By now the importance of search engine optimization (SEO), social media strategy, and good content is nearly ubiquitously recognized. These are all key elements of any successful and long-lasting website in today’s world. One element that is often overlooked, however, is how these different elements mesh together. The translational aspects and smooth flow between them are still often not existent and webmasters may be leaving further gains behind by failing to recognize the synergies that could be achieved through a more streamlined approach.
Neglecting any of the three core areas will essentially create a “weakest link” that makes the other two elements weaker than they otherwise would be. It is important to coordinate each area in order to have the most effective marketing plan possible. If these elements are being created by different teams for larger projects, it is important to organize them in such a way that there is some matrix component to the process so that different teams are forced to talk to and consult with one another. The teams should have a joint mindset which considers the areas that both affect them and that they will affect.
Content is of course one of the very important parts of an effective SEO strategy. Content really is king. When creating content it is important to remember the keywords that are being targeted and to incorporate those words into the text in a natural way. Natural is the key word here as keyword stuffing or unrealistic keyword densities may hurt sites in rankings in today’s search engines. It is important to remember also that content is no longer limited to just text. Other forms of content including videos and images should be incorporated into webpages and optimized on their own. ALT tags are important for images for example. Content can be optimized but at the end of the day should also be compelling and interesting for the end user as that will help improve other metrics and in turn help your SEO strategy as well (one example is creating engaging content which reduces your bounce rate, thereby helping your rankings).
Social media is the next step in the integrated strategy. Make it easy for people to share compelling content on your website. Social signals are more important than ever for ranking. They also create a sense of community for the user, which can improve brand loyalty and lead to more recurrent visitors. There are many case studies out there which have shown that a strong social media strategy can lead to great growth in traffic as well as a loyal user base.
At the end of the day it is important to look at your website, what the goals for the site are and to come up with a strategy that is unique to the strengths and weaknesses of the niche and website. Then it is important to come up with relevant metrics that will help define the success of the website and finally to create that collaborative approach between content, SEO, and social media optimization to really drive strong growth.