SEO Is Only The Beginning

Search Engine Marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to today's business, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is at the core. There are few alternative marketing strategies that can beat the reach and ROI of optimization & search marketing.

But SEO is only the beginning. Contrary to what you might hear, search engine optimization is not the panacea some believe. At it's most fundamental level, SEO is really just old-school lead generation tool for a (not-so) new media. For all the power it provides, we now know better than to think that SEO solves all problems. So lets identify what SEO can and can’t do.

Here's what SEO can’t do:

• engage your users
• sell more product
• improve brand quality
• replace all other marketing

Here’s what SEO can do:

• attract relevant traffic
• shorten sales cycle
• increase perceived authority
• increase brand visibility

SEO is no longer the “silver bullet” is used to be (silver bullets aren’t even “silver bullets” anymore!). This industry has us professionals running like Red Queens, going faster and faster just to maintain position. This is good for clients, as mediocre SEO doesn't accomplish much, and with Google getting faster, it no longer takes months to see (or not see) results - you have data in days or weeks.

SEO is essential to understanding what people want, and how get in the conversation, but there is so much more to a comprehensive, integrated approach - user engagement, conversion rate optimization, email marketing, social media, PR and good old-fashioned customer service to name a few. There should be no conversation about optimization without discussion of how it combines with other relevant marketing. People are smarter, engines are faster, and B.S. just doesn’t cut it anymore. One-trick ponies are a dying breed, and not worth backing.

SEO is only the beginning, but it is an essential beginning if your goal is more, better business.

 

Aaron Douglas is president of Deep Ripples, a professional SEO company located in Indianapolis, Indiana. His ponies have many tricks.

 

Source: http://www.deepripples.com/blog/seo-is-only-the-beginning

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