Web Marketing: Content is King

posted by Pivotal Health Solutions on Friday, November 14, 2014

Everyone wants search engine optimization, but more often than not, we’re not exactly sure how to achieve it. Internet marketer Naren Arulrajah of Ekwa marketing shares his top four tactics on how to leverage content marketing and ensure your brand stays top of mind (via Dynamic Chiropractic).

Google's sweeping updates to its search algorithms over the past few years have brought a paradigm shift in how you can optimize your website to gain maximum marketing leverage.

However, many small and medium-sized businesses and professional practitioners still continue to press ahead with their old websites and traditional online marketing and search-engine optimization (SEO) strategies. This is a big mistake, but fortunately, there are simple solutions. To succeed in an increasingly crowded online environment, it's time to reconfigure your chiropractic online marketing strategy to the new SEO practices and trends that are likely to dominate in 2015. Here are four tactics to consider.

1. Focus on Google+

Google has consistently shown an inclination to give preference to businesses that have an active presence on Google+. Create a Google+ page for your chiropractic business, if you do not have one already. Include the Google+ share button or icon with every new piece of content you add to your chiropractic website or blog. If you have a presence over social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, promote your Google+ social plugin on these networks on a consistent basis.

When people add your Google+ chiropractic page to their individual Google+ circles, it will enhance your search visibility. When anyone in those circles, or those connected to them, searches online for chiropractic services, your practice will show up in the top results. Over a period of time, businesses with a strong Google+ connectivity can expect better search-engine rankings.

2. Build Online Authorship

Time and again, Google has hinted that it is exploring ways to reward credible online authors and provide a boost to their content in search rankings. When you add a new piece of original content to your chiropractic website or blog, or publish elsewhere online, the search engine may identify you as the creator of such content if you include a byline with author name, email address and website address, using a consistent domain name each time. Over time, this system can build your online reputation, enhance credibility, and eventually improve the search rankings for your content.

Make sure you have a Google+ profile in place. The author's name in your online published content should match your name in your Google+ profile. Google has repeatedly suggested that shifting from the anonymous Web to a Web with identity helps the search engine understand the authority and trust of the person who created the content. Over a period of time, Google is likely to tie in such credible authorship with the rankings in the search results.

3. Engage in High-Quality Guest Blogging

Google's Distinguished Engineer, Matt Cutts, announced in early 2014 that low-quality guest blogging will no longer benefit businesses from an SEO perspective. However, original, relevant and effective guest blogging continues to make an influence on the search-engine results. It can also promote organic link building, improve brand equity, and build online credibility for you as a chiropractor.

Excellent blog content continues to hold the power to increase targeted reach and improve engagement with the community. Social networks can be leveraged to promote a new blog post to your target audience. It is important to note that low-quality or "spammy" blogging is a relic of the past; if anything, it can only downgrade your SEO value over time.

4. Don't Ignore Professional Content Development

Prior to the Google search-engine algorithmic updates of the past two years, content quality did not matter as much as other SEO tactics. However, just having keyword-rich content is no longer going to produce the desired search results. Achieving higher rankings in search results has become more challenging; these days, you must invest more time and resources in content creation in order to rank well.

Businesses are increasingly hiring professional content managers, content marketing officers or content directors to provide consistent, quality content. Outsourcing of content development and link building is also on the rise, particularly among small and medium businesses (SMBs). You should consider your content strategy carefully for 2015 in relation to your marketing budget; outsourcing content creation may be an option you decide to pursue.