I came across a blog post of mine posted back in 2011 about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It was short and sweet and described using the best keywords in content for Google searches and reaching out to influencers for cross promotional marketing.
I was writing primarily about entertainment and media and I was a publicist who used social media and online content to promote clients. My client base grew to include tech startups and e-commerce business, mainly because I was inundated with calls to promote clients from around the world who were excited about new digital marketing opportunities. These included traditional and online PR together with multichannel marketing strategies such as organic social media, blogging, affiliate marketing, YouTube vloggers and influencers and paid social ads.
I was preaching to my clients about the need for content. Many didn’t get it or chose not to believe the digital content phenomenon which was about to make every single one of us content producers and influencers.
Which brings me back to SEO. As you may know, I’ve been producing digital content since 2008 when I started blogging in my tiny Hollywood apartment. After a few months I was writing film reviews and talent interviews and “Ten Best…” articles about the city of Los Angeles. No one was asking for content to be written for SEO with backlinks but I did it anyway. And as my business – Ginger Media & Entertainment – grew, I provided SEO and backlink services on top of PR and social media marketing.
Google search SEO and 709 million searches pop up. Today everyone from new bloggers to wannabe Instagram influencers talk about SEO and content. Much of this SEO content is mind numbingly convoluted and long. Do we really need fourteen pages for an SEO guide unless we are SEO providers?
What my eleven years of content production and marketing has shown me is that keeping it simple stupid helps myself and my clients. I share no business and marketing terminology bollocks which is basically a lot of smoke and mirror hard sell from businesses trying to get you to part with your cash. I look at your content and your marketing efforts and we make a plan from there.
So what is SEO and how does it relate to your business content?
All web pages are ranked by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing by what they consider most relevant to users.
If I want to buy dog shampoo in Los Angeles I’m going to use those keywords in Google searches. But to narrow my search even further I can look for best dog shampoo in Los Angeles. Once I’ve found a brand which customer reviews consider to be the best I can narrow my search even further to where I can buy it – either online or at my nearest high street store
The dog shampoo brand – let’s call it Dog Wash – has a multichannel content and marketing strategy which repeatedly uses keywords Dog Wash, dog shampoo and Los Angeles as well as numerous other keywords related to the industry. Keyword research tools like Wordtracker let you search for competitor keywords with information on the highest ranking related to your business.
Now it’s up to your keyword rich content to drive consumers to your website, blog, social media channels and back again to your website to complete a purchase or sign up for marketing emails. And all these online marketing efforts are helped along the way with some good old fashioned PR and media outreach.
Now let the hard work begin.
Ginger Liu is a content producer and PR marketing consultant for hire. Check out Ginger Media & Entertainment for content production and PR and The Creative Entrepreneur for content strategy and consulting.
