Let’s be honest, SEO isn't sexy.
In fact, its often pushed to the bottom of a dusty to-do list never to see the light of day. #beentheredonethat
Reality check - if you’re not found on the first page in a list of search results, then who really are you? Answer: Just another try hard in the cybersphere.
Harsh? Yes. #sorrynotsorry but unfortunately for most, it’s the reality.
Okay, now that I have your back up, I hope you listen up. This blog is the first of four making it SEO what? SEO easy. Take a deep breath in….release...and time to put your learning pants on.
WHAT IS SEO?
SEO (noun)
short for Search Engine Optimisation. "digital is now the company's main marketing channel with the majority of investment going on SEO"
Put simply, it means writing website copy & backing images with keywords relevant to your business so your customers can find you when searching on the internet.
The intention? To drive more qualified, organic traffic to your website.
If your website is well designed and you’ve got great copy, then it should sell itself. HOWEVER, as we will learn later this month, Google is smarter than you think, the words on your page still has to make sense and convincing.
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR SEO?
Now you’re probably thinking “This information is great but who’s responsible for said SEO?”
Marketing team? Communications Manager? The Tech Guru’s?
Answer: All of you.
The person responsible for writing the website copy, needs to have a basic understanding of how SEO works, so that top keywords associated with your products and services are in the headings and first paragraphs of every website page.
The tech team need to understand what these keywords are so they can build them into page links and the site’s general SEO.
The person responsible for providing imagery needs to know how to include the keywords in the images description and captions. This is necessary so when the image is shared there is an SEO link back to your business AND when people search for certain images, yours are backed with the correct keywords to be found. (Therefore driving more organic traffic to your site.)
CAN YOU HELP US WITH OUR SEO?
Okay...we have a quick confession to make!
Grass Roots Media doesn’t offer SEO services. Wait...wait...wait...don’t click away yet. We have an amazing lady we work alongside, Bec Nicholson. (Surprise! She will be our feature blogger later this month!) She not only teaches us how to be better SEO’ers but gives our clients the ace run down on what they need to do to have their site perform better in search.
In essence, we’ve been trained by the best. (Well, we think so anyway.)
WHY IS SEO IMPORTANT TO SOCIAL MEDIA (AND GRM)?
Here it is. The #1 reason why. Are you ready?
It’s important for link sharing.
Not sure what we mean?
Let’s pretend Betty Doe loves your product and wants to share a link back to your website. (YAY!) But, when she inserts your link on their Facebook page, all she sees is a grey image with random text as the title and subtitle. (Boo.)
As of early last year, Facebook will not let Betty change the link preview images, titles, and subtitles - this is the responsibility of the link owner (hint: you). This was all in the aid of reducing the amount of fake news being promoted on their platform.
It’s imperative you have the appropriate elements in good order when sharing a link because a) it’s good etiquette b) your information looks real and c) you build trust with your audience that they’re going to get benefit from the information you’re sharing.
This is a DAILY struggle for our team as we manage our clients’ pages and share links from other people. No matter how much we love the article, if it doesn’t make their page aesthetically pleasing we will NOT share it.
LINKEDIN + SEO
SEO is also important to our team because, #funfact having a LinkedIn profile with a strong SEO game is also important.
This is where we CAN help. We will share some tips in the coming weeks but if you just can’t wait, ask us how we can help get your LinkedIn profile to an all star level using SEO techniques.
YES, SEO IS HARD.
If she’s at the bottom of the list of things to tackle, give yourself the space and time to work on it.
So most of all….learn to love it - SEO is your cheapest and easiest marketing friend.
Chelsea Millar is the owner of Grass Roots Media (GRM), a cat named Ducati, and a spicy red Mini Cooper called Pacey. She primarily takes on the role of 'Boss Lady' for GRM but also flits around the primary industries wearing many agvocating hats .... and making magic happen in most of those spaces.
Chelsea has a background in Agribusiness, Social Media, Digital & Print marketing and has developed a passion for digital communication as she sees it playing an important role in telling the Primary Industries NZ Inc story now, and in the future.
