As a Dorset SEO specialist, I have encountered this question for so many times: "What is the best SEO strategy that you can recommend? Is it back-linking? Is it social media? Is it content marketing?" The simple answer, really, is that it is none of the above. While back-linking, social media and content marketing are all very important aspects of marketing your business online, the only real way to get ahead of your competition is to provide your readers with something of value. And I'm not talking about general, umbrella terms like "relevant information," "helpful tips" or "community-sharing." I'm talking about real, tangible, measurable value that people can actually put to good use in their practical, everyday lives.
Let's say, for example, that you wrote an article on how to promote your business on Facebook. Now, this topic has been written about for so many times now. If you do a Google search, you will find at least 245,000,000 websites that contain the keyword "promote business on Facebook." Just how exactly are you going to compete with hundreds of millions of websites that are talking about the exact same thing that you want to talk about?
The key here is to provide something that your readers are able to apply in their daily lives. Don't just tell them to "Keep their fans interested." You have to show them how. Don't just tell them to "Monitor their page." Show them how to use Facebook Insights and other analytics tools available for them to track their statistics. When your readers tell you that you wrote a great article and that they will remember everything you said, that's good. But when your readers tell you that they had an increase in revenue for the past two months because they followed your advice, then that is much better. This is what I'm talking about when I said you have to show them something real, tangible and measurable.
So how do you do this? Here are some suggestions, but you can always think up of your own:
1. Solve problems. Unless your readers are information junkies willing to cram their brains with useless trivia, they only want information that can help them solve their problems. And there are a lot of them. They need to know how to make money, have better relationships, lose weight, buy better products, become happier individuals, etc. For every article that you write, pick one of these problems and focus on delivering a solution.
2. Be very generous. Don't be afraid of giving away things for free, even if you think you're losing precious capital at first. People on the Internet are intelligent individuals and they can read between the lines if you're trying too hard to sell your products or if you're simply here to provide value for them. Ironically enough, it's those websites that aren't afraid to be generous that earn the most in the end.
3. Interact. The whole point of going online is to start a conversation. From that single point of contact, you can easily build and strengthen a community of followers who rely on you to provide reliable, helpful and interesting information that they can use for themselves. So when someone shoots you an email or when people start commenting on your articles, reply to them. Agree with them, argue with them (respectfully, if I may add), answer their questions, praise them, give them the advice they're asking for. Do something for them. Yes, that means giving even more value than the kind you decided to give in your article.
You don't have to obsess about keywords and back-links. There are no Google penalties for websites that provide value. In fact, if you keep on focusing on how you can help your readers in every way you can and forget about making money from your website altogether, the high-quality back-links, the social media mentions and the high search rankings will effortlessly come your way.
Lloyd Roberts | SEO Dorset
Lloyd Roberts is an Internet marketing specialist with experience in SEO marketing, web design, content management, web development and other online marketing strategies. For more information, please visit http://123webdesignbournemouth.co.uk/.
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