Many businesses know the importance of and why you should invest in SEO and its marketing cousins, but very few have heard of Search internet Optimization (SiO). This still very confidential discipline is the new tool on the (virtual) block.
Imagine a not-so-mad scientist creating the perfect human (strong, clever and intelligent, ubiquitous and versatile… omnipotent if you will). Search Internet Optimization is just that: the ultimate technique that can take a business presence and profitability to a new level.
Proven methods need not be mutually exclusive. In many a marketing agency, professionals share space but don’t share credit. They fight for their arguments rather than work together for the greater good: the client’s success.
SEO Experts will frown at Paid Advertising that undermines organic results. Social Media gurus may snort at good old Content Marketing, convinced that less is more where the others preach that more is better. Slightly left behind, Web Design performance is huff-puffing and many sites are still not as user-friendly, mobile-friendly and conversion-friendly as they ought to be. Yet, all those elements are crucial to a business success.
The bulb had to come on eventually, revealing the method to assemble the cogs: Search internet Optimization is a precise formula that is both the function and the result of itself, where marketing meets mathematics.
Read: Math Marketing: A Strategic Approach to Inbound
The Cogs of Search internet Optimization
You don’t have to be everywhere, but you have to be where it counts. For that, SiO is reuniting 7 digital marketing functions that were not always collaborating to offer a comprehensive strategy and optimize your digital footprint.
Content Marketing
Search internet Optimization means nothing if there is no focus on content marketing. In fact, content marketing is the cornerstone of SEO, PPC, Social Media Marketing and web design.
It is about producing what users want to watch, hear and read as much as what works in SEO techniques and best practices imposed by algorithms.
Marketing Strategy
Contrary to popular belief, marketing strategy is neither useless nor a waste of resources. If anything, not having one may be the biggest expense you can make, and not a sound one. Without a clear digital marketing plan, your business is blind, you don’t know where your target is, you can’t reach it (and it can’t be aware of your brand).
Analytics
The notion that maths and statistics belong to marketing as much as content and design is unusual. Yet analytics are a key component of an SiO strategy. A thorough analysis of the competition’s landscape and their positioning provides a better understanding of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. “Know your opponent”. Then, and only then can we design a strategic plan of action, which itself goes under the microscope before implementation. No campaign should be launched before key metrics can show positive ROI.
SEO
Arguably the most popular form of inbound marketing (and essential), SEO is the product of a technological necessity. Users rely on search engines to cough up results for a specific query. Search engines rely on digital content to parse the mighty web and identify data relevant to said query.
Paid Advertising
Don’t be too quick to dismiss paying for results. Pay Per Click methods (Adwords, Social media Ads) are a good way to bring traffic to your site, provided the ad content is relevant and in alignment with your strategy. Reconciling SEO and PPC multiplies the effectiveness of keyword campaigns and doubles your visibility.
Social Media Marketing
Search engines are not enough to put your business on the map and keep it there. Social media – like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or Pinterest among many – have become launching platforms in their own rights. By using your audience as a vehicle for your content, social media marketing becomes a pillar of Search Internet Optimization, naturally generating inbound traffic, creating organic notoriety.
Read: The Many Reasons You Need a Social Media Management Company
Web Design
Search engines care as much about web content as they do about the user’s experience (they even track time spent by visitors on a website to gauge its pretension to rank). Keeping in mind the evolution of web browsing (users behaviors) and SEO, Search internet Optimization reunites the needs into one seamless design that improves the experience, showcases the client and respects technological requirements.
The Winning Formula of Search internet Optimization
For the first time in decades, all areas of digital strategy are hosted under one roof.
Forget the not-so-mad scientist. Think of him as a genius astrophysicist instead. The alignment of techniques and methodologies evokes a solar system where all planets depend on one another and work together on three interconnected axis: the business, the customer, and the internet imperatives.
Better yet, think of him as a mathematician. Search Internet Optimization is the sum of all digital components; a function that integrates content and marketing strategy (gain access to the target audience to increase conversion), while multiplying the benefits of social media management, harvesting the potential of social media optimization (both paid and organic) and leveraging web optimization (responsiveness and design).
While all pieces produce results on their own, including each component as part of the big picture ultimately equals a higher performance in ranking, visibility, brand awareness, traffic, conversions and users experience.
Businesses can no longer afford to ignore any of these digital optimization tools, nor can they allow marketers to work independently, each defending their turf and forgetting that the only goal is the client’s success, not their own. Dismissing the other techniques is working against that goal.
A Search internet Optimization strategy is the ultimate weapon that connects the dots for the greater good. It is the future, and it starts today.
