SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

Jerri: What are organizations not doing that would improve their SEO if they did do it?

Naeger: Organizations are not educating people internally enough to allow them to understand what

effect SEO and SEM can have on the marketing of their brand. This education should be done across

the entire organization and not just within the marketing group that is responsible for the effort. To

implement SEO effectively and successfully, multiple departments and third-party agencies must be

involved, educated, and completely aligned.

They should educate the content team that, “this is why the content should be done a different way,”

and show them how content can affect SEO.

They should educate the public relations department that a press release is not just a single docu-

ment. It should be linked to the corresponding page on your web site.

Organizations should also look at SEO and SEM in order to build a web site that doesn’t have to

have changes made to it to keep up with any marketing changes that are made. That’s where con-

tent management systems can help to integrate content into the site in a way that’s relevant. They

should build the site within the content management system, so that it can automatically integrate

that press release or piece of content into the site in a quick and efficient manner.

One more thing is that people are turning a blind eye to other types of media. Search is a channel

that is dramatically affected by both online and offline marketing. Companies should consider their

overall media mix, and measure the results of that media by both online and offline effects.

Something that some organizations don’t understand is that just because you’re placing an ad on

a search engine doesn’t mean that ad has to be a click-to-sale effort. It’s also a method that you can

use to look at the data provided through search. The data collected during search can help uncover

what the intent of the customer was, based on how they search and what they searched for. This is

where the industry will turn next: complex data analysis and leveraging all of its intellectual value

across all ad media.

Finally, a third capability that search marketing gives you is the ability to see how your competitors’

advertising, both online and offline, can drive the awareness of the category and therefore may affect

your marketing efforts as well. As you enhance the sophistication of the way you utilize online and

offline tracking data, you will be able to react to and take advantage of the efforts of your competitors

in ways that have not been possible in the past. As an example, using your search marketing results,

you can learn what specific feature interests consumers developed out of a new product launch, and

using this information you can gain insight into the consumer mindset that can then be utilized to

build how you market your product in the future.

Jerri: What about social media marketing, how will it change SEO?

Naeger:Social media marketing helps you to build brand advocacy and lets you learn how consumers

feel about your marketing efforts.

We will continue to see some big numbers on the growth of social media marketing until it reaches a

maturity level. But it’s not mature yet, and more and more people are finding it’s useful. Social media

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