Anyone who has built and launched a website has likely encountered an oft-repeated acronym: SEO (search engine optimization). And while you might not have ever done SEO yourself, you've benefited from it in the past: Every day, search engines like Google employ complex algorithms to sift through more than 400 billion web pages and deliver the most relevant results.
Website owners like you use SEO techniques and strategies to get their websites to the top of the search results for relevant user queries. But SEO is not a one-time endeavor — Google and other search engines change often, and ongoing SEO ensures your website stays in front of the people you want to reach. Just as a physical storefront requires regular maintenance and updates to stay competitive, your website needs ongoing SEO to remain visible amidst the ever-changing digital landscape.
The ABCs of SEO: What is Ongoing SEO and Why Does It Matter?
Don't let the techy jargon intimidate you. HubSpot — considered one of the gold standards for SEO and digital marketing advice — defines SEO as simply a collection of strategies and tips that "expand a company’s visibility in organic search results'' and help "drive more visitors to the company’s website, increasing their chances for more conversions which leads to more customers and more revenue."
SEO Connects the Search Engine Algorithms With Your Website's Content
Regardless of your website's goal or industry niche, all SEO techniques have one thing in common: They look at ways to optimize your website's content, keywords, and links to help search engines rank your website higher in the search results when someone searches for something related to your keywords, content, or brand name.
According to HubSpot, SEO needs to address the key factors that all search engines use to determine the value of your website's content — and therefore how high in the search results your website or specific landing page should appear:
- The intent or meaning behind why someone is searching for a specific term or question
- The relevance between what someone searches for, and the content on your website
- The quality of your content (for instance, a website about physical exercise written by certified personal trainers is deemed by Google to be higher quality than a website where the articles are written by non-experts)
- The performance of your website, such as how long it takes a page to load and whether it works well on mobile devices
Static SEO Versus Ongoing SEO: Why It Matters to Stay Fresh and Keep Your SEO Updates Current
As users' web behavior changes and technology evolves, search engines proactively adjust their algorithms.
If you aren't conducting ongoing SEO maintenance and upgrades, a well-optimized website today can quickly become obsolete tomorrow, causing your search rankings to drop and attracting fewer organic visitors. Google itself updates its algorithms several thousand times per year, including significant "major" changes every few months that dramatically change how it crawls and ranks content. For example, Google's infamous Panda update changed how it ranked how-to lifestyle content on the Internet, causing one major content publisher to lose a whopping $6.4 million of traffic and advertising nearly overnight.
How Ongoing SEO Influences Your Website Strategy
Staying abreast of changes to SEO techniques and strategies provides important guidance to your content, marketing, and overarching website strategy. For example, it can dictate or influence:
- How much content you publish, and the content's format, length, and focus
- How you incorporate other forms of media on your website, including images, video, and audio
- How you organize content on your site, including landing page layouts and your site's navigation
- What keywords and target users your website focuses on
Embrace the Power of Ongoing SEO
Caroline Forsey, an expert in thought leadership and marketing content, looked at the survey results from more than 400 of the world's leading web analysts to predict the biggest SEO trends of 2024. According to her data, some of the top changes in SEO strategies this year include:
- A heavier emphasis on expertise, meaning the content on your website should come from experts in your related field (including bylines and author bios that demonstrate the author's credentials and experience on the topic they're writing about)
- A renewed emphasis on first-person, credible content, especially as more websites generate high volumes of low-quality AI content (Google itself has announced upcoming changes to tackle low-value articles created by AI)
- A priority on websites that are deemed trustworthy, such as e-commerce sites with well-rated customer service, or content sites that do a good job of citing trustworthy research and statistics
- Bonus points on content that is creative and original and doesn't simply rehash content found on other sites
Of course, these SEO trends will inevitably change every year, and ongoing SEO will keep you competitive no matter what Google, Bing, and other search engines do. No matter your website's industry or content strategy, ongoing SEO requires that you:
- Focus on keeping your content fresh and high quality, including new blog posts or regularly refreshing and updating old product descriptions or articles
- Conduct keyword research often, since the terms or phrases that your core audience uses will evolve over time
- Maintain your website's overarching performance, such as mobile-friendliness as mobile devices evolve, and page load speed
- Build a diverse portfolio of high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites within your niche, which may include outreach campaigns, getting others in your industry to write guest blogs, and participating in online forums or communities
- Keep on top of technical and performance metrics, such as scanning your site for broken links (and fixing the links you uncover) and using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track organic traffic, keyword rankings, click-through rates, and conversion rates
- Stay on top of algorithm changes so you can adapt your SEO strategy in real-time
Some website owners think of SEO as the first step of their promotional strategy. But it's less a first step, and more an ongoing journey to ensure you, your brand, and your content stay relevant in such a competitive atmosphere. Whether you choose to go it alone and take a DIY approach to SEO, or you choose to consult with a digital marketing and SEO agency, check in often and make sure your SEO evolves as the world around you evolves.
The LinkedIn platform has been predominantly titled the best place for B2B engagement. Whether you’re looking to expand your company’s reach through content or seeking out new employees, LinkedIn is the place to be. In fact, 91 percent of executives consider the platform as their go-to channel for professionally relevant content.
Like every platform on the internet, there’s a certain mindset that the audience has and it’s up to you as the marketer to distinguish that so you can grab attention with ease. To leverage LinkedIn, it’s always important to remember that your content has to hold enough value to keep the community engaged.
Depending on the industry you’re in, the content you post on LinkedIn may vary. But, the main rule to follow is that you shouldn’t treat this platform like any other. Unlike Instagram or Facebook, where it’s all about aesthetics or family fun, this is a professional space. That means, avoid posting pictures of last night’s dinner or a night out after two many Espresso Martinis. To ensure that you’re getting the most traction with your LinkedIn content, we’ve put together a best practice guide for you to check off.
Make a Plan
Firstly, you need to know your audience before you post any kind of company content on LinkedIn. For example, if you’re posting content that’s focused on recruitment, you’ll need to post content that caters to recruiters and decision-makers within organizations.
Producing audience-specific content is one of the key points to gaining the most traction with what you post.
Consider these three factors:
- Who consumes your content: whether it’s articles or videos, you need to establish who is clicking on your LinkedIn page.
- Who follows you: take a closer look at who’s following your page and interacting with your content. Whereabouts are the followers located and what industry are they from? Core demographics are essential.
- Audience targeting: build personas and psychographics for who you can target with your content. LinkedIn’s campaign features can give you that extra edge and further your reach.
What You Should Be Posting on LinkedIn
Let’s start with what you shouldn’t be posting on LinkedIn and the audience psychographics that you developed in the previous step will help. The platform focuses largely on B2B and using that information you want to avoid any B2C sales pushes. That means you’re not targeting consumers with ads or copy to purchase DTC products like a pair of sneakers. LinkedIn users do not favor sales pitch posts.
Other areas to avoid are political or religious posts, negativity and anything that’s too personal. Keep the selfies to Instagram and the highly opinionated 280 character quips about politics for Twitter. Don’t forget, your brand is your reputation.
Here’s what you should be posting on LinkedIn:
- Clickable content: that doesn’t mean you should be posting any kind of clickbait but industry-specific content that entices readers to click onward usually contains value between the lines. LinkedIn users are more likely to respond to content that contains a photo and don’t forget to add a CTA to drive users to conversion.
- Be interesting: sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Publish content that provides solutions and answers to those difficult industry questions. Establish that your company is an authority in the industry and pique interest by displaying that. A little humor never hurt anybody, it actually makes your brand and content more memorable.
- Industry events: whether it’s a conference, webinar or you’ve just found a breakthrough in your field, treat LinkedIn users to the good news. Upcoming events or coverage of previous events help to keep LinkedIn users engaged in your company’s footing within the industry. Side note: this also gives users an insight into your company culture and how you operate which can be a big plus when done right.
Employee Advocacy Through LinkedIn Content
When your employees act like influencers and rep your brand to their own following on social media, it’s called employee advocacy. By doing this, they can build trust for the brand by leveraging their own network and in-turn that helps to raise awareness and drive engagement.
Data shows that employee advocacy doubles the click-through rate for employee posted content when compared to content posted by the brand. When a company posts content, the messaging often comes across as authoritative in that industry. However, when an employee posts content on the company’s behalf, it shows that the employee is embodying the company’s vision and genuinely believes in their products or services.
This is when the line starts to become a little blurred.
What Content Should Employees Be Posting?
To achieve high amounts of engagement and gently nudge the employee network into the funnel, the content has to be aligned with the brand. Resharing generic content that the brand pushes out isn’t going to cut if you want to build long-lasting relationships with your following.
When it comes to conversions, providing value through thought leadership content has proven as one of the most effective methods. The impact of thought leadership on demand generation is underestimated.
Data shows that 58 percent of decision-makers awarded business to an organization as a direct result of thought leadership. If the proof isn’t in that pudding, 60 percent of decision-makers bought new products or services that they weren’t previously considering because of thought leadership content.
Conclusion
When creating a content strategy for LinkedIn, remember that the content your company and employees post should be a two-way conversation. What you post should be there to inform, engage and provide genuine value to readers and viewers.
A little controversy is welcomed if it raises a few eyebrows and sways leads in your direction. However, stay true to your brand’s messaging and stay within the parameters of professional content at all times.