While following my daily routine of reviewing the latest tech/marketing articles (as very diligent tech/marketing blogger is wont to do), I came across something that caught my eye. It was an article on e-mail marketing that provided no way of “sharing” the article via e-mail. I must admit, the article did have social share buttons, but not e-mail. Curious. Intriguing….

Upon further investigation, I discovered that the writer was the SEO manager of a publicly-traded fortune 500 company in the technology industry. Fascinating….

I suddenly found myself going down the content rabbit hole, reading presumably authoritative but definitely exhaustive article after article the author had written about SEO keyword search optimization strategies. As said author droned on about “scalable methods of optimization” and “concatenate formulae” I read on in fascination and horror, recognizing that feeling one gets when driving slowly by an accident site.

As it turns out, many of the articles were posted by a site whose stated mission is to” act as a resource for small businesses to adapt to the online movement.” Positively ironic….

The Internet is littered with terabytes of similar content targeted to help users better understand obscure SEO techniques. Important information for some? Yes. Of practical relevance to most small businesses trying to get online? Not by a long-shot.

The author in question then offered up a link to a webinar for those “confused” by all of the information (it gets better). Thoroughly confused, I of course followed the link, which brought me to a site with the following characteristics:

  • A blog that was not networked or shared, with new content posted every 294 days
  • No alt tags on their images
  • No internal link descriptions
  • No mobile website
  • No social at all
  • No CTA (calls-to-action)
  • No Landing Pages
  • No marketing automation software

So before you go out and hire a hyper-educated fortune 500 SEO executive as a guest blogger, you may want to ask yourself one simple but critical question: Is my website converting traffic into quality leads?

AM I CONVERTING?

The rise of social and mobile is giving consumers greater autonomy, underscoring the importance of dynamic consumer engagement. In such an environment, companies with brochure websites utilizing traditional “SEO 1.0” techniques to drive web traffic are missing the point completely.

Many companies recognize this new reality and are implementing a more sophisticated, consumer- focused approach to SEO. I call this SEO 2.0. Inbound marketing is a great example of SEO 2.0 in action.

With SEO 2.0, your website acts as an interactive distribution hub, offering dynamic content prospects find educational and useful. This content is integrated with CTAs (calls-to-action) and attractive landing pages that entice prospects to engage with your brand. The goal is to create a three-dimensional online experience by connecting valuable web-based content to your social media channels.

Inter-operability with social media provides an ideal platform for consumers to engage with your company on a more personal level, increasing brand loyalty and hastening lead conversion. The best part? It’s all measurable. With advanced marketing analytics, you can now track key metrics from your company’s website and social media, providing detailed and meaningful data for your marketing team to chew on.

Every day companies will have to choose whether to be led down the primrose path of SEO 1.0, or to adapt to the new practices of SEO 2.0. The choice is yours…

PS: If you decide stay with the status quo, let me know-I’ve got the link.

What do you think about the shift to SEO 2.0 marketing techniques like inbound marketing?

Image Courtesy of: Itec Web Design