What is Modern SEO?
In short, it’s important to stop thinking about SEO as a separate marketing function within your business.
Modern SEO is just a term I use to encompass the approach we should be taking to SEO that ensures businesses see the practice with a wider strategic lens.
Good SEOs Go Beyond Keywords
The approach isn’t revolutionary, and in fact many great SEOs I know are already on the same page, particularly those who have been in the industry for a long time. But this isn’t an article for SEOs, it’s for business owners.
It’s important for businesses that I work with to understand this approach from the start, as it sets expectations on both sides and produces more consistent and strategic work that avoids the pitfalls of chasing individual keywords and short term results.
Yes, it's still important to measure keywords, visibility, traffic etc from organic.
We of course have to use KPIs that monitor progress.
But one thing I still find takes clients by surprise is how much I will be digging in to their businesses overall, including areas such as paid marketing channels, operations, product offering and customer service.
Modern SEOs know the importance of doing the thing you do as well as possible.
You could throw as much money as you like at SEO, but if you’re not fundamentally great at what you offer, it’s eventually going to become a frustrating process.
Being Even More Human in an Age of AI
AI is clearly already becoming a huge shift in how we interact with computing platforms, and a key recommendation is that in the age of easily generated AI content we should be even more willing to create something original.
Sometimes creating something original can even utilise AI in smart ways. But ultimately we come back to Google’s ever persistent mission to show users the best results for their queries.
For growing businesses, this is a case of asking a simple question: why should customers trust you?
How are you demonstrating that you know what you’re talking about? Are you showing your team of experts? Are you showing why you care? Why are your products or services better than the competition? Visually this can be done with content, opinions, and clever design. As a business, this comes from awesome products and services that have unique offerings.
For larger, more established businesses, this is a case of focusing on reputation, resources and reviews.
If you’re a larger business, what efforts are you making to keep customer service at its finest so you achieve positive reviews and returning customers? How are you demonstrating your expertise as a brand through extensive resource content that helps users navigate a complex buying decision?
Your Brand is Everything
SEO and brand go together for many reasons, and good SEOs know this - and even push it. Google has always treated established brands differently - aim to become one if you’re not already, and stay one if you are.
Recognition
Being recognised is usually a goal most businesses would want to achieve. But with search marketing, we often forget the influence it can have on someone clicking through to your landing page. Your marketing spend outside of SEO is about creating a recognisable visual mark that consumers can easily identify.
Recall
Similar to recognition, how are you clearly, consistently and concisely communicating your solutions? For SEO this means again standing out in a sea of search results for a problem a potential customer has, and if done correctly can mean them searching for your brand directly.
Reputation
Once someone has discovered you through SEO and converted, what mechanisms do you have in place to help them recommend you? How are you providing additional useful and valuable information to them?
Perhaps it’s content related to a purchase, a follow up call, a way for them to get discount if they refer a friend or perhaps it’s a way to help them create user generated content. Outside of search results, reputation can be the most powerful form of marketing.
Reach
Sometimes reach isn’t about constant growth. Sometimes for a larger brand it’s about understanding when you’ve peaked in a specific market, and focusing on carrying on doing that to perfection before you expand into something else.
For a smaller brand with less budget (money and or time) it’s about understanding how to communicate extremely well to your smallest viable audience and doing that consistently before expanding to other channels or messaging.
With search marketing, your reach can literally be understood by metrics such as search volume and % impression share of a set of keywords. Use this to your advantage and plan marketing activity accordingly.
So what do SEOs do?
Ultimately when setting an SEO strategy we still have to do SEO stuff. Sounds obvious, but the core components are still there:
- Planning and creating epic content
- Ensuring minimal technical issues
- Getting other sites to link to you
The difference now is that businesses should be willing to let SEOs weigh in on many other areas as described in this article. When working with truly great SEOs, don’t be surprised if they want to be involved in stuff that “isn’t SEO”.