SEO as we’ve known over the last decade is a dying breed. Loophole based SEO tactics of 2005-06 that brought incremental search ranking advantages are being efficiently dealt with by Google and Bing – so are paid links.

SEO will always be valuable. Reason? As long as online content can be searched on; it can be optimized. Search engines need the help of SEO for better crawl-ability. Google has in-fact published a SEO starter guide.

Once upon a time, SEO agencies were thought to specialize in “manipulating Google” with covert tactics(read shady tactics) to attain organic rankings and traffic. Keyword stuffing, doorway pages and link farms were common.

But that was long ago. Today, legitimate SEO agencies work very hard to make your site valuable and more helpful to the visitors, both in terms of the content and usability. The Internet landscape change all the time so as Google’s organic search algorithm. If you’re serious about generating revenue online, you need to be in sync with all the ways people search – and look to do business with you – online.

Social-media scientist Dan Zarella likes to say: “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.”

One of the biggest benefit of online marketing (vs. traditional forms) is that what your audience does on your website tends to be easier to track and measure. This helps in learning your customer preferences, psychology and behavior.

What are the new rules of SEO?

Content Marketing:

Content marketing takes commitment, thought out ideas and a sincere interest in a topic to be able to write about it on an ongoing basis over the long term. Just imagine – watching a 30 minute TV show or a 2 hour movie you’re not interested in? Readers lose interest quickly and do not return, subscribe or link to your website if they find shallow level of knowledge on what’s being blogged about.

“Good, unique content is not enough … it’s a starting point”

Hot tip…

Create Problem-Solving Content

If you’re in business, then you’re already solving problems! Focus on solving a customer’s problem in your industry by utilizing your organization’s intellectual property to create white papers, case studies, how-to guides, or research studies. Scale up your content marketing by combining people, processes & software.

Earn Inbound Links

Content is King. But for a successful content marketing strategy great writing only isn’t enough . Even when you’re blogging regularly, building keyword lists, and promoting posts via social media, you may not be boosting your rankings in search or incoming traffic levels. The reason is because you’re missing inbound links.

Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz says, “By and large, Google is trying to end the practice of link building and renew the practice of link earning. I think that’s why you see so many SEOs embracing content marketing, and I think this shift is going to happen even more heavily over the next 6 to 12 months.”

Even now; after the Panda and Penguin updates incoming links to your website are incredibly powerful. Under the hood, they’re a cue to search engines that. Inbound links tell

For Google to treat your website as a reputable and authoritative source of information; real people must value your information and share what you have to say. We generally link to websites when we trust and value the content they’re promoting. That message ultimately reaches your prospects, trickles back to search engines, and influences Organic SEO results.

Hot tip…

So what’s the best way to start generating tons of quality inbound links? Blogging is certainly the best way. But, if you want to quickly get targeted traffic and expand your reach; then start contributing content to authoritative sites through guest blogging opportunities. With a consistent guest posting strategy in place, you’ll quickly see a ripple effect in your website traffic and rankings in search. Numbers speak for themselves! Isn’t it better to write for a blog with 500,00 active readers than write on 10 blogs with only a few hundred? A word of caution – guest blogging is a long-term growth strategy, rarely there is an instant-win.

Online Video marketing

According to recently concluded survey; 1 out of 3 tech B2B decision-makers are turning to online video. Tech marketers are trying to adapt and use the power of online videos to reach out to these decision-makers during their research process. It’s time to leverage online video as a corporate branding strategy and make use of online video as a powerful lead-generation tool.

Find out more : How Online Video can help B2B marketers shorten sales cycle?

Mobile marketing

The rising popularity and adoption of smartphones and tablets; 2011 & 2012 were the years of “Consumer acceptance of the mobile Internet”. The current mobile traffic is on a rapid and steady growth curve and poised to surpass desktop traffic. Invest time and effort in a mobile marketing strategy if your Google analytics reports is showing an upward trend of mobile visitors. Key areas to look out for are:

• Optimized mobile website or native mobile app
• PPC campaign exclusively targeting mobile devices
• SMS marketing

Hot Tip…

By using geo-targeted mobile coupons, when you pass by selected businesses; track how the effectiveness of your programs and offers. A good place to start will be Google Local Coupons.

User Experience

If you want to generate better leads; always remember there is a direct link between your site’s usability and conversions. Watch this video; where Head of Google Web spam team, Matt Cutts talks about Search Experience optimization. Hence SEO is not just optimizing for Search Engines; focus on User Experience

Social Media

Choose your social media channel; you need on focus on all of them. For B2B marketers; it makes more sense to invest time and effort in LinkedIn and Twitter. What ever channel you choose; social media platform has emerged as an efficient channel for promoting & distributing your content. Whether its the content publish on your website, or the content that you publish on highly trusted 3rd party websites – with time social media channels enable you to reach millions of like minded people. Google & Bing have both admitted to using social signals in their ranking algorithms, so social media engagement is a must-do for digital marketers.

Hot tip…

Hootsuite lets you connect to multiple social networks using only one dashboard. It boasts a ton of features such as ability to monitor and post to multiple social networks, Track brand sentiment and the growth of your followers. There is a “freemium” plan offered, which allows you to use Hootsuite for free until you need premium paid features.

Be ROI Minded; focus on conversion

Google and Bing search engine results pages (SERPs) are injected with video results, image results, and social results, which makes it very difficult to judge the success of your SEO efforts based on a ranking report. There are many ways to measure SEO; it’s time you track actions; engagement, bounce rates. Ranking is just a means to an end.

The end results could be things like getting people to:

• Sign up for your newsletter.
• Fill out your online form.
• Engage with your site.
• Buy something.
• Call you.

Final Thoughts

There are still plenty of SEO agencies stuck with old school practices such as exchange links for the sake of passing pagerank, blog commenting which shouldn’t be your strategy. Your focus should be on reaching new audiences by providing lasting value. SEO should help you in connecting with prospects who are interested in your product, service or brand – Person to person. Human to human. The SEO effects will follow as a natural byproduct of the solid relationships you’ll build online.

What are the other ways SEO can help in building lasting relationships?

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