even if you don’t sign up to the SEO tools developed by Linkdex, you should check out the great free Learn SEO posts that reveal how to do key tasks like link-building.
- [1] I first saw Mosaic running during my 2nd year at university. Alta Vista may have come shortly after that. ↩
- [2] www.yachtsponsorship.com ↩
