Findability with Randy Milanovic

Findability with Randy Milanovic 
Chapter chunks. I like this way of reading through a book. 
This chapter addresses the SEO benefits of getting found and also how SEO is not the only way. You guessed it...good content matters!

#contentcreation   #SEO  

Originally shared by Randy Milanovic

Strategy 6: Getting the Most From the Art of Findability from my Building a Better Business Website book. Enjoy.

If you've been at this SEO thing a while, this chapter on  #findability  just might be a breeze. However, if you haven't quite got it aced, or feel a refresher might be fun, read on, my friends. Read on.

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In many ways, your success in online marketing really comes down to two simple things: how well you can find and attract the right kinds of potential customers, and what you can persuade them to do once they hear about you.

The first part of that equation is where #findability really comes into play. Although I’ve mentioned search engine optimization a couple of times, findability is really a bigger topic – one that combines search with social media and other factors to make you stand out to those who are looking for information, answers, and products or services.

Our philosophy at KAYAK Online Marketing has always been to attract prospects who are in the right frame of mind to be receptive to you, rather than trying to reach them through more interruptive means like advertising or telemarketing.

It’s more personal and effective, it doesn’t put a strain on your professional credibility the way aggressive marketing tactics do, and it’s simply more efficient. If you agree, then maximizing the findability of your business website is crucial to everything that comes later in the process.

To Attract Buyers, You Have to Know Who They Are and What They Want

“Know your customers” is great advice, even if it can sometimes feel like a bit of a marketing cliché. Before you can successfully attract buyers (or even know what kinds of content they are likely to respond to), you have to get a good feel for what they look like demographically, and what life stage they might be in. That's how we discover what their true motivations are.

If you've been following along with this  series, you should already have a identified at least one pair of marketing personas (http://goo.gl/qynNhy) that you can refer back to. Use these as a starting point for your findability campaigns.

Before you consider a single keyword or metric though, think very carefully about the kind of person you want to attract to your business website. In other words, don’t just think about the numbers, think about the men, women, and motivations that live behind the stats.

Research the Search

Search engine optimization, when it’s done correctly, takes a bit of time, energy, and most importantly, interesting content. And, it can also provide a virtually unending stream of well-qualified traffic, making it one of the highest-ROI strategies any company can put to use.

It’s always important to point out that there is a very sizable and important difference between “traffic” and “serious buyer interest.” And, if you don’t understand why you need one more than the other, you’ll always be chasing the wrong set of indicators, doomed to see thousands of useless visits turn into little or no actual sales activity.

The first step to avoiding that kind of conundrum is researching your search. In other words, you need to know what kinds of keywords and phrases need to be optimized for your business website and the ongoing content that you’ll be creating. While a lot of businesses simply look to see which terms get the most search traffic, smarter marketers go farther and assess more specific things like:

1. How much competition there is for each keyword phrase you want to rank for, and whether you can successfully climb high enough in the search rankings to earn a large enough share of that traffic.

2. Whether or not the search term indicates buying interest, or is simply a term that people search for when they’re looking for general information.

3. How far along in the buying process someone is when they search the keyword in question.

4. Whether or not the search query sounds like it would come from someone who is a good fit for your particular products and services, as opposed to simply the category in general.

When it comes down to it, generating search traffic is fairly easy. People will search for all kinds of things that they don’t have any intention of spending any money on, dropping by your site for a quick look and then racing off again.

The real key is to find and attract prospects who are motivated, and who can become good potential clients beyond a single transaction. That starts with research.

Building a Strong Link Profile

You probably already know that you need other sites to link to yours if it’s going to be easy to find. What a lot of business people don’t realize, however, is that it isn’t just the existence of links, or the quantity of them, that really matters.

In fact, having a small number of great, relevant links can be far more valuable than having thousands that don’t really fit.

There are some reasons for this, and one has to do with the fact that Google and its competitors are getting smarter about understanding the value and relevance of different inbound links.

If you have a link from a site that has nothing to do with your business or industry, or is in a poorly maintained directory or forum, i’s not likely going to count for much. However, if it comes from an quality related website, on the other hand, that “vote” counts for quite a bit more.

With that in mind, there are a couple of things to remember about generating inbound links.

The first is to avoid shortcuts (more on this in a moment). It doesn’t work, and it’s not worth it. The second thing to remember is that building links should be an ongoing process, and one that happens naturally and organically.

If you constantly post quality content to your blog and social profiles, for example, it’s only natural that others are going to want to link to it to share with their own readers and followers.

In fact, being a great source of content is the best way to generate inbound links – far superior to begging other sites to link to yours or spamming links into the void.

Also remember that, even though I am mentioning links here in relation to findability, getting inbound links from other sources is a great way to achieve many marketing goals. That is, should a colleague or other website refer people your way, that can only be good for business, regardless of what kind of search value the link actually has.

Avoid the Shortcuts

People love to get a great deal, and when it comes to things like search optimization, its no different. The only problem is that shortcuts (like link exchanges, link farms, spammy links, and link bait) really don’t work.

It isn’t unusual for us to hear about a website that’s been damaged, or rendered unfindable, by so-called “black hat” search engine optimization tactics, or trickery.

Did you know that some of the worst unscrupulous "SEO experts" will ask you to search for your own site as "proof" they did a good job helping you rank. When in reality, just the fact you were at your site previously would likely bring up the listing. Hopefully the days of being fooled so easily are behind us.

Of course, the businesses in question should have seen trouble signs from the beginning, but may have been distracted by unsubstantiated promises of page one rankings, increased business and inbound links to think carefully about the situation. And so, they put their trust in a vendor that lacked the resources or morals to give them a proper solution.

Predictably, it isn’t long before they figure out that they’ve been had, and then need to solve just how to dig themselves out of a deeper hole than they were in prior.

That’s certainly one way to get an education on the value of ethical online strategies, of course, but the bigger issue is that the tactics these companies use (essentially “spamming” the web with links, copying text from your competitors, posting content that isn’t relevant or doesn’t make sense to your website, etc.) can end up getting you in all kinds of trouble. From copyright infringement to Google’s bad books, these are problems and headaches you really don’t need.

Think about it this way: If there really were bargain-basement, instant SEO “secrets” that still worked, all the best companies would be using them (and charging good money for them). Any deal that sounds too good to be true probably comes with a lot of fine print you’ll never see.

Building a Bigger Web

As you probably recognize by now, the point of the findability campaigns I advocate for isn’t just to “throw more content online,” but to increase the weight of your marketing and draw increasing numbers of buyers in. Don’t get so distracted by the details of SEO that you lose sight of what’s really important (http://goo.gl/Ts8ioT): attracting high quality prospects that are truly seeking your products and services.

As long as you’re building great content, growing your link profile, and drawing the right kinds of potential customers to your site, you’re going to be on the right path.

BONUS Material:

Pro Tip: Your findability and search optimization isn't just about keywords anymore. The more informative and helpful your website is, the better you will rank in the future. The secret to ranking well is hard work and good content.
Resources: For a more in depth look at your search marketing, read Findability: Why Search Engine Optimization is Dying plus 21 New Rules of Content Marketing (http://goo.gl/DMNOhu)
Further Reading: David Amerland's Google Semantic Search book (http://goo.gl/txFDX4)

Missed the previous chapters?

Strategy 5: Using Your Blog as the Centerpiece of Your Content Strategy
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/LA2htgqjhyK

Strategy 4: Empowering Your Company To Do More on Your Own
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/6T9hyFh6d11

Strategy 3: Distilling Your Message into Unforgettable Content
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/SYKRsNxBzVG

Strategy 2: Making the Structure of your Business Website Customer-Friendly
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/Fw2uHB487T2

Strategy 1: Putting Marketing Insight To Use
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/Zdbp59fHP4x

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