Archive for the 'SEO' Category

In Online Marketing, Mind the Time

“Frequently update your company’s Facebook Page.”

“Consistently nourish your YouTube Channel with quality videos.”

“Write one ‘can’t miss’ search engine optimized blog post per week.”

“Publish ‘x’ number of tweets every day.”

“Review your latest Web analytics reports every month… and don’t even think of  letting your company’s profiles on Google Plus, Pinterest and LinkedIn fall by the wayside.”

STOP! THINK! How many hours have you retained from your agency, or how many hours is your in-house team able to devote to implementing your online marketing strategy and accomplishing these tasks? You wouldn’t have an architect draw plans for a house without first assessing your financial resources. In this case, the resources that you must consider are time and skill.

A competent digital marketing agency or consultant will identify the tactics that will yield the most impact on your digital goals, based on the hours at your disposable. In the case of in-house teams, they must also weigh the skill set that your human resources bring to the campaign.

That is why The Online Strategy House always launches projects with new clients by embarking on Discovery Sessions. Amongst other objectives, our Discovery Sessions enable us to understand our clients’ “bandwidth reality” so that we can develop their strategies based on their assets. This is not the time for clients to be boastful or to have strong egos. If your agency asks you how much time your staff will have to devote to the implementation of your online marketing plan, then be frank and realistic. If you hire us, or another agency, on a retainer basis, then both parties must be mindful of the number hours available per month for your account.

As a client, ask the hard questions if need be: what areas should be the priority? You may extrapolate this question to a more granular level. For example, when optimizing YouTube videos for enhanced search visibility, what is most important if there isn’t enough time to get everything done at once? Should your staff first optimize the titles, descriptions and tags? Or should they invest their time in transcribing your videos so that they can upload the closed captioning?

Likewise, before you’re seduced by the latest online marketing “shiny toy”, have your agency explain the impact that it will potentially have in achieving the goals set out by strategy. This is especially applicable to social media, where it seems that a new platform is launched every month.

As my father says, “tempus irreparabile fugit” (Latin for “time irretrievably flees”). So use your company’s or agency’s time wisely. Focus on what matters, and on what is realistic.

Search Engine Optimization : Much Better as a Team

Yesterday The Online Strategy House presented a search visibility workshop to the staff of a British Columbia governmental health organization. That experience really drove home the importance of teaching search engine optimization basics to a team — in this case, to the people who will create any content for their site, or those who, by virtue of their responsibilities, frequently come across opportunities for link building.

Optimally, several people will contribute blog posts to an organization’s domain. At the same time, those companies often have partnerships with others in their vertical, aside of taking time to participate in or sponsor industry events. When a team learns the relevant principles of on-site search engine optimization, from that point forward they see their day-to-day activities as opportunities for SEO. Those SEO principles then become ingrained in their modus operandi. For example:

• Next time a manager contributes a blog to the company site, she will know that this is a chance to write a post according to the content strategy delineated in the organization’s online marketing plan. She will also be cognizant of the importance of incorporating the keyphrases that the online strategy has specified as relevant to that post.
• The event coordinator will be aware that, by sponsoring a conference, there’s a prime opportunity to ask the organizer for a link to his employer’s site. Once adopted as a routine, this practice will help the company amass a good number of on-topic, high quality inbound links — the sort that will help build their online visibility.

When a group understands that individual, small commitments to search engine optimization amount to a large victory for all involved, they get excited about search engine optimization. The Online Strategy House makes a point of presenting SEO and online marketing workshops that are fun, and that engage even those who are not tech-oriented.

Employees are thrilled when analytics show that their blog posts received visits because they followed SEO best practices. They see they have made a tangible difference. And then, the enthusiasm is contagious.