Digital marketing has been an emerging fascination of mine. This past summer, I worked heavily with search engine optimization and e-marketing at my internship. My exposure to SEO had been minimal prior to this experience, so I was met with a steep learning curve in regards to keywords, crawling, and indexing. I stumbled upon a number of SEO articles that aided me in providing a deeper insight on the value of search engine optimization. Understanding the value of optimizing your page in order to achieve higher search ranking offers companies a competitive advantage to capture more and new consumers.
This article by Search Engine Watch guided me through identifying the value in keywords. My presumption was that keywords only needed to be relevant to the subject matter. Contrarily, SEO encompasses not only keywords, but also integrating them seamlessly with content takes an “in-depth understanding of the business, market, user mindset and keyword set.” Identifying the relevant keywords for your business is difficult, but paid keywords and ad displays will enhance your brand awareness online, according to LinkedIn Pulse.
An example of SEO in-play includes the recent change Google announced that stirred up the search engine optimization world was the adjustment of the Google “Local Pack.” The update in the search results seen in the query that has local intent now only lists three local businesses instead of seven. The strategic move made by Google is understandable; it enhances user experience by making search results more visually appealing, especially on mobile, as well as urges SEO marketers to bid more on Google AdWords. SEO marketers must now pivot their strategies to include more links in content, as well as strongly focus on local marketing campaigns and keywords to maintain brand prominence. This will enable SEO marketers to identify more specific SEO methods to gain brand awareness.
The future of marketing is in the digital world and I believe that having a strong understanding of not only how to utilize social media channels, but also SEO, will provide future marketing students a competitive edge post-graduation. I am excited to continue to develop my understanding of SEO in class and apply this knowledge in future projects.
