Online marketing has turned out to be the most talked-about trend in the online community. Indeed, there’s just so many ideas out there that you can pick up and use in your marketing campaigns. But the question is, are you really sure that you’ll get a profound impact that will boost your business?
If you are looking forward to achieving long term success in your web-based marketing campaigns, remember that Google’s algorithm is one of the world’s most erratic. What may work today might not work tomorrow. Although it’s true that search engines play a big role in the success or failure of any website, there is still one time-tested element that has continued to remain the same: Quality Content. No matter how topsy turvy the algorithm’s been, one thing is for sure, a content-based online marketing strategy will not go out of fad.
Don’t Fall for the Trend. Think Long Term
Google’s algorithm gets updated at least 500 times a year. So, you could imagine SEOs and web gurus panicking many times over, thinking of ways on how to get more out of your pocket by devising the latest sales gimmick that they’d tell you will click. Never follow this. In fact, there are thousands of online marketing strategies out there that are totally crap. When Google changes its algorithm, keep your cool and stay focused on what’s happening instead of reacting immediately.
It All Boils Down to Content
In the latest Google update, it’s been said that quality and fresh content should be the heart of every online marketing campaign. Google, Yahoo and other search engines are designed PRIMARILY not to sell a business but to answer questions and enrich the searchers’ mind with new information. Business follows next. An excellent online marketing campaign, indeed is centered on helping users to know what information is relevant and what is a total waste of time.
Quality Content: The Secret to Ever Successful Online Marketing Campaigns
Since January this year, Google has been at war with ads-stuffed but content-poor websites, cracking and penalizing domains with over optimized but poor and useless posts, while pushing up those with quality and excellent information.
Now, if you want to make the most of your web marketing campaign, spend a great deal of time in research and in writing excellent contents. This is 100 percent effective in quenching every searcher’s need for the right information. To make this more interactive and “human,” engage your readers by taking the social media campaign to your side.
How do you do this? Make sure your website is attractive, user-friendly, and focuses only in one niche or topic. More importantly, it should be stuffed with well-written and highly informative articles, 400-600 words long. Timeliness is also an important factor. Make sure your blog page is updated at least on a weekly basis. This will easily make researchers get hooked to your thoughts. Now, if you think your website has all these elements, you are guaranteed to advance your position no matter how cut throat the competition is.
Content is not just king—It’s God!
It’s been said many times over that content is king but it has already leveled up and it turns out it’s the search engine world’s one and only Almighty. So, if you are devising an online business campaign, concentrate much of your effort in content creation. If you don’t have time to compose an article or two a day, then hire someone who knows how to combine the SEO elements with well-researched, snappy, and original contents.
About Michael SandovalMichael Sandoval consults Fortune 1000 companies on online marketing, product development, and strategy. During his free time he enjoys golf and cooking organic dishes.
The last step in any content marketing strategy is to get the content in front of the right audience to engage with it. This is where all the hard work in creating the content will be rewarded. Our internet marketing and social media marketing experts device an advertising and engagement plan to get your target audience to read, engage, and finally take the action you are ultimately desiring.
I would have to agree that the foundation for any website from an SEO standpoint is content, content, and more content. Many people try to spin articles and even capture content from other sites not realizing that is actually hurting them. It is quality, original content like you mentioned that keeps the viewer informed and the algorithm happy and hopefully that will help get your site ranking higher and your traffic on the site longer.
Shafeeq,
Thanks for letting us know that you agree with Michael’s guest post. I agree. Good content is finally being rewarded by Google and readers have always valued good original content. Now that Google has changed their algorithms and introduced tools like Google authorship, it’s becoming easier for people to get their websites ranked higher. Thanks for weighing in on this topic.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Tips for Bloggers | Before You Press that Publish Button
You are right, online marketing is a hot topic! It also comes in various forms – seo, ppc, adwords, social media, blogging… there is so much to invest in, but no matter what strategy someone is pursuing, valuable content is a must!! It is the key to online marketing success! I also agree that google changes so often, that it is important not to invest all your time and effort into one strategy, variety is good!
Hi Bree,
Thanks for letting me know that you enjoyed Michael’s guest post. I completely agree with both you and Michale that good content is vital. I think Google is finally starting to recognize it too. It’s so important now to set up your Google Authorship. If you haven’t done that yet, you may want to check out the post below that I wrote explaining how to do it. My solution may not work for everyone but it has helped a lot of people.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..How To Set up Google Authorship & the Rel=Author Tag
Thinking long term is definitely a great tip, people who try and game the system do well for a few months perhaps, but not in the long run, white hat methods all the way if you ask me.
I agree with you Ben. Gaming the system is bound to to be a failing strategy in the long run. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
I agree to the post… content is very very important for every business activity that you are doing today. But then it should be done with a great interest and something that would provide others with a valuable content
Hi Stanley,
I agree that valuable content is so important. Value can come in many ways too. There can be value in many ways such as humor and reflection as well as the value in information. Thanks for joining the conversation.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Sitizens Online Social Game – My Top Referral Traffic Source
This post really gave me the right confidence with my content marketing strategy that I have followed without any cautious decision. Content is the super factor that serves the best for the search engine. Of course the virtual social world is also very important and there is no doubt about effective promotion for your products or services with the right social exposure!
Hi Lakshmi,
I’m glad that you found Michael’s article encouraging. I believe you’re right about both content and the social exposure being important. I’ve been reading about Google’s plans for their next algorithm updates and they’re warning us that a lot of people are going to be surprised and will be hurt in the rankings. That reinforces the fact that we can’t rely on any one source of traffic.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Sorry it took me so long to reply. Your comment got trapped in my spam.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Sitizens Online Social Game – My Top Referral Traffic Source
I agree that content is very important. However what is awesome content without an audience to read it? I would demote content from being God back to King and call the audience God.
I have seen some really good content but it never got shared or digested, it just died lonely on this small site. That is a shame!
Nik
Nik recently posted..Bullying at Work
Hi Nik,
I’m reluctant to call any one component “God”. If I were to pick one, it could very well be an overall strategy that includes measurements and an action plan.
You’ve piqued my interest when you mention writing awesome content and having difficulty finding an audience. We all struggle with that when we first start blogging and then we need to find what works for us. My initial strategy (to get eyeballs on my blog) was to (strategically) build my presence on Twitter. That evolved to a commenting strategy that includes an active presence on LinkedIn. (I meet a lot of potential clients on LinkedIn.) I would suggest that you build your presence where your target customers are. If you’re interested in my 2 cents, I linked to an article below that you may find interesting. There’s a healthy discussion in the comment section too!
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Commenting On Blogs – What Strategy Works for You?
Sherryl – I think I’m more in the camp with you and Nik. IMHO great content is only about half the battle. The other half of the battle is to getting eyeballs to read the content.
Randy Pickard recently posted..Guest Posting – Are The SEO Benefits Diminishing?
Thanks for the post. I am always looking for new information for my web consulting clients, and I find the technology intriguing. Thanks again for sharing! I wish I could find some similar posts for seo consulting, then I would be all set. Everyone keeps telling me the importance of good website content services but I keep finding article spinners and garbage. Oh well, I will keep looking! Thanks again!
Hi Robert,
Thanks for letting me know that you found Michaels’s guest post interesting. Steve Hippel wrote a guest post (for me) that takes a somewhat interesting approach to SEO. (It’s received quite a few comments.) I linked to it below in case you might be interested in it.
Thanks for dropping by and joining the conversation.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..SEO Should Be A Habit Not A Headache
What a great article Michael that is spot on. I would have to agree that the foundation for any website from an SEO standpoint is content, content, and more content. Many people try to spin articles and even capture content from other sites not realizing that is actually hurting them. It is quality, original content like you mentioned that keeps the viewer informed and the algorithm happy and hopefully that will help get your site ranking higher and your traffic on the site longer. I really like these informative and educational posts. Please keep them up.
Hi Gilroy,
I’m glad that you enjoyed Michael’s guest post. I’m finding that people are getting tired of reading posts that are just spinning content. As a blogger, we need to keep our content original if we want people to visit our blogs. I always find that sharing personal insight such as something from our own experiences helps. I believe a blog should be interactive and readers should want to engage with the blogger.
Thanks for taking the time to add to the conversation.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..4 Tips You Should Know When You Start Blogging
Thanks for joining the conversation Ivan.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..How To Gain More Social Media Audience Through Photo Sharing
Hi Michael,
Great post ever which i need to bookmark for future reference. Headlines must be eye catching that attract readers to visit your website or blog. Write good quality and unique content.
thanks for sharing this.
Bhushan recently posted..Mobile Recharge Software
Thanks for weighing in on this. I wish everyone wrote quality and unique content. Surfing the web would be a much more pleasant experience.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..The 2012 Reader’s Choice Award for Best Marketing Strategy Blog
Nice one, Michael! This is just the sort of piece I can send uncertain clients to help them over the line. Many thanks for laying out so well. Best regards, P. 🙂
Hi Paul,
Isn’t it great when you find a post that reminds you of a certain client and you can just forward it as an FYI? That way, it doesn’t look like we’re harping on a point. Instead, we’re thinking of them and just want to pass on some info.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Commenting On Blogs – What Strategy Works for You?
Definitely agree with the fact that Google changes its algorithm very frequently (as much as I want to deny this). I remember the panic aroused from various SEOs due to Google Panda algorithm change. I think that as long as you have quality contents on your page you shouldn’t go unnoticed by Google or by web-surfers in general. Quick addition regarding webs overloaded with ads: not only does this annoy Google it also annoys users. I for one, will close the tab immediately if there are too many ads. Think about it, do you really want to gain what little money that comes from one-click-per-ad as to drive your potential customers/clients away from your sites? Think about long term effects I think sites with fewer ads will win (that accompanies with good contents). Also, go easy on the social network buttons. I have encountered many sites that has ABUSED the rights of using social networks and they are all over the places and are interfering with my reading the contents. Seriously (and I apologize in advance if this is turning into a rant-like comment), if anything, you do NOT ever ever want to annoy people with social network buttons, especially ones that block your actual contents! How am I suppose to read your posts when you are blocking the words with buttons? Put them to the side or something, don’t leave them in the middle of the page! This drives away people from your site. THINK.LONG.TERM.
Hi Carrie,
You’ve brought up some good tips about the overuse of advertising and your overall website design. A good sign that you’re annoying your website visitors is the length of time that your visitors spend on a page as well as the percentage of visitors who exit from that page. Both of these statistics are easily viewed in analytics software. We need to keep in mind that we’re designing our websites for our visitors and not ourselves.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..4 Basic Steps to Better Blogging, Better Branding and More Business
Hi i`m a newbie but feel I`ve learnt a lot from you today, can I add my thoughts please, I think that if we try and come from the heart too, not just from a business level with people then we should have more success, after all, we are human beings dealing with other human beings, without readers/clients we have no business!
Of course you can offer your thoughts Lenin. Keeping it personal is great advice.
BTW – The next time you comment, all you have to leave in the Twitter field is your ID (without the @ sign. You left a URL and I had to delete it. Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
In my opinion, there are many bloggers who are not writers at all,they have, of course, notion about the whole process of blogging,advertisements on it etc. And every time I find such kind of blog, I wonder why didn’t they hire anyone for writing posts
Hi Amanda,
I understand bloggers not having the resources to hire someone to write content but if their writing skills are really lacking hiring a copy writer or a proof reader could be a worthy investment.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Can Your Small Business Compete with the Big-Box Stores?
Indeed content is King. Most of our SEO campaigns are focused to publishing better and relevant content for our readers. Results are going great, and visits are going up.
Thanks for letting us know Glen. It’s great to read from bloggers who concentrate on quality content rather than trying to game the system. Finally, I see real people benefiting from the recent algorithm changes.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..The Powerful WordPress Text Widget
I hope you’re right! Not just for my blog, but for all the crazy searches I do every day. I’m glad google is trying to find ways to get the right websites in the hands of the people searching for them. I hope the content I place on my blog will push it to success and that the search engines will help take me there!
Heather recently posted..An Elegant Beach Coverup
Heather,
Have you set up the rel=”author” and rel=”me” in WordPress? It’s not the easiest thing to do but once you start seeing your profile pic and bio in Google’s search results, you’ll realize how valuable it is.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..How to Add Follow Buttons to WordPress without a Plugin
Not just quality content — relevant and original content. I like the idea that people are typing in queries to google and answering their own questions by visiting our sites. It’s good for everybody!
Hi Robert,
“Relevant and original” is so important. I agree that it’s great that people are searching for answers and visiting our sites. I really like the fact that Google now returns Snippets with your profile pic and the info from your Google+ profile (if you set it up) next to the search results. That’s huge for building brand awareness. Personally, I am much more apt to click on a search result when I recognize the author as someone who I already trust. Writing quality content is finally being rewarded by the search engines!
Sherryl Perry recently posted..SEO Should Be A Habit Not A Headache
Good points Michael and it is nice to see Google has taken action. I write for my readers and I do SEO some posts as people are searching for information. The one thing with content is it can be time consuming to produce for small business owners and because their is so much content around it can be overwhelming for customers.
In a recent study from HBR they said that businesses thought providing information was one of the most important areas in customer choice whereas consumers wanted discounts and simplicity to help them purchase. As with all areas of marketing what you do and how you do it depends on your customers.
Susan Oakes recently posted..Is Marketing Driving You Nuts?
Hi Susan,
Thanks for weighing in on this. That’s a great observation for all of to keep in mind. I’m curious though. Did that study include a breakdown? I’m wondering if what was important differed based on whether the business was selling services (such as knowledge based consulting) rather than those selling consumer products.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..4 Basic Steps to Better Blogging, Better Branding and More Business
Hi Sherryl,
The study included services but I couldn’t find the breakdown. I think you have to be a member to get the full breakdown. Information is still important to both but in the study from a customer point of view it wasn’t as important as businesses thought.
Susan Oakes recently posted..How Tough Is It To Stand Out In A Crowded Market?
That’s very interesting Susan. I’m sure others will find that information helpful. I know I do. Thanks again.
Sherryl and Michael, that’s the best article about online marketing strategies I have ever read!!
What you write has been my strategy since the first day I started my blog. Have been a writer since my late teens and I refuse to write for search engines.
Find it really interesting that since January this year Google has been rewarding sites with quality content. My site has actually gained popularity since then. Wondered why but it seems you gave me the explanation.
Catarina recently posted..Be yourself – instead of – parroting
Hi Catarina,
Thanks for the positive feedback! I’m glad that you like Michael’s article. This is his first guest post for me.
It’s great that Google is rewarding good content. I’m glad to hear that your site has gained popularity. (Mine has too.) You’re an excellent writer and your posts always make me think.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Utilizing Social Media to Build Brand Awareness and Authority
Thank you Sherryl. Sincerely we have to get away for short term thinking in all areas of business, including social media.
It’s about time those of us who produce good content are rewarded. Honestly believe the situation was sick when people writing for search engines were rewarded.
Maybe it would be a good idea to have more guest posts from Michael considering that he is not stuck in the usual way of thinking but seems to have a mind of his own.
Catarina recently posted..Be yourself – instead of – parroting
Michael will be pleased to hear your praise Catarina. He is definitely welcome to guest blog here again.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Content Writing: The Most Formidable Online Marketing Strategy