SEO – Serving Everyone with Opportunity?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, but as I stated in last weeks post, SEO is now everyone’s job.  Why?  Because it really does Serve Everyone with Opportunities.  It works for lead generation, increases the visibility of marketing initiatives, and gives sales another tool to assist in promoting products and services to get leads converted faster.  The following stats were shared at last weeks Dallas Digital Summit:

• 86% of people skip TV ads – why watch when you don’t have to?
• 200 million people are on the FTC do not call list – seriously, who wants anything that’s not personal happening on their cell phone?
• 44% of direct mail isn’t opened
• 84% of people leave websites with irrelevant advertisements – you know, that page that won’t let you read anything through all the pop ups – frustrating!
• 91% of users unsubscribed from emails they opted in to – we are a fickle people.
• 9 of 10 searchers choose organic links over PPC links (Pay Per Click) – You want to view what others have found helpful, not what a marketer pushes on you.
• 1 of every 1000 banner ads seen get a click – Now that doesn’t mean they aren’t working to promote your business, it’s just you can truly measure a touch that reminds a prospect, but they don’t act at that moment on that banner.

So let’s talk about my acronym for SEO – Serving Everyone with Opportunity.  No longer can one person or department beat a drum and bring lead generation or marketing success to the business.

It takes everyone within an organization especially with Google’s ever-changing algorithms that decide who is on page 1.

We must talk and share information about our company, our services, ourselves and relevant vertical content on the web and appropriate social media.

Google proves this theory by offering up information that those in your Google+ circles follows or shares on page 1 when doing a search.  It only makes sense that the information your network is searching and reviewing would be served up to you directly.

Seth Dotterer, VP or Marketing at Conductor suggested that you organize your team into the following groups to set up everyone for success:

• Technical Stakeholders – The people/group in charge of linking content, title tags on blogs/videos, etc.
• Product Stakeholders – This group knows the target consumers mindset so they can be out on the networks sharing solutions, ideas and best practices.
• Content Stakeholders – Must be hand in hand with the product group to provide relevant and ranking content.
• Leadership team – This is key! If leadership doesn’t see it as a high priority then it won’t happen at all.

The Conductor team calls this WPM – Web Presence Management.

Making SEO a priority will increase your web presence which is a priority when it comes to marketing and lead generation.

If prospects are already 70% through the sales and decision-making process when they reach out to you then your website becomes a salesperson for you.  It is also important that you work on creating a client referral and customer review program as reviews are seen as one of the best tools for converting a lead into a prospect as it assists in gaining trust.

No longer can your marketing person or team buy their way to the top for SEO.  People want to review organic content and sites, not the ones that are thrown out to them that are clearly paid ads.  Show real customers who have experienced real success and you can quickly gain new prospects and clients!

Ascendix has a new solution called xRE Composer that assists in creating marketing content to promote properties, listings and availabilities.