In the current digital space there is much speculation surrounding SEO and in which direction it is heading. At the beginning of the year there was a ripple of comments on the subject of SEO being dead. What actually emerged was a new evolved SEO, very much alive and kicking its way through 2014 and beyond. The recommendation during 2014 is that businesses too should evolve to make the most of their SEO strategy by valuing their audience.
The value of the audience
One of the most important things that a company can remember is to know your audience. Your audience are essentially the people that connect with you, support you and buy from you. These are the people you want to appeal to and speak to whether it is through your products, services, your website or social platforms. Gaining audience insight is particular important when it comes to SEO and analysing their search habits.
Using a range of simple methods as business you can hone in on your audience and their behaviour:
Methods to target your audience
– Google Analytics – using the analytics tool, zone in on which your target markets are, the people you are targeting may not be the people that are visiting your site.
– Public Relations – Targeting online newspapers and magazines that have a relevant audience to your product or service. These online publications have a wealth of information by actively speaking to them they will link back to your brand as an authority which will in term encourage rankings.
– Blogger Engagement – the blogger world is growing rapidly in the marketing world, bloggers are dynamically seeking new content all the time, by engaging with this community you can build natural relationships that will give confidence to readers in your product and service
– Adwords – a succinct combination of a Adwords alongside your SEO campaign, prioritises the readers and audience you want to attract based on what the audience may be searching for
Whilst you may be measuring and targeting your audience, developing your online presence will also compliment your audience reach:
How to improve your site for your audience
– Web design – An aesthetically pleasing site is beneficial when attracting readers and consumers, especially if they are a first time visitor. Ensuring your information and images are up to date providing them with the knowledge that you are a developing business.
– Content strategy – A factor businesses cannot ignore, for usability and SEO purposes, fresh, relevant content must be part of your overall marketing and SEO strategy.
– User experience – Are your visitors gaining what they want from their experience? They may have travelled to the site via one of the targeted methods above, whilst they are here, we need them to connect. Providing your readers with a clear proposition will keep them on the page.
– Cultivating relationships – Personalised emails via a newsletter, speaking directly to the consumer and allowing them insight into your business will keep your audience.
– Social Media including Google + author rank – a complimentary method of communicating to your audience, use social for driving traffic, new content and promotion for your company. Author rank is becoming a key component of SEO for the future, highlighting your authority as a business.
– Improving customer service – a fundamental in any business, continually improving your custom relations guarantees that “word of mouth” is always positive
The recommendations above may seem more time consuming than your ordinary methods and may put a little more financial strain on a business especially a small one. In order to reach long term goals, applying these methods will be worth it in the future where loyalty, high quality content and user experience will be at the forefront of retaining consumers and improving search engine rankings.
