I came across yet another article on LinkedIn with the headline:
SEO is DEAD!
In case you’re wondering what SEO means.
SEO means Search Engine Optimization.
What does that even mean, Caroline?
It means making your website easy for Google and humans (your target audience) to understand.
It means the steps you take on your website to make it rank higher in Google search results for your target audience and get found by your high-value customers.
Understood?
Now back to the LinkedIn article I found.
Here’s his argument:
“SEO is dead.
Google doesn’t care about your optimized blog post.
And Amazon isn’t fooled by your search ranking hacks.
If you’re thinking about paying someone to teach you SEO–
Don’t.
Save your money.
It’s ancient history.
You’ll be a 21st-century dinosaur.
What, then?
Content.
The kind of stuff people actually love reading:
— Because it offers real, actionable value
— Because they’ll tell all their friends about it
— Because it’s just too damn interesting to click away from
And social media.
Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest.
Putting yourself and your work out there in a genuine, human way.
And finally, good ‘ole fashioned paid advertising done right–
Ads with punchy copy selling real products that solve real problems.
Where to start?
Learn from people who are doing it successfully.
Keep coming up with new and creative ideas.
Refine and clarify your message–
Until you build a real following.
The catch?
A classroom won’t teach you how to do it.
And there are no shortcuts.
You’ll have to put in the hours.”
The writer is right though.
The first skill every marketer or business owner must learn is the copywriting skill.
The art of writing content to educate, entertain, persuade and sell.
SEO has been dead for the past 10 years.
Go to Google and type in the keyword phrase: “SEO is dead”
You’re sure to see millions of articles on the topic.
The same declaration they made for email marketing, SMS, and Facebook being dead too.
But the truth is that all these channels have evolved as the years go by.
And you the marketer should learn to adapt.
Therefore, your rants about SEO being dead hasn’t stopped people from searching for quality information on Google.
In fact, Google is rewarding business websites that fulfil the best practices by directing paying customers to them daily.
SEO places you in front of your future clients.
But seriously, why would you depend on just one marketing channel for brand awareness, lead generation and sales?
Who does that?
Why depend on SEO alone when other channels are there?
SEO has its place. No one said that SEO is the beginning and end of digital marketing.
Don’t be a one-trick pony.
Because the one-trick pony gets shot.
Instead, develop a holistic marketing approach.
Be omnipresent.
Use all the channels available to put your content in front of your customers wherever they are.
* Search engine marketing
* Pay per click advertising
* Mobile
* Website
* Social Media
* Blog
* Forums
* Offline
* Email marketing.
Take a look at Jumia & Konga.
Even though they rank high on Google, they still spend millions of Naira on offline ads (Billboards, events, TV, Radio, prints) and online ads (Facebook ads, Google Adwords, and Remarketing) to bring back visitors who abandoned their shopping carts.
Also, they engage with fans on social media through videos, pictures and contests.
I urge you to follow their methods.
Even Naij and Pulse Nigeria that is popular blogs in Nigeria with good SEO rankings,
They still run paid on YouTube, Google AdWords and social media to drive traffic to their blogs.
They are not fools for spending money on advertising.
They also take advantage of offline TV in strategic locations such as Shopping malls to stop people in their tracks and entertain them with funny meme videos.
And still, do email blasts, share live videos on social media and alert readers with popup notifications.
They understand that they need to grab more eyeballs and drive traffic to their websites.
All of these brands that I mentioned above don’t depend on just one channel for their traffic.
So why should you?
You must have ONE GOAL for your marketing this year.
Be the BIG FISH in a small pond.
Be the Coca-cola of your industry.
Be OMNIPRESENT.
Be seen everywhere by your target audience, wherever they are.
He who spends the most to acquire a customer wins – Ryan Deiss.
Hello Caroline,
Good to be here again.
As human, when we try to doing something and it doesn’t seem to work in favour of us, we tend to console ourselves by saying such thing is dead.
Most of this people saying SEO is dead are frustrated SEOs with several failed attempt of ranking their site on Google. As long as search engines exist with their algorithms and factors, SEO will exist..
I’m happy that we have people like this though, let them keep saying it so that we wont have much competition to deal with.
Prince Molak ( Lekan Akinyemi)
So true Lekan. Thanks for for your comment.