The internet is saturated with advice, good and bad. You can find articles, videos, and posts relating to every single sphere of your personal and professional life.
What if you want your business to rank higher on Google? You can find advice on that everywhere. But how do you know which source to trust? Many “web experts” will promise you, “Oh, I can get you to be No. 1 in no time.” Translation: I’m going to stuff your website with so many keywords that not a single person will read your site. But that doesn’t matter. It’s Google we want to please, not people, right?
Sorry, folks, that’s not the way it works, no matter what these so-called SEO senseis tell you. You please Google by pleasing the people.
So what’s the solution? How do you build your online presence the right way? How are you supposed to sell your product and service, and spread brand awareness? Most importantly, how do you please the Google gods? By creating a holistic marketing plan based on quality content specifically tailored for your buyer personas.
Think of holistic internet marketing as putting your best face forward. By constructing an online presence through content creation, social media publishing, and thought leadership that supports the core values of your business, you’re presenting a unified, trustworthy front to potential consumers. Taking the time to do so will attract and retain a larger customer base than shortcuts and gimmicks ever could.
The internet is a mysterious beast, one that is always undergoing changes. According to Moz, Google changed its search algorithm 500-600 times. Of course, not all of these are major, like Google Panda, Google Penguin, and Google Hummingbird. Yet, they still matter.
Years ago, marketers could get away with pop-up ads, pay-per-clicks, spamming inboxes, keyword stuffing, and buying social media followers. But now, the online marketing landscape bears little resemblance to its humble beginnings, and Google is no longer just a search engine with a weird name. It’s a verb and a language. It influences the news we read and the trends we follow. It’s transformed the way we communicate online and on our phones. It has shown us the world and the future.
As this information super-highway evolved, internet marketing has had to follow suit. Much like direct mail and print ads, these tactics got a lukewarm response from target audiences. It created a disconnection between the seller and the customer rather than a connection that made buyers want to click through and complete a purchase. The feedback indicated that too many users either ignored the stratagem or felt that they were being "pushed" into making a purchase.
While a purchase might be part of the ultimate goal of your marketing campaign, you never want to forcibly box in a potential buyer. By this point in time, a new concept would enter the inbound arena and change internet marketing as we know it. It’s called inbound marketing, or in this case, the nectar of the gods. It’s what your customers desire, so give it to them.
Inbound marketing is the exact opposite of outbound marketing. Rather than pushing people toward your product or service, you are gently pulling them. Blasting them with annoying commercials during their favorite TV shows or disrupting their online reading with pop-up ads will result in eternal punishment. Provide them with content their way —the way they want it, when they want it, where they want it.
Companies that stay in compliance with internet marketing regulations (aka follow Google’s commandments) and successfully supplement their industry knowledge with creative, original content gain exposure and positive reviews through search results.
However, the real moral of this story is to not bow down to Google. Respect it, listen to it, pay homage to it, but most importantly, please its people. After all, they’re the ones that really matter.
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