Yesterday I was running through the business plan with a client. They are launching an online magazine about DIY design for small companies. As you would expect, given the subject, they had created a wonderful website design, brilliant stationary and some exciting marketing concepts.
But as I read through the narrative, one line caught my eye.
“Once we get the business up and running we are going to hire a specialist company to help us with Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Marketing and other online marketing activities.”
This highlights a very important point.
Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing are not tactics you plug in and unplug from your online business.
They are your business.
In the online world, what you write, how you write it and where you write it is your marketing.
How you respond to questions, participate in your community and offer value to your audience is your marketing.
Analysing your webstats weekly and adapting your content accordingly is your marketing.
Everything you do on the internet will create (or diminish) your credibility, authority and reputation. You will either build trust, or erode it.
Of course you can hire SEO and SEM experts to advise you on how to do things better and to improve their impact, but if you believe that you can outsource online marketing, you don’t understand online business.
The good news is if you are passionate about your subject, create honest, relevant and timely content and contribute to your community, 80% of your marketing activity is taken care of. The search engines, social networks and your community will propel you and your site to success.
More SEO Best Practices:
- 5 SEO Strategies – How to Play the Game of SEO
- Improve Your SEO Ranking by Optimising Images
- 8 SEO Best Practices to Improve your Ranking
