The Future of SEO
The phrase ‘SEO’ has passed its shelf life. ‘Online PR’ is the new SEO.
With Google’s global dominance, marketeers are working harder than ever to ensure that their potential customers find them. In 2007 there was a daily average of 1.2bn Google searches. Fast forward five years to 2012 and Google reported an average of 5.13bn searches per day. This is only going to grow, particularly as browsing on a mobile device begins to overtake desktop browsing and internet use increases.
Digital marketing is of course conversion driven, with a focus on measuring a return. If we throw into the equation that online retail sales hit £50bn in 2011, the pitfalls of not being found online start to become more apparent.
However, being found online and the marketeers perspective on how this is achieved is rapidly changing. SEO as a phrase has passed its shelf life. Online PR through content marketing (the product of online PR) is the new SEO.
A bright future
Google updates and algorithm changes have had a serious impact on how search engine optimisation works, which can only be a positive thing. Google wants to display the best or ‘most honest’ results for its users. It is therefore encouraging businesses to create good, relevant content. In short, Google is trying to make the web a better place.
Of course, the science of search marketing is in itself is its own marketing discipline, and as digital marketeers, we are responding to hundreds of signals that Google ranks websites for. There is one outstanding element of traditional SEO that heavily lends itself to the concept of link building: content marketing. It is good content that Google will value, and good content marketing is driven through online PR.
New kids on the block
Search engine marketing has forced a shift in the required knowledge by all involved in the marketing process and this will see a more competitive marketplace for all search terms, especially as we move forward into an even more digitally conscious world.
PR gurus and marketeers of all disciplines have been discovering the influence of search marketing, particularly over the past 24 months. Within the industry itself, internet and digital marketing events and conferences around the UK have become increasingly popular with these professionals, rather than just traditional ‘SEOs’. As PR meets SEO, content marketing is born.
But how does this determine the retirement of ‘search engine optimisation’ as a marketing phrase?
Online PR
While the phrase SEO itself will never disappear, the practice and work around it has and will continue to change. As a digital marketing agency educating current and prospective clients on how search marketing has effectively become online PR is part of the transition we face in the digital industry.
With phrases such as ‘content is king’ and ‘black hat SEO’ knocking around for some time now, the reflection of Google’s objectives to rank websites based on quality content (internal and external) has seen the PR specialists start to listen in – and listen well they should.
Search is where stories are picked up and where businesses are found. Search is where customers are, for all business sectors.
Content marketing, the bread and butter of online PR must have conversion based objectives. Being found is great, but only the starting point. Ensuring that your website is fully optimised to convert these leads is paramount, otherwise your highly valuable visitor will effectively turn around and walk out of your shop back onto Google’s high street.
As search engine optimisation becomes online PR, the development of stories, finding an interesting angle on them and creatively letting them unravel online does lead to good ranking results. But the on page content must lead the user to then convert.
With great content and exposure, backlinks in turn will follow (pardon the pun SEOers). The effect this has on rankings ultimately leads to conversion and business, particularly when winning links from high profile websites. Quality backlinks are one guaranteed component that will always influence domain authority and page rank.
Trinity Leeds
At Parallax we have been working around the notion of PR-based SEO for some time. During 2013 one of the major news story for Leeds and Yorkshire was the launch of the city’s new shopping centre, Trinity Leeds.
Working on the basis of a PR approach to search marketing, we began to think how piggybacking on the vast launch of Trinity Leeds for one of our clients Town Centre Car Parks could be influential.
With tens of thousands of visitors expected to explore the new destination place in Leeds, the volume of web traffic searching for ‘Trinity Leeds’ and related keywords was predictable. For our client we needed to ensure that they were ranking top for ‘Trinity parking’ and similar related searches to benefit from the lucrative nature of thousands of extra visitors flocking to Leeds city centre.
As a result of our efforts our client’s website ranked first for ‘trinity leeds parking’ and ‘parking leeds trinity’ for the opening which brought thousands of extra visitors to the website who were given a discounted parking offer on the ranked page that they were led to. Four months down the line the main Trinity Leeds website has naturally taken this spot, however our client’s website is just behind them; and these searches still bring new leads to the website.
Future Content Marketing
While the Trinity Leeds campaign was just one example of PR-based optimisation through on-site led content, off-site content marketing future is even more influential.
Interactive content marketing to engage and entertain users such as our drink driving campaign and roads signs quiz for the same client have gained national exposure ensuring increased rankings. Cutting edge content is the future of what was SEO. Honing content as PR stories to engage audiences and win backlinks will see any website prosper.
While ‘SEO’ will eventually become a phrase we will use to refer to the nuts and bolts of on site technical work in digital marketing, online PR will become the new buzzword to replace the traditional definition of SEO.
This will, as Google sets out, make the web a content rich and better place, while helping the digital marketing industry to flourish and empower the essence of brand.