Let’s accept it.
Most of us have been relying on organic search traffic and don’t go beyond it. While SEO is important to attract site visitors, it is not the only thing to focus on. You need to incorporate other elements into your marketing.
Let’s understand it with this example.
Company A only invests in billboard marketing. Company B has invested in wide forms of marketing such as online marketing, print ad, and electronic ad apart from billboard marketing.
Which company can get more exposure than others?
It has to be Company B.
The same thing can be said about the world of online marketing. If you only stick to those good old SEO practices, your exposure will be limited.
Top of that, search engines like Google constantly update their ranking signals which include other forms of marketing. Therefore, it is downright essential to invest in other forms of marketing.
Here we will walk through the reasons why relying only on traditional SEO is not sufficient.
It Takes Time to Get Results from Organic Searches:
Organic search marketing might not give results quickly. Even if you have incorporated the most effective technique a week before, it could take a couple of months or maybe more to see appreciable outcomes.
This is not just because your efforts need to show effects; certain other driving factors are beyond your control. For example, search engines like Google and Bing crawl and index a website—a process that can eat up your four months. Even after that, results are not guaranteed.
Although SEO is the building block of your marketing, you definitely shouldn’t depend on it. Therefore, you need to consider other marketing channels to maximize the chances of your growth.
A Long Way to Go:
Did you know that the top SERP positions get over 30 percent of clicks from organic searches?
Traffic drops by as much as 90 percent by the second page. We can understand such a scenario. After all, a user is less likely to visit the second page for his search query. The second page might not exist for most visitors. Therefore, the competition is fierce out there.
Google Looks beyond SEO:
With so many best methods and a variety of ranking factors to follow, it is really overwhelming to find out what can work when you are looking to improve your ranking. Another reason why you shouldn’t focus on SEO alone!
No single strategy helps you ace ranking on Google. Keep in mind that Google uses over 200 ranking factors to determine your search ranking. It simply means that you need to go beyond SEO to other strategies.
For example, if you rely only on keywords and backlinks, you can lose ranking just because of your page speed, search intent, and inaccurate content.
The Rise of Holistic Content:
Like any other online business or web portal, you must have blogs and articles with proper keywords in place. But that is not sufficient. Make sure that your content covers all the queries of your target audience. Enter holistic content. A holistic approach means considering the whole scenario rather than just looking at the parts.
Google has started considering the semantic and holistic nature of the content. The search giant wants to put up the results that meet best the user’s intentions; that can provide accurate answers to the queries, not just long texts equipped with keywords.
Holistic content contains more relevant keywords that are similar to your target keywords to meet the search intent.
The Game of Content is more about Context than Keyword:
Keywords are still the foundation of on-page optimization. But that doesn’t mean the insane placement of words and phrases randomly all over the page. The context of keywords and the phrases and words which are built around them are also considered by search engines. The more relevant the content, the higher it will be ranked.
As the search algorithm is changed further and further based on user behavior, the semantic search will be gaining value. It means that generic single-word keywords won’t have a stronghold anymore.
The focus is now on content which can please both users and search engine. To make this happen, you need to integrate SEO with a positive user experience.
Social Shares are More Important than Ever Before:
Social media has become an important online marketing tool over the years. It helps you connect with your existing and potential customers, building awareness about your business and increase leads and sales.
People use their Facebook and Twitter to share ideas and maintain relationships. These are the usual social characteristics, which is why your SEO strategy should be combined with social media. SEO alone can’t deliver your content to a large audience, but the rise in traffic that comes from shareable content is something Google appreciates.
Facebook receives over 2 billion searches per day, meaning that a lot of people are using social media platforms other than Google to find answers.
What to Blend with Your SEO to Boost Success
Content Marketing:
Content can include blogs, videos, image content such as infographics, whitepapers, e-book, and webinars. Creating quality content can help you build brand awareness as well as improve your rankings. You should also share content outside of your website by posting it on social media, and guest post websites.
Paid Search Advertising:
Paid search advertising can help you get an edge over the competitors while helping you get more qualified leads back to your site. SEO of your website can increase traffic in terms of search engine results—but incorporating PPC advertisement can make the difference.
According to some studies, companies earn $2 for every $1 they spend on PPC advertising with Google AdWords. Paid search is based on keywords, just like SEO does, and you are required to test different offers, advertising formats, and headlines to see which can work best.
Local Search:
More than half of all queries on Google today are local searches. Even when someone searches for products or services, the chances that Google shows local businesses are always high. This way, you are found by the local customers. Make sure to get listed in Google’s local search directory and shows up in Google Maps and local search pack.
Social Media Marketing:
Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram create a whole new dimension of interaction and engagement. It can generate quick exposure for your company or brand, making it an important part of every online marketing strategy and the advantages of using social media marketing are so vast that anyone not using this cost-effective resource is mission out on a great marketing opportunity. It is a key element for success in marketing.
Email Marketing:
Email marketing is another digital marketing form you should integrate with your SEO. It is one of the most efficient and direct ways of connecting with your leads and turning them into customers.
So you must have understood that relying only on SEO is not enough to get success in today’s highly competitive landscape. Combining it with other strategies such as email marketing, paid advertising, and social media marketing.
What do you think? Let us know by commenting below!
Started working as a digital marketing expert, Varun Sharma is now also a well-known digital marketing speaker – a speaker on performance development, and a trusted mentor to businesses in the digital world. His keynote expositions are based on the digital marketing theories, which provide a fascinating insight into the secrets of high performance.