How Public Relations Can Amplify Your Online Efforts

According to the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS), public relations is the strategic management of relationships between an organization and its diverse publics. An “organization” can be anything from a brand, an individual, or a company. As the business world continues to evolve, so does the practice of public relations. There are two main approaches to this practice, traditional PR and digital PR, which are differentiated by tactics. Although traditional PR is still relevant in today’s digitalized world, digital PR tactics can help an organization amplify their online efforts.

PR & Content Marketing

Public relations and content marketing share a common goal: to create and amplify quality messaging related to your organization. Part of a PR professional’s job is to study and predict trends across a wide spectrum of industries. Similarly, content marketers are tasked with staying on top of industry trends and consumer insights. PR and content marketers can work together to identify topics relevant to audiences and industry trends. As well, a PR professional can help amplify your organization’s quality content by reaching the right people. PR professionals create and maintain relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers. These relationships can act as a launch pad in amplifying your content.

At the end of the day, public relations and content marketing are working towards the same goals. By unifying these two practices your organization can increase brand awareness, educate audiences, and create better industry positioning.

PR & Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When it comes to digital marketing, public relations and search engine optimization (SEO) go together like peanut butter and jelly. Understanding how audiences communicate about and with your organization online is a cornerstone of SEO. Using SEO keywords can help PR professionals develop content (press releases, blogs, etc.) that will drive targeted web traffic to your organization. Reaching out and maintaining relationships with industry influencers is a large part of public relations. A PR professional can leverage these contacts to get online press coverage, helping build natural editorial links from high-traffic, authoritative websites. As well, with increased exposure, chances are other publications will want to cover you, resulting in more exposure and links. It’s a powerful cycle.

Combining public relations and SEO practices is the ultimate game-changer in your organization’s digital marketing strategy. At the end of the day, it increases your organization’s visibility in the overcrowded digital world.

PR & Social Media Marketing

With a newly integrated and constantly evolving digital landscape, you have the ability to fuse public relations and social media to create notable results for your organization. Public relations and social media share the same goal: to manage your organization’s reputation and audience relationships. Public relations can present your organization with more formal and traditional communications, while social media can be done in more relaxed and conversational tone. Social media is also instantaneous and allows an organization to communicate with their audience quickly. This is a great asset when it comes to being proactive and managing your brand’s reputation in a time of crisis. As well, social media makes it easier for PR professionals to identify and reach digital content creators or influencers who can help spread your message to a specific audience.

Social media helps amplify PR efforts, while in turn, PR helps generate social media coverage. If you can seamlessly merge your public relations and social media efforts, you can achieve impressive results.

New Updates to Google My Business – Fall 2017

All businesses, big and small, should be using Google My Business to bolster their online presence. Google is the first place people turn for information about a local business, and according to the company’s internal data, a well-maintained Google My Business page gets five times more views than unclaimed listings.

Like many Google products, Google My Business changes constantly, often with little fanfare. Features can appear (or vanish) without warning. Business owners must adapt on the fly to keep up with the latest updates.

Here are some important 2017 Google My Business updates you may have missed, plus a look at the future of the platform.

Google My Business Posts

The most substantial Google My Business update in 2017 so far is the posts feature. You can now publish posts to your Google My Business listing and the knowledge panel on both Search and Maps.

Each post can have an image, up to 1,500 characters of body text, and a call to action button that takes users to a page on your website.

The available calls to action are:

• Make Reservation
• Sign Up
• Buy
• Learn More

Currently, there are two kinds of posts available: regular posts and event posts. For event posts, you can set a title as well as a start and end date for the event. Regular posts expire after seven days, while event posts last until the event is over.

So, what can you do with Google My Business posts? Since they show up right in the knowledge panel, posts are a great way to share timely content and updates about your business.

For example, you can use posts to draw attention to an upcoming event, a new product launch, a daily special, or a current promotion. You can also use posts to promote your online content, like the latest blog post or video. There are tons of possibilities.

Since this feature is still new, it’s unclear how important posts will be when it comes to search engine optimization. The only data Google gives you is the total number of views on each post, making it difficult to gauge their performance.

What we do know is that posts are free, easy to make, and highly visible in search. If you have a Google My Business page (and if you’re a business owner, you should!), it’s worth your time to explore this feature.

To create a post, sign in to Google My Business (if you have two or more locations, choose the one you want to post to) and click Create Post. Stick to 150 to 300 characters of text, and choose a 720 x 720px image that looks good in both full and thumbnail size. Click Preview to see what the post will look like, and then click Publish to go live when ready!

Local Businesses URLs

One of Google’s aims with its business listings is to give searchers all the information they need right in the search results. To this end, Google has added more options for local businesses URLs in the knowledge panel.

Certain categories of businesses, including restaurants, tradespeople, and professional services like dentists, can now add links that let people take action directly from Google Search or Maps. You can use this feature to direct users to a landing page on your site.

The available actions include:

• Booking an appointment
• Placing an order
• Reserving a spot
• Searching for items
• Viewing a menu

Business owners should note that although adding your own URLs is optional, certain links may appear automatically. According to Google’s support page on local business URLs:

“Links to certain booking and ordering services can appear automatically with your business listings in Google Search and Google Maps. These links are updated automatically via third-party providers. There’s no way to add, edit, or remove these links in Google My Business.

Google works with select third-party providers that provide booking and ordering services for local businesses. If you want to remove or fix a link in your own listing, please reach out directly to the third-party provider in question.”

This saves time for businesses already working with third-party providers, but the fact business owners can’t remove the links could be problematic. For now, it may be wise to keep an eye out for questionable links on your listing.

To add local business URLs to your listing, sign in to Google My Business and click the URLs section. Find the appropriate fields, enter the URLs, and click Apply. That’s it! Now, you can direct customers to a landing page straight from the knowledge panel.

Customer Questions and Answers

Google is always looking to encourage user contribution. Recently, it launched a new way for customers and businesses to interact: customer questions and answers for Google Maps.

This feature adds a new section to the knowledge panel showing user-submitted questions about the business. Both customers and business owners can submit or answer questions, and users can Thumb-Up those they find useful and relevant.

Google is rolling out this feature in stages. At launch, people could only view it on their own listings, giving business owners an opportunity to post answers to frequently asked questions before the rush. Google then opened the floor to Local Guides with level 2 status and above.

Soon, this feature will be available to all users, which presents both opportunities and potential challenges for business owners.

Like Google Reviews, customer questions and answers could become a valuable tool to attract customers and boost your search engine ranking. However, it could also be open to spam and abuse. Businesses can flag inappropriate or irrelevant questions or answers, but they can’t delete them.

Currently, the feature only appears on the Google Maps App for Android devices, but it’ll likely expand to desktops and other devices. To access questions and answers, open the Google Maps app and sign in with your Google account, then search for your business and click “more info.” You’ll see the question box above the photo section.

The Future of Google My Business: It’s All About the Customer

When it comes to business listings, Google has been gunning for more user feedback and interactivity between customers and businesses. This is set to continue with the messaging feature, which will let people message businesses directly via a button on the local knowledge panel.

This feature is already live in the United States, Brazil, and India. We can expect to see it in Canada in the future. Businesses that opt-in to messaging can link their account to a mobile device via SMS or Google’s Allo app to receive notifications and customer messages on the device.

The push for user participation is also evident in the expansion of Local Guides this past year. In March, Google gave Guides the ability to approve edits to local listings, and it recently overhauled the Local Guides system to provide bigger and better perks for users who contribute data and photos of places they visit. Google is working to get more people on board with My Business, and the platform will become ever more important as this trend continues.

Features may come and go, but the basics of Google My Business remain the same: keep your listing accurate and up to date, add photos that show off your best side, and encourage happy customers to write reviews.

Used wisely, these latest features are yet another opportunity to connect with searchers and get noticed.

Blogging For SEO

Blogging may seem simple, but there’s a lot more to content SEO than just putting words to a page. Just because you’re able to write doesn’t mean your content will do well on the internet. Years ago all that mattered was what you said (i.e., keywords), but modern SEO needs you to pay close attention to how you say it.

If you want your content to rank, of course it needs to be optimized, but search engines are getting smarter every day. Google can tell when content is well-written, engaging, and informative by analyzing your content and monitoring how people interact with it. If you take nothing else away, remember this one key: content SEO relies on good writing.

Long tail Keywords

Before getting started, you need to decide on the keywords you want your content to rank for. The best way to think about this is to put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer and think about what they would type into their search box.

Of course, some keywords will be harder to rank for than others. If you sell t-shirts, you’ll never rank for the term “t-shirts,” but you might rank for longer keywords more relevant to your business. These are called “long-tail” keywords.

Instead of “t-shirts,” your long-tail keywords could be “custom designed t-shirts in Toronto.” The longer the search input, the more unique it is and the easier it is to rank for it.

Titling Your Blog Articles

There are two things that you need to think about when deciding on a title for your blog article:

1. Making it catchy and attention grabbing
2. Optimizing it for search engines

The best written blog is nothing if no one stops to click on its title. To grab your readers’ attention and make them want to click, figure out what would be appealing to somebody stumbling around on your site. Try to pique your readers’ curiosity with catchy words and a captivating concept.

Optimizing your title is relatively simple: just make sure your long-tail keyword is present. Search engines, not surprisingly, put more weight into a title when deciding where your content fits.

And don’t forget about subtitles. While not as important as the title, Google also uses the subtitles to decide what your article is about.

Writing a Blog Introduction

The introduction of your article is, arguably, the most important part. Unfortunately, it’s also often the weakest for new writers.

The introduction needs to set up your entire article, and be interesting and captivating enough to get someone to decide to continue reading. The best advice is to figure out why someone will stop to read your blog, and quickly tell them exactly what they want to hear. If you’re writing about how to clean a

carburetor but begin your article with a history or guide of all the engine components, you’re going to quickly lose your reader.

If there’s any part of your blog that you should focus on, it’s the introduction. Unless you can read it and picture a reader saying, “and then what?” or “oh wow, this is going to tell me exactly what I need,” you need to go back and rewrite.

In terms of SEO, Google also weighs the introduction of your blog heavier than any other paragraph in your article

Writing the Body

This is usually the easiest part for a writer. You already know what needs to be there, you just need to get it on the page in a way that’s easy to read and absorb.

Here are some quick tips for SEO writing:

• Avoid being wordy. This is a sign of an inexperienced writer. Sentences that are too long or have unnecessary words are extra work for the reader. Be short and to the point.
• Do NOT keyword stuff. Keyword stuffing is using the same key terms over and over again. This is not only bad SEO, it’s bad writing. Writers will always try to avoid using a word more than once. Why limit yourself when there are so many words in the English language? If you’re hyper-focusing on optimizing every word— don’t. Google and other search engines are smart enough to know that different words can have the same meaning. Your keywords should be in your blog organically. If they aren’t, your blog article has taken a wrong turn somewhere.
• Use your subtitles as an outline. Without an outline, it’s easy for a blog post to go off the rails. Keep yourself on track by creating an outline and sticking to it.
• Longer is not always better. Yes, longer content is better for Google, but not at the expense of readership. If you’re saying the same thing repeatedly, consider cutting out the fluff.
  
  

Proof Your Articles

It’s incredibly easy to write the last sentence of an article then sit back and think you’re done. Just read over a piece you’ve done this with after a few days or so and you’ll see the error of your ways. No writer has ever been happy with their first draft, and for good reason. A first draft of anything will always have errors, omissions, and poor wordings.

Editing and proofing is an absolute must. Not only will Google spot your errors, online readers are notoriously ruthless for jumping on any errors they find. Read over your writing out loud. It’s the best way to catch spots that don’t sound quite right or sections that seem to ramble on.

And if possible, get someone else to read it over. It’s not an easy task to catch all your own mistakes. That’s why even professional writers have editors.

Improve Your Writing with Practice

If you’ve finished high school, you’re probably confident in your ability to write. But even though we’ve all learned the nuts and bolts of writing, as with any other skill, you won’t just be good at something because you know how to do it. Do you think Tolstoy just decided to start writing one day and put together War and Peace?

Being a good writer takes practice, and becoming a great writer requires a lifetime of writing.

YouTube Optimization: How to Make Your Video Stand Out in a Sea of Content

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet behind Google. If you are not utilizing this medium to share content about your brand, you are missing out on a massive marketing opportunity.

Video is an extremely rich medium that generates high user engagement. According to Hootsuite, 70% of marketers plan to use social videos in the next twelve months. Video makes up 60% of online content, and Google reserves space on the first page of results for video related to search queries.

The positives of the medium are endless. However, before you jump the gun on creating a new video, check out these optimization tips to make sure your hard work lands on the right eyes.

Content

As with all social marketing efforts, content is king. Previously, YouTube ranked the validity and quality of a video based on the number of views. Now, the length of time a user watches a video is what primarily determines its rank. The more captivating and quality your content, the better it ranks.

Aim to make your content engaging, entertaining, informative, and shareable. Staying on top of trends and focusing on valuable content will get viewers to watch longer.

There are few practical things that will encourage longer views. To start, give a summary or thesis of your video in the first few minutes. People stay longer when they know exactly what they are about to watch. Longer videos always rank better than shorter ones, so aim to make every video at least five minutes long.

The highest ranked videos on Google are How-To videos, reviews, tutorials, fitness or sports related videos, and funny videos. You can help your video succeed by capitalizing on these already high-ranking content styles.

Title

The title of your video has a big impact on SEO. Incorporating keywords into the title phrase will significantly increase its ranking.

Titles are max 100 characters, so be as descriptive and accurate as you can. Keywords should be at the very beginning of the phrase – the closer to the front, the better. Be as specific as possible and include niche keywords into your title.

For consistency and increased SEO, use the same keyword optimized phrase in the name of the video file itself. Be sure to separate each word in the file name with a hyphen

Description

YouTube cannot always read and comprehend the audio and visual content in a video. Instead, the algorithms make sense of the video using its description.

Don’t make the description a company plug. Write unique, descriptive and keyword-rich content that explains what your video is about. It can be up to 980 words long, so take advantage of this space – it is there for a reason!

Include the keyword you are trying to rank for in the first 25 words, and include it 3-4 more times throughout the description. This is an essential place to rank for long tail keywords.

The description is also an excellent place to add URLs that link to other content you have produced. Always add a link to your website, specifically to relevant content such as a blog or another video.  Add a call to action that encourages viewers to click-through. You should also include links to your social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. This will provide easy access for a viewer to look at your other content and networks.

Tags

Tags are what make your video discoverable on YouTube. To improve ranking, classify and associate your video with tags that are related to your target keywords. YouTube allows 500 characters in tags, and you should fill the space with anything that is relevant to the video. Don’t just describe the video with tags – describe the problem your video solves.

Don’t be afraid to create tags specific to your brand. Tagging your videos with that keyword will help promote them in the sidebar and view next card. Tags are the easiest way to categorize your videos. You should take full advantage of them!

Language and Closed Captioning

Adding closed captioning to your video is also a great way to increase optimization. Transcribing and uploading closed captions gives YouTube access to exactly what is in your video, providing information in multiple formats which can aid varying needs and preferences. YouTube also offers translating functions, which should be utilized if you are trying to reach a specific target audience.

Thumbnail

The thumbnail provides a small preview image of your video. This is a great way to catch a browser’s attention and drive them to view your content.

Thumbnails should be bright, captivating and interesting. Try using bright backgrounds, contrast and outlines, text, and a logo or brand. Strong emotions and close-ups of people making eye contact can also catch a viewer’s eye.

Call to Action Card

Although viewer retention is the biggest factor in YouTube’s ranking system, user engagement comes in close second. The ranking algorithm considers a video’s comments, the number of subscriptions directly after watching, shares, favourites, and likes.

The best way to achieve this kind of engagement is to directly ask viewers to engage, but a call to action card can also be effective. For the last 10 or 20 seconds of the video, insert a card that has links to social media channels, other videos, and the subscription button through the overlay function.

Check out YouTuber Grace Helbig’s call to action card below as an example.

On-Page and Off-Page SEO: A Quick Guide

You have a website for your company, but is it performing as well as it should? Putting up content related to your business and creating an aesthetically pleasing look is essential in the beginning stages, but there are many factors beyond information and design that determine how a website will perform. You must incorporate both On-Page and Off-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO)  to gain traffic and success for your website.

The importance of SEO lies in the impact it has on your website’s appearance to Google. Google is constantly crawling websites to algorithmically rank their relevance, authority and usefulness, providing a status that will determine where your website shows up in the search engine.

At first glance, SEO can be complicated and technical, but as long as you follow a procedural and intentional approach, a few simple changes can significantly boost your ranking.

On-page and off-page SEO work together to improve both the user experience and the Google impression. One is not more important than the other, and both must be optimized to ensure the success of your page.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-Page SEO refers to improving and optimizing everything that a user can see on the web-page. This includes providing relevant and engaging content, properly coding HTML tags and meta-tags, optimizing system functions like page-load time and URL names, and editing CSS layout and tags.

All of these features will impact the user experience on your website and will encourage readers to either stay and explore your site, or cause them to leave. Think of the user experience on your website as an indicator of customer service for your brand. If a user experiences slow page loading or finds your content boring they are likely to be unsatisfied with their experience.

On-Page SEO is essential for user experience, which in the end will impact your ranking. The more people enjoy your content and are impressed by your website, the more likely it will be shared and engaged with, therefore increasing the visibility and social clout of your brand and website.

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-Page SEO deals in the “behind-the-scenes” of a website. It can be summarized in one word: links. The more that your website is linked to, the higher the authority of your domain will be.  If you have a great deal of valuable links pointing to your site, search engines can assume that you are providing good content.

Getting other websites to link to your website increases traffic and signals to Google that the content you are offering on your website is useful and relevant, and therefore should have a higher ranking.

Off-Page SEO tells Google what others think of your site.

This concept is often referred to as “backlinks”, and the better your backlinks are rated, the better your website will rank. Without backlinks pointing to your website, it is almost impossible for Google to figure out the usefulness of your page. Natural links from authoritative and relevant websites act as votes of confidence that help search engines trust your website.

However, it is important to note: link quality is much more important than link quantity.

In the past, the number of links you had was extremely important but as Google algorithms have become more complex, they have shifted to value quality links higher. At this point, On-Page SEO becomes relevant. High quality, fresh, and relevant content and positive user-experience make you more shareable. With awesome content, lots of social media shares, and support from bloggers and influencers,  you will build backlinks to your website.

Tips on improving SEO

Typically on-page SEO is taken care of first, then off-page follows. You don’t want to share a page that isn’t ready for users.

Here are some tips to make sure that your web page is ready for sharing.

• Organize your internal pages. Having a good flow and layout to the pages on your website ensures that the “SEO juice” will keep moving throughout your whole website. Make sure you create a homepage or landing page that has links to the other pages of your website through tools like drop-down menus. No internal page should stand alone, but rather be connected with seamless navigation.
• Keyword Target thematically. Do some research on Google Keyword Planner (hyperlink)  to figure out the best keywords for your company to try to rank for.  Avoid popular keywords that massive corporations are ranking for because you will never be able to compete.Don’t be afraid to brand your keywords for ultimate specificity.  Pick a few that are thematically related and this will signify to Google what you do and are all about.
• Place Keywords throughout your website.  Once you have your keywords, ensure they are present throughout your website, especially on the landing page. This will tell Google the most important and informative page of your site. Make sure your Keywords are in the title tag of your page. The closer the keywords are to the start of the title the better, as this has more weight with search engines.
• Don’t Overload Keywords. While it is tempting to put keywords everywhere, have restraint when making content for your webpage. Google penalizes websites who try to overload keywords; Remember, quality over quantity. Use tools like LSIgraphic.com for ideas on variations of keywords.
• For a list of 12 additional things you should do optimize on-page SEO click here. http://backlinko.com/on-page-seo.
  

So your website is ready to share, what now?

• Fix broken links: When links on a website are broken they lead to a 404 error page. This is unappealing to the user. These problems pop up over time as the result of hosting expiration, pages upset during file transfer, typos or URL changes. Check that all the links on your website are functioning, and replace or get rid of those that are broken. This will improve the speed and function of your website.
• Distribute Quality Content: Blogs, and other high-quality media like pictures, videos or infographics are great ways to engage users and are easy to share. Infographics tend to have a great deal of success online as they are visually appealing and can share a lot of information easily.
• Share content with bloggers and influencers. Get your content out to as many people as possible. The more eyes the better! If you can be shared on a website that has a pre-existing high authority domain, it will significantly increase your ranking.
  

The most important things to consider when it comes to SEO are user experience, user intent, and valuable content.  Optimize for users and create content that will be relevant to them and you will be sure to increase your ranking.

Be consistent and methodical and you will grow in Google’s rank system.

Image: rawpixel / 123RF Stock Photo

Lost in SEO? Local SEO vs. Organic SEO

Different types of SEO work for different people. Some businesses flourish with Organic SEO, while others benefit more from geographically-targeted Local SEO. Search engines are constantly evolving. If you want to keep traffic flowing, your website has to keep up with them.

Google’s search algorithm aims to get users the best results for their searches. Search engine optimization harnesses that algorithm to increase your traffic, provide the best user experience, and make you money.  This is a bit of a breakdown to help you figure out which kind of SEO can work best for you.

What is Organic SEO?

You’ve got a great website. Now, you need to get noticed.

That’s where Organic SEO comes in.

Organic SEO boosts your site’s ranking in the organic search engine results. This is done by making it clear to Google what your site is about. When you search for something, you get results based on quality and relevance. The algorithm picks out the highest-quality content relevant to your search terms. Only sites that have valuable, trusted content rank in organic search results.

In other words, to improve your site’s ranking, you have to show Google that your site:

1. Is relevant to the keyword.
2. Has good content.

Organic SEO optimization makes your site search engine-friendly. Trusted content, high quality links, and on and off-page optimization strategies work together to climb the rankings. When Google knows you’re the real deal, your rank improves. This opens the floodgates for traffic to flow onto your site. And as you build trust with your users, your ranking will last longer.

What is Local SEO?

You know your customers – it’s time for them to get to know you.

Local SEO helps you rise above the local competition.

Local SEO boosts your site’s ranking for geographically-related keywords. A geo-targeted search term is one that includes a location. When someone searches for a geo-targeted term, the results favor sites with trusted locations. In service industries many potential customers will include a location with their search. For example, someone might search “car repair in Toronto.” If you’re in Toronto and Google knows that, you’ll rank higher than a repair shop in Ottawa, and will even rank higher than other Toronto repair shops that Google can’t pin on a map.

To be a trusted location, you have to show Google that your business:

1. Is relevant to the keyword.
2. Exists at a specific geographical location.

As a trusted location, your site will organically rise to the top and stand out in local search results. Local SEO can make you the number one result for relevant searches in your area, bringing more traffic your site. And more traffic means more business.

Which One Is Right for Me?

Local and Organic SEO techniques both bolster your rank in organic search results so you can reach as many customers as possible. The best choice for you depends on your business and your target customers.

Local SEO gets you ranked in a specific location. It works best for small or local businesses. If you’re targeting customers in a specific area, Local SEO will get you top results.

Organic SEO is all about your website. You don’t need a physical, brick-and-mortar location to use Organic SEO. If getting traffic to your site is your primary goal, Organic SEO is the way to go. And for Internet-only businesses, Organic SEO is essential.

Are you ready to achieve your traffic goals? Drop us a line and start growing your customer base today.

Top 5 reasons that SEO alone might not be right for you

Wait, what?

Yes, you heard correctly. We’re in the business of helping clients with their SEO, gaining organic website traffic, but the reality is that SEO is not always the right answer for every client in every situation. Let me explain.

1. Sometimes your SEO budget is not enough

This is usually the most common reason. SEO projects have a lot of variables to consider including the difficulty of ranking for search terms and other competitive issues.

For some clients, the work required to achieve their goals within a fixed time is simply not realistic inside a tight marketing budget. Unfortunately, some SEO companies will promise results using tactics outside Google’s guidelines, which ultimately causes more harm than good.

2. The timeframe for your objective is too short

The changing nature of SEO rules, as well as the moving marketing strategy of your competition, means that setting a precise timeframe to achieve results is nearly impossible. SEO success is inherently not an overnight strategy and if your objective is to get to page one from page three immediately, you would likely be better served to leverage other methods.

3. Ad competition is too stiff

Recent changes to the way Google displays ads is not making organic SEO any easier. There are now up to four ads displayed at the top of a page and the length of these ads are now even longer. The result? Even if you do rank on the first page it might be “below the fold” meaning users will have to scroll down to see it.

4. You have a new product or service

Sort of like “if a tree falls in the forest…”, you might be offering something totally new and awesome but no one is searching for it. You need to focus on an educational and awareness strategy that might be better served through ads and content.

5. You’re a new business

Similarly, if you are a new business, organic search can take some time to show results. As a result, if you’re looking for immediate results, you should consider a different tactic initially and use SEO to build organic traffic over time.

Summary

Today’s competitive marketplace demands patience and a variety of tactics. Marketers need to have realistic expectations about what can be achieved in a given time frame and within a given budget. An integrated marketing approach consisting of SEO, PPC, social media, and content marketing, is usually the best recipe for long-lasting results.