SEO is fine if you are trying to rank for things that involve general keywords or popular things. But what if what you are trying to build is something that no one really searches for? What if you are the brand? What if you are promoting a book? What if you are an artist? Outside of general rudimentary SEO (which will likely rank quickly) for a website, the benefits of SEO won’t likely generate much positive movement in the form of revenue.
I got to really thinking about this yesterday. Andy Crestodina of orbitmedia casually posted something that he was reading. He was commenting on the fact that books now are using video to promote themselves. And he linked to the video.
What makes this interesting is that Andy is a fellow SEO. And he is in my “SEO” circle on my Google + account. Which means that you wouldn’t think that the story would be all that relevant in terms of selling something (although it is very relevant because it illustrates a perfect example of how to use social media for marketing)
I have to wonder how many people “found” their way to this book through random word of mouth. I have to wonder how the video influenced the sales and helped the author build his brand. And I have to wonder how much of an influence all those reviews played in the part of ultimately influencing the sale.
This isn’t to say that Hugh Howey (the author of the book) didn’t have help. His book rose on the Amazon charts, became a science fiction bestseller, and then was mentioned on shows like Entertainment Weekly. And it is barely a year in the making.
What I do know is this.
Word of mouth marketing + Strong User Reviews + Social Media Marketing works.
Most SEO’s think SEO first and use social as an after thought (even now). But the bottom line is that if you can affect people; if you can figure out a way to rise above the static and noise (we no longer have gatekeepers to control this), then the SEO part becomes a breeze because you are no longer limited to doing things yourself.
In a nutshell, if it is good enough…no…if it is great…the community will help you build it, like they did with the novelette, Wool.
Even if SEO is an Option, you are probably doing it wrong…
If you are wondering how you can rank a page on “best plasma tv’s”, you are thinking in the wrong direction. For one, you are thinking like everyone else who does SEO thinks. You are in a crowded field. And you are ultimately relying on a algorithm that is constantly updated.
You should be thinking like the artist, musician and writer thinks. You should be thinking how can I affect that market strong enough to make my website / brand the go to source on the web? If you can do that, you will eventually rank…and you won’t even have to game search to get there.
Of course, the caveat to this is it has to be good, which means that you have to have a great product or story attached to it. And that is the other more reliable marketing side of things.
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