SEO… what are you thinking it is?
What is really in that can of SEO?
Search Engine Optimization or Shit Everyone’s Over-thinking?
Can you guess that I’m frustrated with hearing the general mob mentality and the blanket statements of the needs/value to do SEO, and the long narrative stories spun with the web of jargon, numbers, statistics and nonsense in for good measure?
I’ve fallen into some accidental perceived “expert” role at SEO by my clients and many of their peers, friends, and blah blah blah because I am a so called, and well paid… “marketing expert”… and here’s the truth… even though I understand more than the basics of SEO commonly accepted as “Search Engine Optimization.” I think of SEO, at least at this level of thought, as a waste of money and time for the most part for any marketing/branding investment or strategy.
Now I should throw in my “CYA statement” and validate that it can add some value in some situations and specific cases, but I do not believe it is a magic wand that works by waving money over an abyss of metadata, key words, algorithmic voodoo spells then packaged for your review in a bow-tied pdf presentation with cute animated creatures or marketing mascots with stupid names and stupid custom outfits next to your data sprinkled in with graphs and graphics highlighting your increases in impressions, click throughs, conversions, direction requests, calls, and actionable misdirection to lure you into the thousands of dollars you spend each month to automate your sales success platforms and remove all the basics of what looks and feels like actual work of “marketing and lead generation.”
If you are relying on algorithms and AI advancements to get you better positioning on google and in turn make you the market leader in your industry which in turn get’s the geniuses of the world wide web to beat down your door in hopes to throw their money at you than think of yourself as the digital pioneer looking to by ocean property in Arizona.
Re-Think SEO… and go back to basics of business.... Challenge yourself and your team to flip the script when you hear or say SEO to “Seek Experience Outcomes” or “Seek Emotions Out”. If you ask me (and I know you didn’t) these two concepts are dependent on the other and cannot exist without the other, and yet still do not solve all your marketing problems… however… they can create amazing starting points and open a path of opportunities if pursued passionately through genuine curiosity, vulnerability, faith tied and applied with a little effort, hard work, and not money. This idea can open up possibilities and successes faster than a google search on “how to get more customers.”
Do the work… the real work. How can you connect what you are offering, selling, making, doing if you cannot see the end experience and the emotion felt tied to it by those you hope to use it, consume it, rent it, attend it, or buy it??? If you can start your query with this question “what will the story shared by my customers/fans/community experience as they then communicate their experience to a stranger/friend/colleague look or sound like, with some vivid details thrown in for color and substance?”
If you cannot answer that question than I suggest you dig deep… seek council… and be willing to adjust what you thought you knew to be right because a digital rabbit hole validated your idea that your widget doesn’t need to be different, it just needs to be cheap enough to remove the impulse click buy barriers to people that hate their money, and won’t remember your name a week from this last click.
Want to grow your business? Grow your experiences and emotional outcomes… and as far as marketing tools to do that effectively and economically? I bet my own money in promotional products over anything else first any day of the week as my weapon of choice to begin my SEO search.
You want to see SEO in action? Take a moment after reading this and look around wherever you are at and do a quick scan to see how many things immediately around you are “branded” with a company, band, culture, sports team, event, school or something else… and then ask yourself if you can instantly remember when you first got it, and tell me did you also notice a physiological change in your body? And did you notice “what emotions you felt” as you reflected? And did you find yourself saying “oh that happens to be my favorite ____?____ (coffee mugs, T-Shirt, hat, pen, etc).
Or did you need to google that to figure that out?
Will you ever look at SEO the same again the next time those 3 letters get thrown out there at you? I welcome your thoughts and counterpoints to my opinions, and preference them with this thought. I am not claiming to be right… I’m just claiming that I don’t accept to look at the general acceptance of most things and instead ask “why is the obvious covered with fancy acronyms and jargon to hide the thought of - what value I am adding to my story or the stories people would want to share.”
***Sales pitch horribly hidden now to follow***
If you want to apply my theory in action, or challenge this concept and see if I am full of BS or full of results. Either way call me today to find out. Prove me wrong and you can win the chance of calling me an ego manic idiot who is out of his mind and wrong… or find success a the fraction of the cost and lasting impact that benefits you and your customers… either end result sounds like a win if for you… so what is holding you back from successful results vs reading my horrible grammar any longer wondering when am I going to shut up already? But oddly enough here you are still reading my never ending rant instead…. I have better things to do now, like make my clients a return on their investment in marketing dollars so I need to let you go now… until next time… have a little fun, laugh some more, and make use of your time… because you can always waste money, but you should never waste time! And it’s time to make an impact.
Chris@RoninBranding.com