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Everyday, people write blog posts that tell you to get involved with Content Marketing or Google Hummingbird or Social Media or you will not see results.
Frankly, companies are trying to figure out the best solutions for their search marketing initiatives. Here are some things I have learned and some things I am working on.
SEARCH MARKETING
Local Search
With content marketing, my company ranks quite well locally. This really had more with the way Google has realigned itself in the “mobile” area and my willingess to change and adapt by using the Google Products in an integrating fashion: (Start with GooglePlus, add Company Location, add YouTube Channel – (Might have to delete old one) , add Google Hummingbird) Learn more at Google My Business.
National Search
Still working on a good approach here. From what I can tell Google likes Colleges and University Materials. In addition, your company is competing with other “competitors in their local areas”. This is a tough sell, but I have started to see some inroads here as well. ( I cannot put my finger on why, but I am seeing leads in this area) (See Next Item – I think it holds the key)
Keyword Search
Even though some people would say this areas is dead. I think long-tail search can still have some impact. I look closely at analytics as best I can and in particular I look at Queries under the Search Engine Optimization category to help me see what items are generating more traffic among readers.
STOCK MARKET COMPARISON
If you are a hard core marketer like myself who wants to focus more on organic search than paid search, then I would suggest that you always look at the above items closely and continue to look for patterns. Just like the stock market, we do not know when stocks will go up or go down in the short or long-term, we can only go with the information we obtain. There is a lot of good information, but it doesn’t always tell the whole story and sometimes we only hear a story right when the bell sounds and the stocks go sharply up or down. The key is you have to be a player in the market to have any chance at success. You also can refuse to be in the market and take your chances with other options.
It is the same for search marketing, you can be a player in the market by having a content marketing and social media strategy or decide these items will not help you with respect to your rankings in Google. My advice, stay in the market and continue to ask the following questions of your leads and current clients.
How did you hear about our company?
Do you follow our company on other web sites besides our company website?
Did you hear about our company from a particular person, company or trade show?
People are finding information in a number of ways, as marketers we need to look at it from a big picture view like the stock market and try not to get too caught up in individual channels.
photo credit: Perpetualtourist2000 via photopin cc
