Search engine optimization is now a key requirement for businesses of all kinds. For smaller entities, however, getting meaningful results for one’s investment in digital marketing has proved increasingly difficult over the last few years. If you’ve found yourself in such a predicament, you’d be surprised to learn that online marketing isn’t the only way to improve your search engine ranking. That’s right — promoting your brand using traditional channels is a great way to fast-track your SEO Delaware campaign. But how do the two seemingly-distinct tactics relate to each other, one might ask?
How Offline Advertising Fits Into Your SEO Strategy
Most managers would have you believe that search engines only track online activity. This might have been the status quo a few years back, but things change rather quickly. As it turns out, the various forms of traditional marketing actually filter back through the web, and search engines have upgraded their algorithms to track this activity. The motivation behind this move is to incorporate all marketing techniques into the ranking formula.
Although some have blamed the shift on the widespread use of shady optimization techniques, things become much clearer when one considers the fact that most people spend their lives offline. It’s only after one reaches for their device(s) that they make use of the information they came across in the real world. And it’s for this reason that search engines are now taking online searches into consideration when developing their ranking formulas.
But what does this mean for your marketing strategy? Well, treat it like you would any valuable investment; don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Employing a diversified approach will ensure you have sufficient lead flow channels as your search engine rankings change over time. While an optimization campaign will be crucial in building your market share, there’s plenty of unexplored value in places you might not have considered before.
Changing Tides
As earlier mentioned, the significance of backlinks in the eyes of search engine algorithms has fallen dramatically of late. This was triggered by the widespread practice of selling and trading links; as more people adopted it, the credibility of search engine algorithms gradually diminished. This is why they’re now punishing marketers who’ve accumulated too many bad links to their sites. In simpler terms, having more brand searches has now overtaken the accumulation of backlinks as the most crucial factor in determining a site’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPS).
When using traditional forms of marketing for SEO purposes, your goal should be to prompt viewers to search for your brand online. You may also give them reasons to write stories about your brand and post them on different platforms. Some have argued that brand mentions, whether through online searches or blog posts, have become the new form of inbound links. To ensure your offline campaigns actually support your digital efforts, consider:
-Networking in relevant communities: Meeting your ideal prospects in such groups and triggering their curiosity so they’re interested in learning more about you is a good way to drive qualified traffic to your site. In so doing, you’ll be attracting visitors with good reasons to spend more time browsing different pages, and your search rankings will improve as a result.
-Speaking at events: Being seen and heard at local events, no matter the size has the potential to amplify your branding beyond your wildest dreams. Social shares and links will start going off way before your presentation ends, not to mention the chance you have to send people to your site.
-Taking photos and videos: With the former, you can optimize ‘ALT’ tags to increase your visibility in image searches, and videos will fuel engagement on your site.
-Using billboards and signs: First things first: both of these options don’t provide enough space to engage viewers, so only use them if they make sense for your brand. And if so is the case, creating a disruptive message for your billboard/sign is a good way to attract attention. Don’t forget to include a URL within this message.
-Supporting a charitable cause: No matter what your brand deals in, there’s a charitable entity out there who might appreciate your products or services. Linking up with such an organization and contributing towards their initiative(s) is not only a great way to increase your exposure, but also give back to the community as well.
As you can see, offline advertising has now become a crucial part of running a successful DelawareSEO.online optimization campaign. As strange as it sounds, the evolving nature of SEO is actually what has brought back traditional advertising as a crucial factor in boosting one’s ranking. And as far as your larger marketing strategy is concerned, there’s no right or wrong way to go about it — what really matters here is to make both online and offline branding efforts bear fruit.