As a rule, people are predictable creatures. Ask a crowd of
people to think of a vegetable, and 90% of folks will answer “carrot.” The same
is true for when asked about a popular tool (the majority of us, of course, say
“hammer.”) This is known as the Prototype Theory, or a “mode of graded
categorization in cognitive science, where some members of a category are more
central than others,” according to Wikipedia.
What this means to your SEO strategies is simple: understand
how people think, and then design and execute sites and content with your
audience in mind. If you do this successfully, your customers will be like
moths to a flame.
Why SEO Efforts Often Fall Short
Many companies approach the business of search engine
rankings by creating websites and marketing campaigns that appeal to what they
want, not the customer they are catering to. They then resort to shock and awe
when their efforts don’t produce tangible results.
SEO is never ever about you, the company; it’s always about
the consumer. The more you boast
about your latest achievements, without actually providing a valuable service
or solving a problem your customers have, the less likely you are to make a lasting
connection.
Every time you post a social update, a new blog entry, or
any example of SEO related content marketing, you should ask yourself – will my
audience “Like” this on Face book? Is this a piece of content I can envision
being viral? Will people comment, or even post to their social media accounts?
If you’re not feeling it, no one will.
Using Social Proof to Guide Your Campaigns
Social proof is a media term that essentially describes the
herd mentality, this time in reference to online social habits. This is
extremely relevant in the world of SEO. If you’re choosing your keywords based
on the image you’d like your company to portray, they will only do heavy
lifting for you if they are congruent with the language people are currently
using.
Your SEO, therefore, needs to be rooted in modern times.
This is where psychology becomes so critical to your business’ success, and
your marketing team should be committed to monthly research studying the latest
social trends in your industry.
Practical Tips on How to Stay Current With Your Audience
No matter how smart you fancy yourself to be, no matter how
much you think you know your demographic, humble yourself each month and do
some homework. Trends change, and depending on your industry, trends can
literally flip-flop overnight. Many marketers use their intuition, or trusted
hunches, to make key planning decisions. If you don’t have data to back up what
your gut tells you, any efforts you launch could be a complete waste of time
and money.
To that end, here are some easy and helpful ways to get
inside the minds of your customers:
Within every customer base are a handful of vocal, socially
prominent users. Follow your top fans, engage with them socially, and study
what common threads you see among these users.
Read top industry blogs and news sites for you niche, and
draft content marketing strategies around current key issues and ideas.
Every time you’re ready to draft new content, Google the
topics, and study not just the popularity of your chosen focus, but the exact
phrases that appear most frequently. For example, people rarely write articles
about “SEO that follows the rules,” but “White Hat SEO” is white hot. Choose
your words carefully.
Don’t just assume you know what your audience wants, ask
them. When your company is ready to launch a new product or service, take the
time to poll your loyal users and note their advice, as well as the words they
use.
Overall, remember you’re studying the baseline psychology of
the demographic you are serving, and sometimes the keys to reaching them are
found in unexpected places. That’s why it’s important to study the elements of
your core users’ profiles. For example, if you sell chocolate through an online
store, and you see a lot of your customers also support eco-friendly causes on
their profiles, you now have a fabulous idea for a new chocolate bar. Let your
users tell you what you should market to them, and then use your expertise to
create the best of the best.
Search Engines Love Psychology, So You Should Too
In actuality, much of what constructs the algorithms search
engines use to rank websites is based on human psychology. Search engines
attempt to outwit those that try and fool them, so we as SEO experts must do
the same with our audience. If your customers are smarter than your marketing
efforts, you lose, just like algorithms against crafty black hat SEO pros.
Furthermore, Bing especially gives heavy weight to social
signals in SEO results, so the more you can create a loyal active audience, the
more you’ll see your rankings increase. The emphasis is on active here for a
reason – people who “Like” you, and then forget you, are essentially useless.
This is why you need to be witty about getting your fans to talk about you,
post comments, and otherwise communicate. To search engines, this kind of viral
activity is golden.
When you’re SEO and marketing efforts are grounded in a
truthful understanding of the way your customer thinks, you provide your
company with a solid foundation from which to create content and launch
campaigns. By choosing any other methodology, you aren’t looking at the big
picture.
I have realized after learning Search engine optimization
course, I am more confident now in Hiring an SEO professional for my company
and generate required results in time….. Website
owner
With growing rate of online community, search engine
optimization has become one of the important tools for any business
establishment in increasing their web presence and yield results from organic
search results. https://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
With referring the above guide published by Google and
following videos in webmaster central, the website owners should be able to
analyze the techniques in on page and off page optimization and at the same
time he realizes How the off page optimization work can be distributed to the
SEO Team and gain results within a short and long period of time.
“In my experience most of the website owners and business
establishments fall prey to the most
tricky SEO Professionals and end
up with losing money, I have made a few points which can be considered as check
points to assess an SEO Professional.”
Points to confirm with an SEO in hiring service
1. Check the writing and communication skills and find out
his written articles or if he has a dedicated content writer.
2. How is going to deliver the reports and in what duration?
3. Previous sample of works and his achievements
4. How is he presenting the site analysis? Is he creating
nice story or revealing the facts
5. Does he handle too many assignments’ at a time?
Certifications and
Past expertise are preferred but not mandatory, as you can get excellent
results from fresher’s who have just completed their short SEO course.
There are so many free tools available online for website
owners, with proper understanding of Google webmaster tools will help a lot in
applying on page optimization.
Remember the things not to do with a website
1. Pinging URL every
day
2. Directory submissions with repeated content
3. Link building with spam sites, non pr sites, and mirror
sites
4. Keyword stuffing in the URL as well as in the Meta tags
5. Too much of header tags
6. Automated submissions
7. Irrelevant or bad reciprocal links
8. Irrelevant content in the pages and improper site
navigation
9. Email Campaigns without unsubscribe link or bulk emailing
without proper verification.
10. Commenting on forums and blogs which are not related to
your website.
I love to hear Positive comments and updates on my blog.
