May 28, 2021 By The Capitalist
Digital marketing expert at NUVEW, helping businesses expand their online presence through custom
website design and development & SEO.
Organic
SEO Is Becoming More Important As Privacy Concerns Grow
When it comes to understanding their audience,
marketers don’t like to guess. The industry has gained a variety of data
collection tools in recent years, and many advertisers now rely heavily on user
data to deliver highly personalized ads to a hand-picked audience.
But change is on the horizon as users ask more
questions about how their online habits are tracked and shared. Some top
sources of user data are being restricted or eliminated, and it could spell
trouble for those who count on this data to understand their customers.
Fortunately, a time-tested and often cheaper
option exists for organic SEO. Rather than pulling user-specific data from
apps, marketers can use data from search engine queries to gain actionable
details about their customers without the creepy, invasive feeling.
Let’s examine why data collection is changing
and how organic SEO can provide a successful alternative to targeted ads.
What’s
Changing
In late April, Apple announced the release of iOS 14.5, its newest operating software for
iPhones and iPads. After installing the update, users will see a pop-up window
when opening apps, asking if they consent to have their online activities
tracked to receive personalized ads. In the past, this data collection
generally happened by default.
Stats are still rolling in on how many people
have or will opt out of tracking, but the smart money is betting it will be a
significant portion of Apple’s more than 100 million U.S. iPhone users. Google’s blog has warned that “app publishers may see a significant impact
to their Google ad revenue.”
This comes after Google’s decision to eliminate
third-party cookies — the digital files that track users’ activity across
websites — in its Chrome web browser.
Instead, Google will offer advertisers data from
pools of users in a system called Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC. While
this gives advertisers some alternative, it’s pretty telling that Google goes on to say the results will be “nearly as effective” as cookie-based
ads.
The takeaway? Advertisers’ ability to track
individual users is diminishing, likely by a lot. Google and Apple are
behemoths in tech, and where they go, others are sure to follow.
Losing access to personalized data and the
targeting opportunities it creates could leave many digital advertisers feeling
blindsided.
SEO
Can Help Turn the Tide
The underlying issue with third-party data
collection is not a new one and has plagued social networks for some time. It’s
a lack of control.
These platforms, and the ads you place on them,
are controlled by private companies that can change their policies or user
agreements at a moment’s notice. The money that companies spend on ads may give
them a sense of ownership, but that isn’t really the case.
Organic SEO, on the other hand, gives companies
greater control over their online presence and how they appear to users. Rather
than app data and paid ads, SEO uses search engine data to discover what
products and services users are looking for and helps connect them with the
companies that offer what they need.
Most SEO tactics are implemented on a business’s
own website. That increases control for the business and often results in lower
overall costs since most SEO techniques can produce results for months or even
years after initial setup. By contrast, even when ads are successful, they require
continued investment.
How
Do I Implement SEO on My Site?
If you’re new to SEO, its tactics can seem
highly technical and overwhelming. But there are a few pillars of basic
strategy that can help anyone figure out where to start.
• Keywords: When
someone searches for your products or services online, what words do they use?
Keywords are the answer to this question.
They are the terms or phrases that people
connect with your business. They can also include your customers’ issues or
problems, like “garage door won’t close.”
Through your own industry knowledge and a little
research, you can easily find keywords to guide your strategy. Once you’ve
built your list, you can target customers with serious buying intent by
including your keywords naturally in website text, page titles, and blogs.
Then, when users search for these terms, Google
will be more likely to display your website as the answer to their search.
Avoid the urge to overuse keywords, a practice known as “keyword stuffing.”
Both search engines and real users will react negatively to text that feels
awkward or unnatural.
• Content: The
right keywords can help draw your audience in, but your content is what keeps
their interest. This can include menu pages, blogs, videos, a podcast, or
nearly any medium that allows you to share information.
A little self-promotion is OK, but avoid
treating every piece like a sales pitch. Focus instead on providing value to
users with things like articles that offer tips and advice or a recorded chat
session that answers common questions.
Covering the topics your customers care about
will lead to more visitors, as well as natural opportunities to use your
keywords.
• Links: Search
engines tend to treat links between websites like a referral. When lots of
other high-quality websites are linking to, or linked from, your website, the
search engine gives your site greater authority, which can produce higher
rankings in search results pages.
When creating new blogs or pages, look for
opportunities to link to useful information, like industry groups or recent
research, to create the links on your site.
You can also create opportunities for other
sites to link to you by sharing the content you’ve created in social channels
and newsletters, for example.
Shifting
With the Times
Whatever the data collection landscape will look
like in the future, it’s clear that marketers can’t rely on these metrics alone
for reaching customers.
Change is inevitable, but we can take steps to
prepare. Advertising will always have its place in the marketing landscape, but
don’t let it prevent you from building a robust SEO strategy that offers long-term gains and a proven route to
online success.
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Article Source: Forbes.com
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