With every update Search Engine Giant Google does there comes a new wave of panic within the internet marketing industry. What methods would be banned, what methods are going to be considered “good”? But what many within the industry fail to understand is that the most important factors in generating good positioning in the search engines.
This goes for bloggers and for website owners.
Be Your Brand
This may seem like a pretty broad statement, but it holds so much truth. Too many websites and blogs fail to master the most basic and important principles when building a brand. Being the brand.
Being the brand goes beyond a catchy design for your website. Beyond the content that is generated on your site.
More than ever, there is emphasis on the value of Branding. Not just from a Reputation Management standpoint but from a core “branding” aspect.
“Being the Brand” is making your Brand more than a website. It’s being a influential voice within your industry. It’s showcasing innovation, consistency and quality. It’s about creating the relationship between the visitor and the site where the visitor doesn’t look at your brand as just another site, but as a vibrant portal of information.
There seems to be a popular trend on Twitter of building up profiles that just auto-sync with that particular websites/blogs content posting. Meaning, the brand wants tweeting on auto-pilot. Brands don’t seem to value the time in personalizing your tweets or engaging your audience. If you think people are merely going to click all the article links you post you are missing the boat.
Users want to feel engaged in a debate or a topic of conversation. After all, social sites like Twitter and Facebook are built on conversation (at least Facebook originally was built on this concept). The moment you place your brand on a higher level than your audience you start a trend of disassociating your brand with it’s core fanbase.
Tweet with people, ask engaging questions and every once in a while follow some people back. Sure, it looks great to have 30,000 followers and only following 200, but people feel more inclined to read your posts when they feel like they are truly engaged with you and that you value their connection.
On the flip side, make sure you follow people in your industry. Following people only to get them to follow you back, regardless of what the tweet or who they are, has minimal returns. It lacks focus, creativity and a genuine feel to your brands social presence.
Information IS Power
No matter what happens in the world of Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines or Internet Marketing one common thing will remain to hold true moving forward. Information!
No longer can we say “content is king”. The fact is spammers and duplicate content posting has diminished the value of that idea. While content is important, it is more important to understand what purpose search engines truly serve.
Every search engine from Google to Bing to Yahoo wants to answer your question. When you type in a search query you are, in essence, asking a search engine a question. A search engine then wants to give you either A. The Answer or B. Enough Resources to lead you to the answer.
Therefore make sure your website is an informational resource. Full of honest, intelligent and original content that can be resourceful.
When you start seeing your blog or website as a portal of information and not as simply a “website”, you start treating your content differently. You don’t have the be the go to guide for information, but presenting your website as a source for quality information can help give your site a favorable classification in all of the search engines.
