If you’re looking to enter the Online Social Media Marketing business then congratulations! You’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know including the required training, the differences in approach between PR and marketing, and the various platforms available to you. By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to get started in this exciting new business venture.
The Basics
In order to succeed in any business, you need to understand the basics. More importantly, you need to understand the differences in approach between traditional marketing and digital marketing. So let’s dive into that.
While print and television advertisements still exist, the modern marketing department operates largely in the digital sphere. Marketers are responsible for creating content that engages with potential customers and encourages them to make a purchase or become a client. Simply put, digital marketing is all around us. If you haven’t started utilizing digital marketing strategies, now might be the right time to start.
Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing
Traditional marketing, otherwise known as “push marketing,” focuses on generating demand for your product through paid advertising in traditional publications like magazines or newspapers. In contrast, digital marketing, or “pull marketing,” focuses on creating the right kind of content that potential customers find valuable and engaging. When done well, pull marketing can be far more effective than traditional marketing. It allows you to target the right audience and engage them around the content you create rather than relying on someone else to bring in the customers for your product or service.
What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving the ranking of your website or blog in the search engines for specific keywords. This involves both on-site and off-site SEO. On-site SEO focuses on optimizing the content on your website (i.e., articles, videos, and social media posts) to provide the best experience to your users. Off-site SEO involves optimizing the backlinks, or inbound links, to your website. When there are lots of inbound links (i.e., links pointing to your site) from reputable and high-quality sites, search engines will consider your site more valuable and you’ll appear higher in the search results.
Why Is SEO Important For My Online Marketing Business?
Aside from the fact that SEO is an extremely important tool for any online marketer, it’s also a major component of Google’s algorithm. As humans, we naturally recoil from complexity, and with Google’s latest updates, they’ve made SEO quite a bit more complex. So if you’re looking for an easy way to grow your business, SEO is a good place to start.
Here’s the thing though, not all SEO is created equal. There are many tricks and shortcuts that inexperienced marketers use that can actually hurt your ranking. If you want to succeed in this field, you need to have a firm grasp on how SEO works and the importance of doing it right. You also need to be aware of the latest algorithm updates and how to properly implement them into your SEO campaigns. Finally, you need to make sure you’re using the right tools for the job.
Why Do I Need to Implement SEO For My Site?
If you’re just entering the field or are still learning, the answer to this question might surprise you. Contrary to popular belief, not all online marketing businesses earn money through advertising. Some of the more reputable companies in this space actually earn money through affiliate marketing. However, with the right kind of SEO, you’ll be able to drive more traffic to your site and ultimately earn a living through affiliate marketing.
Here’s the thing about SEO though: it’s extremely competitive. Only the best will survive, and they’ll be the ones reaping the financial rewards of good SEO. If you want to enter this space, you need to have a clear idea of how SEO works and what you’ll need to do to earn money off of it. Below, we’ll discuss each of the major phases of SEO and how you can use each phase to improve your financial standing.
On-Site SEO
On-site SEO, or seo on the site, is everything that you can do to optimize the content on your website to make it more appealing to search engines. This includes making sure your headlines and descriptions are unique and well-written, using keywords in your content where appropriate, and ensuring your website is accessible to everyone.
There are many different approaches you can take to on-site SEO, but for the most part, it involves making your site as search-friendly as possible. You don’t want to mess with any of the following things because they’ll all make your site appear less valuable:
1. Page Speed
Page speed, or the speed at which your site can be opened and navigated, makes a significant difference in your site’s SEO. If you want to maximize your on-site SEO, you need to work on making your site as light as possible. There are many different tips and tricks to speeding up your site, like minimizing the images on your page, removing the white spaces around the articles, and compressing all the JS and CSS. You can also hire an expert to audit and fix your site’s speed issues for you.
2. URL Structure
The structure of the links pointing to your site make a significant difference in your SEO. When people click on these links, they’ll come to your site, right? Well, imagine how valuable these links are when you put them in front of a search engine. Every small change you make in the URL structure can have a significant impact on your site’s SEO. Of course, this is important for lead generation too, so make sure you have a well-planned out strategy around your link building.
3. Content Strategy
Once you’ve implemented SEO on your site, you’ll want to develop a content strategy. What does this mean exactly? It means you’re going to take a hard look at the type of content your site already has and brainstorm ideas for new content that can help your SEO. You can also use your content strategy to plan out a schedule for when you’ll be posting new content, along with estimates on how much you’ll need to post to achieve your goals. This way, you’ll never be caught off guard and will always have enough content to post at any given time.
4. On-Page SEO
On-page SEO, or seo on the page, is everything that you can do to optimize the look of your site. This includes taking care of basic HTML elements like making sure your headlines and descriptions are unique and well-written, using keywords in your content where appropriate, and ensuring your site is accessible to everyone.
There are many different approaches you can take to on-page SEO, like making sure your page titles match the keywords you’re targeting, using high-quality images, and making sure your page content displays correctly on multiple devices. Just remember, all of this affects the look of your site, and that’s what matters most when it comes to SEO. As you’d assume, making sure your site looks great is essential to getting good rankings.
Off-Site SEO
Off-site SEO, or seo off the site, is everything that you can do to get links to your site from other sites. These are the independent websites that you don’t control and can’t manipulate to promote your product. Off-site SEO involves getting backlinks, or inbound links, to your site. When there are lots of inbound links (i.e., links pointing to your site) from reputable and high-quality sites, search engines will consider your site more valuable and you’ll appear higher in the search results.
There are many different approaches you can take to off-site SEO, like buying backlinks, submitting your site to review directories, and guest blogging. Just remember, off-site SEO is a bit more complex than on-site SEO because you have to consider the interests of both the search engine and the website owner. If you want to enter this space, make sure you have a clear idea of how SEO works and what you’ll need to do to succeed.
SEO is a major ranking factor in the search engines, so if you want to succeed in the Online Social Media Marketing industry, make sure you have a good grasp on SEO. You don’t want to end up spending a lot of time and money on something that doesn’t produce good results. Always measure the results of your efforts and make adjustments as necessary. If you want to succeed in the SEO game, make sure you’re playing by the rules, and more importantly, make sure you’re knowledgeable about how to play the game effectively. Good luck out there.