Why SEO is Not Dead

by Dr. Rachna Jain | SEO

Over the past few years, you may haveheard reports that SEO (search engineoptimization) was a dying or deadendeavor. With Google’s animalupdates- Panda, Hummingbird,Penguin and its variants, both local and

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national businesses were gettingpenalized at minimum and sometimesde-ranked totally. SEO is not an exactscience, and it often depends on howwell your competitors are marketing inthe same space. Given the uncertaintyof what it takes to actually rank,many businesses went in search ofother forms of lead generation,including paid advertising, directoutreach, and direct mail.

Multiple forms of effective leadgeneration are always good- and themore robust you can make your leadgeneration systems, the better. But donot believe that SEO is dead.

In fact, a recent article by Emarketershows that web users trust organicsearch results the most- and this isclimbing (up 1% from last year.)

This graphic (also from Emarketer)illustrates that online search is themost trusted method for acquiringbusiness information:

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With online search ranking so highly,and the fact that organic search resultsare trusted more than paid advertising,this suggests that SEO is not dead- andis, in fact, becoming more relevant andviable as time goes on.

The challenge for a small businessowner is that SEO can be an uncertainproposition. There is a lot of mysteryand confusion surrounding theprocess- lots of people want it, butnobody really understands it.

As I shared in my article on factorswhich impact your SEO, there areseveral areas you need to consider. Thefirst is your own site focus andrelevancy. You need to adopt themindset of wanting to build anauthoritative website- which meansgood content, regularly produced,which adds value to your targetaudience and addresses their needs.

You need to use a mix of media on your

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website, including images, graphics,videos, audios- so that you can engageyour audience in their preferred styleof consuming information.

You must focus on various on-sitefactors, including site structure andoptimization, as these are the basicfoundation- building blocks- uponwhich your entire SEO strategy rests.

You must know the ideas/concepts andterms visitors would use to seek outand purchase services like yours. Youmust know how to use these in yourweb content so as to serve both thevisitor and the search engines.

In addition, you need then to build outa strong online community andpresence by connecting with otherindustry influencers, buildingrelationships, and promoting yourcontent. This helps both your relevancyand status, and also can promote socialsharing, which helps your searchengine ranking.

As you can see, it’s a process thatrelies on several factors, interwoventogether to create the whole.

The big problem with SEO, in myopinion, has been that businesses

interested in SEO don’t realize that it’sactually a more complete and holisticbusiness lead generation system thenthey think. For instance, when I take ona new SEO client, I actually WANT toknow their business goals, what theyare selling, how much they charge, andwhat they hope to generate in terms ofnew business- so I can help tailor ouronline marketing efforts to help themreach meaningful goals. This approach-where I focus on both generating leads-and helping to convert them- is the newway to do SEO.

This is what separates an expert andprofessional SEO company from onethat is simply made up of technicians.And then, too, you get what you payfor. I’m not against being priceconscious in your search for SEOservices, but what I am against is hiringan SEO company who has no interestin or understanding of your underlyingbusiness plan and model.

Like any other lead generationtechnique, you get out what you put in-and investing in SEO when you haveno understanding of what you wantfrom it- nor what it can do for you- isnot a good approach.

It’s also better to work with your SEO

company as a partner to your success,because, at least in my case, I want foryou the results you want for yourself.Investing in done for you search engineoptimization services can be ameaningful commitment financially. Ifyou are making that investment, it’scrucial to be as certain as you can thatit will return for you as you like.

With the increasing trend towardsmore trust in online search results,there has never been a better time toinvest in your company’s SEO efforts.Just, please, do this within a frameworkof a solid business approach and notjust some scattershot link building.

My clients have generated hundreds ofthousands of dollars from theirsuccessful SEO campaigns– even whenSEO has been supposedly dead.

I’ll share some strategies for choosingthe right SEO company in a future post.

And if you’d like to talk with me aboutimproving your company’s SEO, pleaseget in touch.

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