SEO manager has become quite an unenviable role lately. She’s charged with increasing traffic and rankings, although it’s likely that her resources haven’t grown much recently. And SEO means something completely different than it did two years ago. SEOs can’t rely on the same on-page and link-building tactics that they used to.
Don’t get me wrong: on-page optimization is still vital. If your content foundation isn’t solid, no one’s going to engage on your site, least of all Google. And inbound links are still a big part of good SEO. But they can no longer be bought – they must be earned.
We’re seeing SEO departments stuck with the same limited resources when what they really need is a collaboration with and between social and PR teams. We know by now that good content – I mean really good, knock-your-socks-off, top-notch content – is what drives SEO.
Why? Because knock-your-socks-off content is engaging. People are naturally inclined to read and re-read it, post it, tweet it, link to it, pin it and comment on it. And search engines love this. Big-name brands and publishers that already have a massive audience to interact with their content in such a way, admittedly, have a little easier time getting this organic promotion.
But what about brands that are new to the content marketing game – brands that have yet to establish themselves as creators of top-notch content? These brands need a little extra push when it comes to promotion – to gaining not only attention but leads, through their content.
Enter social media and digital PR, stage right.
Digital marketing teams are getting wise to the game of merging these three departments – social, PR, and SEO – for the best results. Shares grow traffic grows awareness grows shares… and so on.
So what can SEOs do to make the most of the content their teams are building? Focus on collaboration. It’s as simple as that. We know that good SEO demands great content, so content marketing became the norm. Now we’ve found that great content doesn’t accomplish much if no one is engaging with it.
So SEOs, get with your PR and social teams. Get outside the box of content for content’s sake. Create and share your awesome work so that your audience can get to know you. Because when people are engaging with your digital content, you can be sure that Google will too.
Image Source: Death to the Stock Photo
