There is a misconception that many people hold that SEO is a very
technical field, one where ‘geeky’ practitioners simply ‘tinker’ with
website content. And whilst it is true that a good ‘SEO’ will have a
degree of technical knowledge and skill, I would argue that to be
effective in this field, it’s far more important to think and behave
like a marketer.
In fact, I would go one stage further and say that the term ‘SEO’ is a
misnomer. It doesn’t fully explain what it is we do. SEM, or Search
Engine Marketing, is in my opinion a far more accurate term. Let me
explain. In the good old days of traditional marketing we would launch a
new product or project only once we had carried out sufficient market
research and analysis. We would establish whether sufficient demand for a
given product existed. Perhaps more importantly we would speak to
potential customers to find out exactly what it is they are looking for
in the product (and then deliver a product that fulfills these
requirements). Is this really very different from the kind of keyword
research that SEM’s carry out on a regular basis at the start of a new
project? After all, you are looking to establish the demand for a
specific set of keywords, and the latent market competitiveness, before
launching your product (the website).
And even once you have completed your research phase and built the
website, you still continue to apply the fundamental Promotional
principles of marketing, (which, incidentally, is one of the 4 ‘P’s’ of
the discipline). In other words you need to raise the profile of your
site, and hence generate targeted traffic that will ultimately lead to
conversions. There are a number of ‘channels to market’ that you can
employ. Two of the most important channels are Organic Search and Pay
Per Click Advertising, however they are not the only ones. A well
thought through and executed social media campaign can generate a huge
amount of well targeted traffic for your site, and it can also help to
build strategic relationships in your industry, that can generate
referral business. Indeed, for general professional networking both
Twitter and LinkedIn are very powerful tools indeed.
It is this final aspect of ‘relationship building’ that I really want to
consider. You see, in this new world of marketing and PR, sites that
focus on building relationships with others in their niche, rather than
carrying out a ‘mechanical’ link building and social media campaign, are
those that will be successful in the long term. And it’s very easy to
reach out to both customers and other industry figures in this exciting
new digital world.
What does all this show? To me, it shows that, whilst technology has
changed the environment we operate in and the tools we use, we still
need to apply the basic principles of marketing, and really consider
those ‘4 P’s’ – Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Ironically, it is
these age-old principles that make a real difference in the New World.
