SEO from a Marketer’s Perspective

SEO (search engine optimization) has become one of the most important responsibilities of any marketing director/brand manager.  Google is the starting point for two-third of all web searches so you have to play strong in that game.  As most people know there are dozens of methods to getting ranked high by the all knowing Google algorithm. It is worthwhile to hire or talk to one of the many consultants who specialize in SEO.  If you go that route make sure they have a proven track record.  However, it is critical that as a brand marketer it is your responsibility to make sure the SEO tactics align with your marketing and business goals.  While the consultants can help you with the “black box” aspects of SEO, it is up to you to understand how your customers will be looking for your company or product.  Not every company can afford a consultant or to have a specialist on staff.  As the steward of your brand you really need to own this function.  And, once you start excelling in organic search, you can cut back your SEM/Adword expenditures, but that is a whole other topic.

At King Fish we try to practice what we preach, so SEO is one of the most important things we do for our own custom media company and more importantly for our clients.  Here are a few of the lessons learned from a marketing/brand perspective.

Focus on your key words – you can’t be all things to all people, so decided where you want to “win”.  We decided that Custom Media would be our stake in the ground.  Once we focused, we moved from #57 to #9 on the “custom media” key word search in a few months.  We are now consistently on page one or two of Google.  This is single most important aspect to your strategy.  Think about how your target audience will search to find you, and take into consideration the competition.  How are they defining themselves?  Can you beat them at their own game?

Key word density – once you decide on the key word you have to use it often in your site copy, especially on your home page.  It does not always make for great writing, but it works.

Web site structure and URL - make liberal use of your key search terms.

Page headline – once again, keep the focus on your key words.
Fresh relevant content – nothing is more important to keep up your rankings.  This is where a blog can be critical to have a venue for new and relevant content.  Also, you can post news, press releases, white papers and other content rich material that is relevant to your keywords.

Links in to your site – these are easier said than done, but think about relevant partners.  Using services like PR Newswire can work wonders with your releases.  They have a SEO tool that we use often to get our URL out to dozens of sites.

The bottom line is SEO has to become part of everything you do from a marketing perspective with both focus and discipline.  Marketers who don’t put SEO at the top of their agenda do so at their own peril.