The Evolved SEO Marketing – Content Discoverability and Socialization (the top 3 strategies)

By Karen Cioffi

SEO marketing has evolved significantly over the past couple of years. While the fundamentals are the same, it now includes socialization and organic inbound content marketing that promotes discoverability.

Search Engine Watch describes the new SEO as “web presence optimization.” The site goes on to note that it’s “an all-encompassing approach to optimizing an entire web presence for organic search including the website, social channels, blogs, articles and press releases.” (1)

Of the many elements of SEO, there are three strategies that are at the top of the content discoverability popularity list and the ones you should be most concerned with.

The 3 most popular SEO marketing strategies:

1. Blogging with Effective Keywords, Content, and Socialization

One of the basics of the ‘evolved’ search engine optimization strategy is organic inbound content marketing. It’s the process of bringing traffic to your website through discoverable content, such as blog posts.

A major element of your content should be the ‘tried and true’ use of keywords. Keywords will drive search traffic to your website and ultimately drive conversion.

Conversion is the process of getting visitors to become subscribers, customers, clients or say YES to some other call-to-action you have in place.

It’s the combination of effective and targeted keywords and quality content that will produce the results you want. It delivers visitors to your site and motivates them to share your content with their networks.

Part of this optimization process that brings traffic to your site is sharing your content with your own social networks as soon as it’s published.

2. Guest Blogging

Spread your wings. Research sites that are relevant to your niche and that have high authority and query the owner or follow the site’s guidelines if available.

Guest blogging helps you take-it-up-a-notch. This content marketing strategy brings you to the attention of the high-ranking website you’re guesting on and to the attention of that site’s readers.

Guest blogging has a two-fold benefit. It helps you develop a connection with the site owner, possibly leading to other things, and it broadens your visibility.

To make your guest blogging gigs worth the time and effort, you need to create an effective ‘About the Author’ for the end of your articles. It’s important to make the author tag focused on the reader, not about you. Let the reader know what she’ll get if she clicks on your link.

3. Article Directories

While article marketing via article directories has been around a while, it’s still a top SEO marketing strategy.

As with guest blogging, it’s about using relevant keywords that will allow readers to find your article and it’s about writing quality content that other blog owners will find of value and ‘shareable.’ Other blog and website owners will read your quality content and want to share it with their own audience. This will prompt them to post it to their own sites, especially since it’s free content.

And, as with guest blogging, you need to have an effective ‘About the Author’ with a call-to-action, usually leading to your email list opt-in. Make your Bio count. An effective Bio will let the reader know that if he clicks on your link, he’ll get even more helpful information.

Summing it Up

The evolved SEO marketing strategy is all about discoverability and shareability. The means to this end is optimized content that is driven by organic inbound marketing strategies.

In other words, if you write it using optimization strategies (keywords and valuable content) they will come. And, they will share what you’ve written. This will please the ‘search engine powers that be,’ which in turn will give you higher ranking and authority.

Higher ranking and authority = more perceived value and more traffic, resulting in more conversion.

How About You?

What SEO marketing strategies do you use?

Reference
(1) http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2288392/Time-for-a-New-Definition-of-SEO

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Authors Need Discoverability More Than Findability

What is this "discoverability" and "findability" stuff?  A new language?

 

As ugly as some think of them, it seems essential to use these two words to show authors (and other business people) how important discoverability is. 

 

Most of us authors (or our publishers) use "findability" well when they put all a book's metadata on the Web and on specific sites so readers can locate exactly what they're looking for…" even [when they don't have] complete information about the book. In this instance "metadata" includes all the stuff like categories, ISBNs, titles,—the specifics about your book.

"Discoverability" is the kind of access a reader might have when she isn't looking for a specific title, author, or even a specific category but something related to her search pops up. We authors hope that will be our book!  Categories can help with this exposure but things like keywords, great pitches and loglines, benefits, etc. that appear on your Amazon page, your social networks, your online bookstore profile and buy pages work even better.

 

Chances are—your title isn't as well known as you'd like, so you're after "discoverability."

 

I'm thinking most authors would get more out of the concept if we call it "serendipity." In other words, we have to work everything we can on the Web so that even those who aren't looking for us find us and that our "brand" (the Frugal Book Promoter is full of information on great branding for books!) will be clear to him or her immediately. That includes learning to play to the search engines using the dreaded "keyword concept" in all of our content.

 

Of course, some use Search Engine Optimization experts to do this for them. But I think you probably know more about what your book (and your career) is about than many SEO guys or gals. And there is plenty you can do to be discovered serendipitously that SEO doesn't fit into the job description of SEO professionals. In this article, we'll concentrate on online bookstores, but you can generally apply these ideas to your Web site, your social network profiles, and anything else you do online.

 

1.   Get your book categorized in three different categories on Amazon and other online bookstores that offer this categorization feature to organize books. The online bookstore's search engine is a little like the library's catalog—only faster. You want to be associated with genres and categories that people search for. But you want each category to be refined down to the category with the least competition in it—as long as it applies to your book. This is what my categories for The Frugal Book Promoter look like on Amazon. I'm not too happy with the last one, but I really, really needed a subset with fewer books in it than I could get with the obvious:

     

 

       Look for Similar Items by Category

·        Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Advertising

·        Books > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides >Publishing & Books > Authorship

·        Books > Professional & Technical > Accounting & Finance > Accounting

Keep in mind that the people who might be looking for your book (or not know they are looking for your book) may very well not use the same jargon you use. Example: For my book they may think of the word "advertising" before they think of the word "publicity" or even "promotion."

 

2.   When possible use keywords in your title, in your subtitle, on the back of your cover and in your book description. And, yes, in the endorsements and blurbs you use.

3.   Use as many of the little benefits that online bookstores offer as you can. There is lots of Amazon-specific information on doing this in The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) like reader reviews, Listmanias, the add-an-image function, and the like button (which appears to be disappearing these days!). Even a few "Add to Wish List" entries can help the logarithms on Amazon.

4.   Participate in Amazon comments when it is pertinent, but not in a negative way. You'll find those at the end of each review.  Add helpful information and compliments to related books when you can. They link back to your Amazon profile page.

5.   And, about that profile page! Check it every so often to see if it needs updating. And be sure to feed your blog to it! That keeps it active.

6.   A rarely used function on each Amazon buypage is the "Start a discussion" section. Try to get someone to start one. Warn them that one must scroll down to find it.

7.   Vote on reviews that you like best on your own buypage and get others to do so. This could push that review (along with all of its keywords) to the top of the review offerings.

 

Now you know what to do with Amazon, apply your new skills to other things you are doing on the Web. And then here's another little tip directly from The Frugal Book Promoter. You don't have to be actively engaged in a social network to have a very nice profile on the site with lots of links back to your other networks and your Website. Make it your business to add a profile to something new every so often.

----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

What is SEO and SEO Marketing?

What is SEO and SEO Marketing?

If you’re like the majority of people, you may be wondering what SEO is. Well, it’s simply an acronym that stands for ‘search engine optimization.’

According to TechTerm.com, “Just about every Webmaster wants his or her site to appear in the top listings of all the major search engines.” SEO is the means to accomplish this.

SEO marketing is the strategies or techniques used to create visibility and website ranking within the search engines, such as Google and Bing. And, even with Google’s latest update, the Penguin’s SHARING factor, these strategies are still effective, and needed.

Sidetracking just a moment, Google’s latest update takes the ‘social’ element of blog posting to the next level. Along with your SEO tweaks, your content must be SHAREABLE.

Content that others find valuable enough to share, whether informative or entertaining, is what will help get a higher ranking with the search engine.

Okay, back on track now.

Every online marketing strategy includes promotion, and SEO marketing is a promotional tool under the marketing umbrella. The marketing umbrella covers the creation or manufacturing of a product or service, research and development (R&D), distribution, and any other elements needed to get a product from creation to the consumer. Promotion creates visibility, which in turn leads website traffic and customers.

Utilizing online promotion means you will be using the internet and search engines. SEO marketing is the process of getting the search engines to find and rank your website and your content. You obviously want a high ranking so when a searcher (potential customer) types in a search term (keyword), your site may be one of those on that first search engine results page (SERP), or at least within the first few pages.

Another explanation of SEO marketing:
It is basically the steps you take to have Google, Bing, and other search engines find, index, and put your website on one of their first SERPs whenever people use ‘your keyword’ to search for something.

In essence, SEO marketing is kind of a popularity contest.
When you use effective keywords within your website (title and meta tags) and in informative posting content, Google and the other search engines will find, index, and rank you. This allows you to be picked up and shown on the search engines’ results pages for specific search terms. When a ‘searcher’ finds your link on the SERP and clicks on it, you get a link to your site. The more inbound links to your site – relevant to your keywords or not - the more Google and other search engines ‘like you’ and consider you an authority.

Going a bit further, getting links from other sites with the same keywords in their links that you have in yours, is much better. This is considered as a higher ‘ranking vote’ by Google and establishes your site as having more authority. The more ‘link votes’ you get, the more Google will perceive your site as valuable and give you a higher authoritative ranking.

To be found and ranked by Google, you need to add effective and relevant keywords to your site and content, and have SHAREABLE content.

To find effective keywords, you can go to http://googlekeywordtool.com/

Click on the Google Keyword box and it will take you to the Google Adwords search tool.

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children's author and ghostwriter. She is also an author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

Find out more about Karen's online platform classes at:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/ 

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