The ABCs of Search Engine Marketing
Posted by Beth Hrusch on Sun, Aug 02, 2009
You may not want to hear this, but for many of you the end of summer
is near. Back-to-school shoppers are trickling back into the stores, parents are starting to haul their kids back and forth for sports camps and practice and teachers are gearing up for another academic year. For business owners, it's a good time to start thinking about how you are never too old or experienced to learn more, particularly about your search engine marketing plan.
Do you think you know everything you need to know about search engine marketing? You've been doing it long enough to have it down? Well, just as there is no one learning style, there is no one right way to implement a content marketing strategy. Looking at online marketing from a different angle may help you catch some points you may be missing.
Search engine marketing actually borrows many of its most important principles from the lessons we all learned back in school. Here are a few things to consider:
- Sharing is good- offering what you have to others fosters trust. And, it's the only way to get them to want to share what they have with you. Information that is freely given (and free) opens the door to profitable relationships.
- Nobody likes a bully- pushing other people around hurts more than just their feelings. It hurts your chances of gaining the trust that is essential to a relationship with your customers. Don't push yourself on people. Be polite in your marketing efforts. Manners and savvy are not mutually exclusive; in fact, they often go hand in hand.
- Play by the rules- this includes being fair. You don't need to engage in plagiarism or black hat techniques to get what you want. Search engine marketing works best in the long term if it is natural, or organic. Writing and distributing high quality content, for example, naturally produces superior results.
Just like in school, it never hurts to review your work every once in a while. Often, this means you need to take a fresh look at your search engine marketing strategy and make sure you're adhering to the basics.