SEO is Dead – Long Live SEO

Getting puzzled? However,  it is nothing but a parody that is quite common in most parts of the United Kingdom (The king is dead, long live the king,  meaning that monarchy will remain, regardless of the death of a king who will be replaced by another king ). Nevertheless, in the context of SEO, the old definition still remains save and except that something more has been added to it. As a matter of fact, it no longer stands for “Search Engine Optimization” only, but something extra. To know more about it, please read on.

The Impact of Social on Search

If you study carefully, you are sure to observe that in course of the last few years, the impact of social properties (Twitter, Facebook, G+, Pinterest, etc) on where people search, as also how the search engines rank contents in the SERPs have gone up phenomenally. This sway of social on search will undoubtedly grow more though the coming years.Also, looking back a few years, say during the late 1990’s you must have observed how slowly businesses welcomed the web, while even during the 2000’s they were almost reluctant to embrace strategic Search Engine Optimization.Not very surprisingly though, the same businesses today appear to be hesitant in acknowledging the importance of the structure and strategic use of social properties (social media) to upgrade their finding power in the face of potential customers seeking products and services that they offer.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing in a New Bottle

The key to time tested, old-school, Word-of-Mouth marketing, as you know is very simple. If someone asks you to recommend a trader for a product or services, you give him/her the name of trader with whom you have satisfactory deals or warn him/her about one that has given you pain in the neck. But ironically, this is what search engines began replacing, i.e., word-of-mouth marketing) in the late nineties. However, today, after a lapse of almost two decades, search engines are being substituted as also influenced by Online Social Engagement which per se is nothing short of electronic word-of-mouth marketing.

Social Engagement Optimization

In order to effectively implement Social Engagement Optimization strategy it will be ideal for a business to hire a new graduate who has completed a social media college course for introducing corporate social media strategy. True, this will be less expensive when compared to someone who is credited with years of traditional marketing experience, along with having the expertise and ability to correlate historical success and failures with the new social technologies for undertaking old-fashioned marketing. Nevertheless, the reward for utilizing experience to create measurable benchmarks and milestones based on historical and traditional concepts is that the organization will thrive in the new environment of online social media marketing. However, it all depends on how much money a small business can afford to spend in retaining such an accomplished person.

Bottom Line

It is high time that businesses (small and medium) should think about how they are going to utilize social properties to engage with existing and potential new customers, as also how to optimize their experience to maximize the ROI. But above all, they must make their marketing team understand that SEO now included Social Engagement Optimization.