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A Surprisingly Simple (?) Top SEO Agency Tactic is to Know Your Negative

Having Google rank you high is worth a lot to a lot of companies. Even if you live off of referrals, networking or trade shows, prospects do ‘just check’ online to see what else they should know or do to validate your offering, usually from your competitors. That’s why being a top SEO company is so valuable. If your SEO tactics aren’t getting you ranked high by Google, then my conversation with Will Caraway will have a financial benefit for you.

Will and I were discussing the ever-evolving marketplace, particularly how companies have shifted to automated and almost sterilized communications to prospects. Marketing automation tools abound. Marketing budgets are trimmed, leaving technical people to communicate product features. And interns are instructed to write safe social media posts.

What is considered effective marketing now has been effective marketing for decades. It just needs to be applied to make effective SEO tactics. You’ll see it also applies to brochures and other marketing collateral, to sales presentations and email campaigns.

My discussion with Will was how to humanize the communication. So much of the proven SEO tactics are about optimizing tags and keyword density because top SEO agencies know a lot about the proprietary Google algorithm that gets you ranked high with Google. Yet Will and I were talking about what gets humans engaged with your company — and if you can get the humans engaged, key SEO measurements that Google uses including ‘session time’ and website traffic will increase.

Will and I were discussing what many would consider a commoditized product when Will suggested directing the conversation to answer the question, “What’s the negative of our product?”   Or “What’s the objection to your product?” Or “Why are prospects buying from your competitor?”

Will and I agreed that your prospective clients, customers or patients could have purchased from you before. In very few cases are you offering something now that was not offered in some version before this month or this year — perhaps in a less beneficial form, yet it was available.

This is where you should start the conversation. Your prospects are humans and they could have purchased from you before and haven’t, so start the conversation there. One key: start the conversation. Build your SEO tactics around a conversation instead of the traditional advertising pitch. As much fun as Dan Draper of “MadMen” was, that was then and top SEO agencies know pitching doesn’t work as well today.

Consider as an example a market dominant manufacturer of buttons who wanted to appeal to hip, up and coming designers as a way of ensuring continued use of buttons over zippers, ties, Velcro ™ and elastic (remember Sans-a-Belt?). A solution following this line of thinking would be to humanize the buttons instead of pitching their customization in appearance and reliability (threads wear out before the button does).

Think of the negative. Zippers are often easier and faster to use. With that, the conversation begins. Do you prefer buttons or zippers? A more engaging conversation evolved to “Do you prefer to button or zip?”

At this point, Will and I knew we had an engaging conversation about a potential negative of our product. Engaging is key. If people engage with you – by social media, email, or blog responses – you benefit. You are participating in a conversation instead of sitting on the sidelines. And isn’t getting into the conversation what so much of your networking is about?

Realizing this is a short story about a top SEO company, we invite you to contact NicheLabs to expound on these ideas and learn how to apply this to your business. To speak with our team, please email us using our website contact form, or call us at 888.978.9254.