Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the technical pieces of a website – the content and structure – all to rank higher within search engines. It is a well-practiced strategy for most digital marketing teams. But what about all of those other techniques that help attract organic traffic and increase your brand’s presence online?
Enter Alternative SEO.
Alternative SEO refers to the additional strategies (beyond a main website) that marketing teams implement to rank well within search engines, bringing as many visitors as possible back to their website to interact and ultimately, convert. So what are they and how can you use them? Here are the most effective Alternative SEO tactics that you can tweak and implement into your marketing strategy.
Social media optimization - Simply having a profile on social media platforms is one thing, but making sure it’s optimized is another. While techniques vary from channel to channel, a few things remain the same. Do you clearly explain what you do in your About Us/Overview section? Is your profile picture clear and indicative of your brand? Are you posting regularly and staying relevant to your target audience, with both content created in house, as well as sharing 3rd party content?
Influencer marketing - Solid advice from someone you know, like and trust continues to drive growth. They help to increase brand visibility, credibility and ultimately overall website traffic. With an expectation of reaching $22.2 billion in revenue by 2025, influencer marketing is not slowing down.
Content marketing - Relevant, high quality content fuels every successful marketing initiative, whether its creating an impactful blog post or designing an engaging carousel to post on LinkedIn. Content remains king!
Video SEO - Optimizing your video content similar to how you would optimize a content piece by using relevant keywords, descriptions, and tags, will help your videos to be found more often in search engines like YouTube, the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
Local SEO - Everything from your Google My Business (GMB) listing, online reviews, local backlinks, implementing schema markup and other online citations all play into the success of your local SEO.
Voice Search Optimization - With the growth of voice search rising year over year due to digital assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, focusing on optimizing not only the written word but the spoken word is vital. Queries vary slightly depending on the medium, with voice queries becoming longer and posed as questions or full sentences.
App Store Optimization - If your organization hosts an app, it’s important to include relevant information in your app store descriptions. Did you know that 82% of users find apps by looking in the app store or as a result of being served recommendations? The two largest stores, Apple App Store and Google Play, have different informational options between the two, so what works on one will not necessarily work on the other. A similar story still holds true: Focus on the right keywords, good reviews and relevant content for the best chance at ranking.
User Experience (UX) Optimization - You can optimize multiple aspects of a website, both on-site and off-site, but if the user experience is poor, you’ll have done a lot of work for little gain. Improving the usability, navigation and page load speed are examples of quick wins to keep users on your website, leading to lower bounce rates and higher engagement.
While SEO is a vital piece of every marketing strategy, Alternative SEO is becoming more and more important to the entire marketing ecosystem. Utilizing both effectively will result in the best ROI for your marketing strategy.
Looking for the perfect addition to your marketing team to execute your alternative SEO strategy? Contact us to find the best talent in the marketplace.
