Is SEO Marketing Dead? 3 Ways to Leverage It in the Digital Marketing Era

Whether or not SEO is “dead” has been on the minds of many marketing professionals. One of SEO’s most popular myths is that ROI (return on investment) is hard to come by, but this is simply not true. As digital marketing grows and innovates, some people mistakenly assume that SEO is a dated strategy in the modern market. However, SEO has always been a staple of successful digital marketing strategies as per experts like stuartkerrs and continues to be so today.
Like the rest of the marketing realm, SEO is constantly evolving to meet customer demands and preferences, boost traffic, and drive sales. You might not understand how SEO algorithms work but ignoring these strategies is a serious mistake. Those who are successful in SEO know how it can benefit their campaigns, providing thought leadership and best practices for the rest of the industry to learn from. According to the experts, these are the three most important ways to leverage search engine optimization in your brand’s marketing efforts:

Maintain a Consistent Flow of Content to Own Top Search Engine Result Pages

One of the best strategies for leveraging SEO is maintaining a consistent flow of content that will continue to own top SERPs. This means staying on the pulse of what your target audience is searching for and providing the most relevant content that addresses those topics. This will ensure your website is seen as a trusted source of information and one of the best resources to turn to for help. As a result, people will be more likely to visit your site and share content, which builds a sustainable community. 

The first step to creating a consistent flow of content is coming up with topics that your target audience will be searching for. Google Trends is an excellent tool for this. By typing in the subject of your choice, you can see what people search for over time and update your content to reflect these interests. You can also use this tool to see what topics your competitors are ranking for. A simple search of their website, and you’ll be able to find out what content they are putting out there. This allows you to compare their content with your own to uncover successful strategies and emulate them or to identify content gaps on their pages that represent opportunities they are failing to take advantage of.  

By providing the most relevant and up-to-date information visitors care about, you show that you are an authority in your field and that your site is a trustworthy resource. Offering fresh and valuable content is critical for building a community of raving fans that will share and engage with this content. After you’ve determined what to publish, you can create a schedule that automatically shares the new posts at specific times. Releasing a new blog post on your site once per week ensures that you can stay consistent and own the top SERPs for your topics. 

Establish Trust and Credibility with Prospects and Customers

There are very few mistakes that could hurt a company’s reputation more than intentionally misleading customers. A common example of this is adding content designed to trick visitors into believing their website has the answer to their question, only for them to discover that they’ve fallen victim to a black hat SEO technique to rank on Google. Dishonest and manipulative tactics like keyword stuffing may drive traffic initially, but the poor user experience will negatively affect your page’s SERP rankings and visibility and damage your brand’s reputation. When you consistently release high-quality content, you can establish trust and credibility with your prospects and customers, improve conversions, and build brand loyalty.  

Factors that will help you to build a trusting website include: 

• Positive client reviews and testimonials for your products or services
• Frequency and positivity of social media interactions
• Strong conversion rates and click-through data
• Favorable bounce rate

By keeping an eye on these metrics, you will determine how your consumers interact with your website. You can then use this data to improve the content they see and adjust any strategies accordingly. 

Make Thoughtful, Strategic Budget Adjustments

The best way to continue leveraging SEO in the pivoting digital marketing world is by making thoughtful and strategic budget adjustments. This means that you won’t be wasting money by throwing it at any strategy that pops up on your radar but instead making purposeful changes to improve the ROI of your campaigns.  

You will first want to compare the cost per acquisition (CPA) and return on investment (ROI) that you see from your organic search traffic against other forms of paid advertising. In some cases, you may find that the ROI is higher for search traffic or vice versa. If you find that your ROI is higher for paid advertising, this may be due to a lack of a set budget for this type of traffic. If you’re not sure how much to allocate towards paid search, then you can begin by setting aside a small percentage of your marketing budget and scaling it up as you find success. If, on the other hand, organic search is providing the highest ROI, then you’ll want to focus your attention on tactics like content marketing and social media management.  

Utilizing the tactics above will help you build a healthy and thriving website that can provide your consumers with a top-notch experience, keep you ahead of the curve, and generate high returns, even as the digital marketing world continues changing. If you’re ready to improve your brand’s digital marketing strategy, an SEO agency can help you learn more about leveraging your SEO for optimal results.