Today’s constant growth in
technology makes it imperative for companies to have a digital footprint in the
online world, making it important to have a digital strategy in its marketing
plan. “Without a digital marketing strategy in place, new client acquisitions,
brand visibility, and impactful revenue generating opportunities will likely be
damaged” (Newtek-Your Business Solutions Company, 2014) . Digital Strategy
plans have allowed smaller companies to compete with large corporations, build
trust and loyalty, create positive brand reputation, and more.
According to Jomer (2015), there
are 12 reasons a company should have a digital strategy in its marketing plan,
those are:
- Levels the Online Playing Field
- More Cost-Effective than Traditional Marketing
- Delivers Conversion
- Helps Generate Better Revenues
- Facilitates Interaction with Targeted Audiences
- Caters to the Mobile Consumer
- Builds Brand Reputation
- Provides better ROI for Your Marketing Investments
- Earns People’s Trust
- Entices People to Take Favorable Action
- Makes You Ready for the Internet of Things
- Ensures Business Survival Online
Overall, digital strategies provide many benefits and a way
for companies to become more connected to the consumer than before.
Within a good digital strategy landing pages have many
benefits and can improve SEO. Meredith discussed in her blog, Building
Effective Web Landing Pages , what landing pages should involve and how
they should be organized. A primary point to focus on when creating a landing
page is the “call to action” (CTA). The CTA is the primary conversion goal of a
visitors who sees a company’s landing page (Unbounce, 2009). Making the CTA
clear and unambiguous, visible, personalized, and have continuity creates a
straight forward process for a potential consumer. It also helps remove
trickery and only provides what is needed for the person of interest to gather
information. Adding landing page with good content and a clear CTA can improve
a company’s SEO rank with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and many other search engines
(Snyder, 2016). To measure the success
of a landing pages and campaigns a company can use Google analytics or paid
metrics such as KISSMetrics.com, GetClicky.com or HaveAMint.com.
There are many other ways a company can improve its SEO
beyond creating a landing page. According to Demers (2014) there are 7 ways,
which he considers to be advanced, to improve SEO. The tactics he list are
strategic and content focused:
- Approach Keywords Strategically
- Strictly Adhere to an Originality Rule
- Strategically Adjust Your Site’s Navigation and Internal Links
- Optimize Your Site’s Load Speed
- Optimize On-Site Elements Across Your Site
- Don’t Buy Links. Earn Them.
- Be Natural
Utilizing these tactics makes landing pages and websites
easy for users and search engines to recognize and understand. All of the tactics mentioned should be incorporated within a company's digital strategy plan to best optimize visibility and conversion.
References
Demers, J. (2014, September 29). 7 Advanced Ways
to Improve Your Site's SEO. Retrieved from entrepreneur.com:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237819
Jomer, G. (2014, May 12). 12 Reasons Why Digital
Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Business (Infographic). Retrieved from
digitalmarketingphilippines.com:
http://digitalmarketingphilippines.com/12-reasons-why-digital-marketing-can-help-you-grow-your-business/
Newtek-Your Business Solutions Company. (2014,
October 13). Five Important Digital Marketing Elements to Consider.
Retrieved from forbes.com:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2014/10/13/five-important-digital-marketing-elements-to-consider/#3a9007fd3a3e
Snyder, J. (2016). The Top 7 Benefits of Landing
Pages. Retrieved from womenwinningonline.com:
http://womenwinningonline.com/the-top-7-benefits-of-landing-pages/
Unbounce. (2009). 101 Landing Page Optimization
Tip: An Opinionated Guide to Conversion. Retrieved from http://unbounce.com/101-landing-page-optimization-tips/#reporting:
http://http://unbounce.com/101-landing-page-optimization-tips/#reporting/101-landing-page-optimization-tips/#reporting
Hi Ste-Aria, really great blog post. I would like to elaborate on your mention of companies improving SEO. As we near the final, it has been very interesting to see how our blog has now become apart of our digital footprint. I have my blog settings turned on so if future employers Google me, my blog will come up on the results page. LeVonne states, "blogs allow you to gain search engine results page (SERP) real estate, which can provide additional touch points for users to discover your brand. In creating new content, you will inevitably be expanding your keyword set" (2017).
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your section about SEO. And I completely agree, SEO has to be done in a very strategic and meticulous manner. The seven tactics that you included were very helpful. Laura Scott thinks that SEO attracts every user in the conversion funnel and says there are four steps: 1. awareness 2. interest 3. consideration 4. conversion (2014). Scott goes on to say, "holistic SEO isn’t just about aligning content with queries. It’s also about optimizing the user’s experience on your site. It’s about making your site intuitive and useful so that it will drive conversion" (2014).
I found a really great infographic titled "The Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors." I am planning on printing it out and putting it up near my desk. You can access it here - http://searchengineland.com/seotable/download-periodic-table-of-seo
Sources:
Levonne, Stephanie. (2017). Will my organic rankings suffer if I don’t have a blog?. Search Engine Land. http://searchengineland.com/will-organic-rankings-suffer-dont-have-blog-269248
Scott, Laura. (2014). Holistic SEO: The Foundation of Your Conversion Funnel. Merkel Inc. //www.merkleinc.com/blog/holistic-seo-foundation-your-conversion-funnel
Hi Meredith,
DeleteThank you for response!
I like how you mentioned our blogs now being apart of our digital footprints, which we've learned is very important throughout our discussions last week. Even more important when taking on jobs that involve a person having a social media platform in the work environment.
This particular lesson was very beneficial in understanding what it means to increase SEO beyond just being found. As you mentioned keywords and phrases are important to have. However, making sure the content is useful and users find it easy to navigate is also important in creating conversion, which is key.
One of the best points that you bring up is that online presence and SEO strategies even the playing field between small and large businesses (Jomer, 2014).
ReplyDeleteThe first thing a small business should realize is that they are not a large corporation and should not compete as if they are. This isn't actually a bad thing - a small business owner should recognize that they have an opportunity to be better and stronger online; making changes and adapting more quickly to consumers changing wants and needs. They also can relate on a more personal level with customers than larger corporations sending out automated and pre-populated responses (Chang, 2013).
The small business should also not look at the large corporation as competition however use their strengths and weaknesses to their own advantage. Identify where the company has a competitive edhge against the large corporation - offer more personalized service, customize a product or service to meet the customer's needs, and respond to customer's needs more quickly (Hadary, 2013).
By knowing the larger corporation inside and out, a smaller business can see where they are succeeded and in turn, where they are failing. This will assist them in changing up their key word searches often and in direct reflection of the larger business. They could use the same key word searches and "ride on their coat tails" or use the complete opposite and find more success!
Chang, Joanne. (2013, Dec. 25). How Can Small Businesses Compete With Big Competitors? The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303562904579228501899410702
Hadary, Sharon. (2013, Dec. 25). How Can Small Businesses Compete With Big Competitors? The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303562904579228501899410702
Jomer, G. (2014, May 12). 12 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Business (Infographic). Retrieved from digitalmarketingphilippines.com: http://digitalmarketingphilippines.com/12-reasons-why-digital-marketing-can-help-you-grow-your-business/
Great post Ste-Aira.
ReplyDeleteI especially agree with the 7 tactics Demer provides regarding improving SEO. The firm I work for did a total overhaul of our website in 2016 with SEO in mind. One of the most important things we did was restructure the site to make navigation more intuitive for visitors. We also included more links throughout the site and focused on industry keywords. I'm proud to say that we saw a major increase in site traffic, especially organic. The restructuring of our navigation and menu was also successful because we saw an increase in pages visited and a lower bounce rate. We are a small-mid size business and don't have the resources (or a need) to outsource our SEO, but this goes to show that it isn't always necessary if you stick to the rules!