After reading this Linked post by Eli Schwartz, a very well-respected and well-known SEO expert, about how to appear in Google AI Overviews, the above slogan came to me. I wanted to give credit where credit is due and share how I was inspired. It all makes great sense and is in keeping with what we, as a fellow SEO expert, has been sharing in recent months, i.e., if you want a search engine to declare you as the best, or indicate less directly that your organization is the best or one of the best in its field and geography by mentioning your organization’s name or sharing a link back to your site (known as a citation), then your organization has to earn that “best” title.
Why I’ve Got The Experience and Knowledge To Speak To What Makes An Organization An Outstanding One
Having worked since I was a teenager and until my mid-50’s for employers (and served in a number of manager and director roles), and now, for the past 12 years run a marketing agency that has successfully served more than 150 clients and received public-facing accolades (reviews), compliments and appreciation from clients, I believe I’ve got the background and experience to speak to what makes an organization stand out from competitors, and therefore, be considered “the best.” You can learn more about my corporate marketing and marketing agency background on my Our Principal and History website page.
As a life-long marketer I feel so strongly about how many of the attributes below influence an organization’s success that I’ve written about many of the below in past blog posts!
What Does It Take For Your Organization To Be The “Best” In Your Industry and Geography?
Treat your employees well.
Offer them opportunities to learn and take on new and larger roles.
Take the time to listen to and consider employee’s ideas to improve work productivity or process, or the products and services you offer.
Offer tangible and intangible benefits that they value and/or need.
Celebrate personal and organizational milestones and successes.
Offer financial incentives where, if the company does well, the employee does well.
Deliver exceptional, world-class service each and every day at every point of contact (EPOC) with customers. As a marketing professional with more than 35 years of experience I know first-hand how important good customer service is to success. Not only when it comes to assisting customers/clients of your organizations, but handling inquiries and leads that come into your organization respectfully, effectively, and on a timely basis!
Offer solid, reliable products and services that meet client expectations and needs at a reasonable, fair price.
Always keep an eye on business and daily life changes and how they impact your clients — whether they be businesses or consumers — and how you can make their lives easier or respond to a challenge they are facing.
Always be evolving and considering what new innovative product or service you can offer.
Educate. Educate. Educate — make sure staff and leaders have time to stay in the know on industry changes and national, regional, and local happenings and anything else that could negatively or positively impact how they and your business does their work or the products and services you offer. Ensure they can learn from both internal and external experts. To support all of this, designate times of the week as meeting-free and learning time!
Encourage out-of-the box thinking by all staff and leaders!
Show both your clients and customers appreciation regularly. A small “thank you” goes a long way!
I’ll likely add new features and characteristics to the above list as they strike me, but I think any organization that achieves the aforementioned will succeed at being top in their field, in their particular geography!
We will continue to conduct our own informal research — assessing how and when our own website pages and posts appear in both AI/Answer Engine Prompt results and traditional search engine results — but based on what we are seeing as of the date of this blog post, the items outlined in the image and bulleted section below seem to be common features or characteristics of website content that is being served up most frequently in any kind of AI or search engine.
How To Be Found Online? Do The Following Related To Your Website Content
Always keep your target audience in mind — what content/information would be helpful to them vs. content/information you want to share. Don’t be self-serving!
Keep your content clean and easily consumable by using bulleted or numbered lists
Don’t be afraid to take a different approach to what other experts are saying on a particular topic
I’ve attended a decent number of webinars about AI search and how to get your organization’s name or a link back to your website (citation) to be shared by an answer engine in response to a topic-relevant user’s prompt. To-date I’ve heard the following list of key tactics mentioned related to how to get your organization’s name or page served up by answer engines like ChatGPT:
What Types Of Organizations Benefit The Most From Appearing In Answer Engines/AI Search Engines?
For bigger brands who offer services and products throughout the whole U.S., or even the world, it makes great sense to want your organization’s name and links back to your website to appear in answer engine results related to relevant-topic searches. But for organizations who only offer services or products locally, i.e., in one city or town, in one state, or in one region (such as New England), there will likely be far less value to your organization to your organization from being found on answer engines than there would be for a national or international organization. Why? Because many individuals entering prompts into an answer engine just want their question answered. They aren’t looking to buy a product or pay for a service. And, the answer engines are more concerned about serving up content that easily/readily answers the question, regardless of the geography of the content producer or of the individual who is looking to get their question asked or answered. Unless, of course, the searcher/prompter includes their geography in the prompt, such as a prompt like “who’s the best digital marketing agency in Braintree MA.”
The Big Mistake That Organizations Who Need To Rank Locally Are Making Related To AI Search
Let’s face it, smaller, local organizations have far smaller budgets than a national brand like Progressive Insurance. They also have far smaller marketing teams. When they put the majority of their marketing dollars and energy into producing content that will be found in AI tools like Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT, they are missing out on other opportunities which might better help them be found locally, since, as we shared above, many individuals to whom their website content or name will be served up by answer engines won’t be in their geography.
What Are Some Marketing Tactics That Help Organizations Be Found Locally?
Google Search Ads – where you’ve selected a geography appropriate for your business
Display Advertising – Google, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), other social media advertising – again, where you’ve selected a geography appropriate for your business
Community Event Participation and Sponsorships – in communities your organization serves
Social Media Strategy and Posting – like with AI/answer engine search – you can reach local individuals and businesses who follow you this way, but there’s always some “waste,” where you are reaching individuals who can/will never become a client or customer because of geography or for other reasons
Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile — this is your best opportunity to be found locally and have your organization served up for “near me” terms
Writing a guest blog post for another local organization who serves your geography and/or requesting a backlink from their website to your website
And, I’m going to continue to use Facebook to promote my various fundraising walks and community causes I’m involved with. Why? Because that was the original intent of “social” media – to share beneficial/helpful information that would make the world a better place.
What I Don’t Like About Using Facebook From A Personal Vs. Business Standpoint
What bugs me most about Facebook is this: there’s no way for personal vs. business posters to apply a filter. Let’s face it, you wouldn’t do any of the following related to a text or e-mail you send a friend or family member, or when talking with them via Facetime, Zoom, or in-person:
Mention you just had lunch with your mom or played golf with your dad if they recently lost their mother or father
Talk about an extravagant vacation to someone who either can’t afford one or whose circumstances don’t allow them to travel, such as someone who is a caregiver to an ill spouse, child, or other family member and has no flexibility to travel; they could also be unable to travel because of illness or disability
Share photos of a new baby or grandbaby with someone who is struggling to conceive or adopt, or who just had a miscarriage, or maybe even with a childless friend who always wanted to be a parent
Share photos of a romantic date with or a gift from a significant other with a friend you know is lonely on the day in-question or on holidays like Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve, e.g., someone who doesn’t enjoy being single or who just lost a spouse or a significant other
You get the picture!
So, if we’re connected on Facebook personally vs. following each other’s businesses, expect to see me on Facebook even less than you have in past years, except for the fundraising and community-cause promotion reasons above. And, of yeah, I’ll probably be celebrating Celtics victories or ranting about losses, and promoting my favorite local musical artists.
Given the inability to “filter” who sees your various personal posts — as well as to know what is going on in each and every Facebook connection’s life at any point in time, I encourage those who continue to post regularly on Facebook to ask themselves if they’d be better supporting their friends and family if they held off on posting about certain topics that might cause a sub-set of their friends and family discomfort, sadness, anxiety or envy on any given day vs. posting about things that might lift them up!
Using Facebook For Business Purposes
Of course, the above need to be careful and kind when posting on Facebook applies to businesses and organizations too. Need help developing a Facebook organic posting or paid advertising strategy that won’t offend your customers or prospective customers? Reach out today!
As the owner of a digital marketing agency and SEO consulting firm, I have to be very careful about taking a public stance on political issues. After all, it’s highly likely that not all of my prospective clients and existing clients are on the same political page as me. That’s why I don’t tend to post on social media about my political leanings and/or share political opinions, but perhaps, when I retire I will. I’ve always liked this quote attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. related to the importance of speaking out about what matters.
Actions You Can Take Now To Make A Difference For The United States Of America
The exception I’m making this year (it’s February 2025 as I post this and our country and world feel particularly out-of-control and crazy) is to publicly remind and encourage people to speak out if they are unhappy about the state of the United States and actions that POTUS and his administration are taking or plan to take related to how our country operates and serves U.S. citizens and/or world relations/affairs. That’s what I’ve been doing and that’s what I plan to continue to do. E-mail or call my two state senators and the Congressman for my Massachusetts district. Attend any town halls where senators and congressmen and congresswomen want to hear how the constituency they serve is doing and feeling and where’s there’s an opportunity to submit questions, voice concerns, and to hear answers to other MA citizens’ questions and concerns.
Holding In Or Onto Anger Is Not Healthy
I find holding a lot of anger inside is not healthy and makes things worse, and it’s far better to redirect that anger into action-taking, such as the actions I outlined above. And, it’s important to not just take the actions once, but rather, to keep taking them, unless you see the change you want to see in our country and world.
So, when you’re feeling crazy angry about the state of our country and world, why not make or take the time to let your senators and congressman or congresswoman know? This gives them information they can take back to the House or the Senate and can share about how their constituency is feeling. And, ultimately the Senate and Congress are supposed to be representing the people they serve and taking the right actions related to their wishes, so they need to keep hearing over and over again from their constituents what those wishes are.
Need Some Inspiration To Speak Out Or Speak Up?
Check out the Keep Up The Fight Page of our website and get inspired by the song shared below from the musical, “Ragtime.”
History shows that not speaking up or taking action, or turning a blind eye, has lead to horrific events like the Holocaust. Learn why and how the Holocaust happened. Be part of the solution and be part of the movement to not let something thought to be impossible like the Holocaust ever happen again!
Make Them Hear You!!!
Every voice matters. When 1,000,000 small voices join forces, change happens!!!
The timing just felt right for another “dance to what is” blog post (we’ve linked to part I and part II of this series at the bottom of this post) because, now more than ever, marketing professionals have to be comfortable “dancing to what is.”
Why do I say that? Because last time I checked there were about 30 different AI search engines vying for adoption by searchers who welcome being able to get summaries of content that comes from a variety of websites, and particularly summaries/overviews that answer the specific question they, as searchers, entered in a search engine. In addition, these searchers want content to be accessible all in one spot/the same place that is helpful and understandable, i.e., content that can easily be absorbed by the searcher and that allows the searcher to take action, if necessary.
We’ve talked about the above in a number of blog posts, so we aren’t going to recreate the wheel. You can learn more about AI search engines, and the future of search in these previous posts, but continue to scroll down past them to learn more about Reddit and Quora and why you should consider developing a plan to incorporate them, or other discussion forums, in your organization’s marketing strategy:
Don’t Ignore The Role That Discussion Forums Like Quora and Reddit Play Related To Ranking Well In Search Engines For Relevant Terms
One thing that I and fellow marketing consultants are noticing related to AI Search is this. Google is starting to serve up more and more Reddit, Quora and other discussion-forum threads/conversations/discussions in search-engine results and serve them up higher in results. Why? Because Reddit and Quora and similar online discussion boards are community platforms/forums that already serve the purpose that AI search engines want to serve — providing answers to a extremely large and diverse number of questions that users of their tool have.
Hey, if there’s already a post on Reddit, Quora, or some other community-discussion platform addressing the question a searcher has and the post has a number of helpful answers associated with it, why not serve that thread/discussion up in search results? It’s a no-brainer for search engines, at least for ones who want to be successful in playing the role that AI search engines are supposed to be playing — answering searchers’ questions. Of course, with AI search, there’s always the concern that what’s being shared up in the form of answers to questions on Reddit, Quora, or similar platforms is not accurate or current, and often, it may just be a matter of someone sharing their opinion without a lot of research or data behind the opinion to support the opinion. But, these are the times we live in and the challenges that come with limitless ways for anybody, anywhere able to share information or thoughts on anything.
So, Where Does Dancing To What Is Come Into Play Related to Reddit, Quora or Other Similar Platforms?
Whether or not the answers to posts are accurate, current, backed by data, etc., Google and other AI search engines are likely to continue to serve Reddit, Quora, and other discussion-community-site conversations in search-engine results. In fact, we expect that the number of listings spit back in search-engine results that are related to a Quora, Reddit, or another platform discussion thread to continue to grow.
The other day I was investigating what organizations came up in search-engine results related to a question along the lines of “What’s The Best Place To Have Brunch In The Greater Boston Area?”
You’ll see below, that the listings that Google served up in response to the above question, included the following:
Fairly high-up in the above-mentioned search-results listings (Google responding to my brunch question) — just under several Google My Business Profiles/Google Search & Maps listings, and the two “organic” website listings — Google served up “Discussions and Forums” and included links to Tripadvisor and Reddit discussion-forum conversations.
Dancing To Discussion-Forum Conversations
So, as we alluded to above, you can’t beat ’em, so why not join ’em? So, how do you capitalize on discussion forums to support your organization and the services you offer?
Dance to the new search-engine environment we all live and work in now, and start your own post or question related to the products and services your organization offers. It shouldn’t be too salesy or too self-serving and you should really only be providing a link to your organization’s website along with your post if the information that the link takes one to is particularly beneficial or helpful and highly related to the question at-hand, and therefore, allows the reader to understand what next steps they can take related to their question.
In addition to, or in lieu of starting a new question/discussion/thread where you start the conversation by posting a question or sharing information, you could simply respond to posts of others that are related to the services you offer. Again, you don’t want to be too salesy or too self-promoting, but there are ways you can weigh in and offer advice without doing so. For example, I’ve answered countless questions related to SEO in the past on Quora. Doing so may cause someone to look me and my business up and reach out to me for help, and certainly if someone is asking for names of the best provider of xyz products in xyz town/city, and you believe your organization offers the best product or service, you can weigh in in a tasteful way.
Note: you can be Banned from discussion forums for too much self-promotion, particularly sharing links to your website that aren’t appropriate, or simply sharing them too frequently, so take it slowly and carefully consider when and how frequently you share links back to your organization’s website.
Example Of Post On Quora That Supports An Organization Being Found On Search Engines
As part of composing this blog post, I posted the question below on Quora today, so that I could provide an example of a non-salesy post that could still be effective in establishing your organization as an expert on a particular topic and/or cause someone to check out your profile and reach out to you.
My Quora Post:
My Quora Profile That Could Cause Someone To Look Me Up And Reach Out:
Reach Out For Help Capitalizing On Quora, Reddit and Other Discussion Forums
We think you get the picture, but our team of Boston SEO experts is always here to help regardless of where in the U.S. your organization is located or where you offer your products or services. So, please reach out to our Boston SEO services team, to schedule a complimentary discussion of your marketing challenges and opportunities!
Check Out Our Other Blog Posts About Dancing To What Is!
Mark Knopfler fans will understand where the quoted phrase in our blog headline comes from. I was first introduced to Mark’s wonderful storytelling abilities by my husband, Jay, when we were dating or first married. One of Mark’s songs that I first took a great liking to was his song “Quality Shoe.” Be prepared for the earworm that comes from wanting to listen to this song over and over!
“Quality Shoe” by Mark Knopfler YouTube video
What Do Shoes Have To Do With SEO?
The answer to the question above is this: a great deal!
As we’ve called out in a number of blog posts over the past year, the SEO landscape continues to shift — and on a daily basis. As we recently expressed in this blog post about thriving — not just surviving — in the SEO jungle, it’s our belief at our Boston SEO Company/digital marketing agency that the organizations who will continue rank well in search-engine results, despite all the change on the search-engine front, are those that really try to walk in their target audiences’ shoes and answer the questions and concerns they have. And, keep in mind, that these questions and concerns may be related to the product or service the organizations who succeed at SEO offer, or they may be unrelated, or only distantly related.
Sure, as we discussed in another blog post about succeeding at SEO, entitled “Give The People What They Want, you can use keyword research tools to determine on which topics, particularly questions, your target audiences are regularly conducting Google searches. But part of walking in your target audiences’ shoes also includes:
digging down deep mentally and emotionally to really understand your marketplace and your organization’s place in it
brainstorming with individuals at all levels of your organization, particularly those who are in customer-service roles, or who actually provide or deliver your product or service, to determine what client “pain points” your product or service addresses
reaching out to customers with whom you have a strong and longstanding relationship to ask them for feedback about why they chose to work with your organization or buy your product, and how the product or service has made their life or job easier
In addition to chatting with your organization’s staff and clients about the problems your products or services solve and using those to inform website and other online content your organization publishes, as part of such internal and external discussions, ask about other pains/challenges your target audiences deal with regularly (even if you don’t offer a solution to them). Simply providing helpful information online on topics or questions that are tangential to your products or services, but important to your target audiences, is a great way to have search engines serve up your website or Google My Business Profile in related to searches being conducted by your target audiences even if they aren’t directly related to your organization. It’s a win-win.
Because one of the services my agency offers is PR — and we’ve had some decent success obtaining meaningful media coverage for some of our for-profit and non-profit clients (as documented in our Public Relations Portfolio) — of course, we reached out to The Patriot Ledger to see if they wanted to do a “then and now” story about our South Shore organization since they covered our story nine years back. We’re still awaiting news, literally and figuratively on that one, but we figured why not go ahead and share a similar version of that story on our blog using the highlights we shared with them? So, here goes…
I prefer to refer to my business as a digital marketing agency vs. a marketing consultancy because we do as much as hands-on work as we do developing & recommending marketing strategies.
Our story actually began with me launching my own WordPress website without the help of anyone else, and my officially hanging my digital marketing agency’s shingle via that site. And, if I knew as much as I know about WordPress and website development now as I knew then, I would have originally launched my site with WordPress.org (the platform that it’s on now) vs. WordPress.org, so I could use the many great WordPress plug-ins from the get-go! Or, I might also have considered Joomla instead, but owning a business and getting it right is all about the journey. And, you can’t learn what you need to learn without making a few mistakes and getting your hands dirty, right?
What’s been particularly challenging as an organization who helps others with their own marketing is, sometimes, as I’ve been known to share, “the cobbler’s kids have no shoes.” That means often we are so busy helping our clients with their marketing, we don’t have time for our own. The aforementioned said, we make every effort to have our firm’s own marketing activities (such as our website and social media profiles) serve as a shining example of how to maintain a strong online presence, and it’s great that we’ve been able to use our own business to test and try out various marketing activities — therefore, serve as a bit of a guinea pig — before we test or try something brand new with clients.
I believe and hope my story can motivate and inspire others considering opening their own business. Before, or right after I launched my business, I was told by one individual who works with entrepreneurs that 80% of female marketing consultants fail. I refused to be a statistic, and regularly told myself that during the first 5 years, which were the hardest. It takes a good five years to get the word out there and have business come to you organically/naturally thru referrals, leads, and recommendations from others — made by former co-workers and clients, existing clients, other marketing consultants and agencies, and other organizations who serve the same vertical/target audiences whom you serve.
My philosophy and dreams when I started my business have remained pretty constant and I’m pleased to report I’ve followed them. I’m particularly proud that I’ve been able to continue to offer what I believe, based on research, are very reasonable rates to small for-profit and non-profit organizations. Due to my years of experience and expertise, clients have access to the same level of knowledge and skills that they’d have access to via a larger marketing agency, but at much lower rates than what a larger agency might offer. And, because we have significant experience in both traditional marketing AND digital marketing, we can offer the majority of services a larger, full-service agency can.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned that I’d love to share with others starting a business is this: don’t think of others in your space as competitors. Think of them as collaborators – people who serve the same target audiences who may need your services.
Our Impact: Local (South Shore of Boston), National, and International
I’ve helped a number of young adults who grew up on the South Shore, or elsewhere in MA, get hands-on experience that they were able to parlay into a post-graduation job elsewhere.
Related to the above, I’ve had the great fun and pleasure of working with my nephews, my brother, my brother-in-law, and my late sister-in-law on various client projects.
I’ve also met with a number of college or graduate school students looking to pick my brain about careers in marketing and learn from me – including one in my neighborhood who found me thru a Google search! Yes, because early on I recognized I needed to create a Google My Business Profile for my own business to be found by local, relevant searchers and this is something I regularly help my clients with now!
I’ve given a large number of pro bono hours to nonprofits as part of a totally free consulting/volunteer situation or discussion, or as part of their paid arrangement with me. I’ve had a number of very interesting local nonprofit clients, including ones in the faith-based space, arts and music space, ones serving vulnerable populations, ones serving individuals with special needs, and one providing financially challenged teens the opportunity to serve vulnerable teens abroad, and more! Some have an international impact.
One of my specialties is helping nonprofits apply for a Google Nonprofit Ad Grant. I, then, often stay on and manage the Grant for them – $120,000 in free Google Search advertising annually. I can explain more.
I also have a number of for-profit clients on the South Shore, but my client base is national and I have had clients in New Orleans, CA, Texas, and more!
I’ve served over 120 for-profit and non-profit organizations in the 10 years I’ve been running my digital marketing agency/SEO company.
I had no idea when I launched my business that I would become an expert in something that I only had very little knowledge of at the time when I launched my business – search engine optimization (SEO). Many of my referrals for or sub-contracted work come from other agencies, marketing consultants, and website designers who need to pull someone into their client work/project who knows how to get websites and Google My Business Profiles ranking well in Google via organic and paid search (Google Ads) SEO activities. I’ve become a self-taught SEO expert and very proud of it. I just read and watched everything I could get my hands on, took Google Ads certification classes, and attended free webinars. I still do that daily as Google’s Search Engine will be switching to an AI one, and I’m already helping my clients be proactive about that and prep for it (Google SGE).
As indicated above, while I do sub-contracted or referred work for other agencies, marketing consultants, and website designers, many of my clients are my own clients, and I usually have a plate of about 12 – 15 clients for whom I’m doing ongoing, digital marketing work for on a monthly basis, plus also juggling several one-off/one-time clients at the same time. At any given point in time, I’m normally doing work for about 17 – 25 clients with the help of some fabulous interns and associates, as they were/are available.
I’ve given a number of free workshops for SCORE and other organizations serving entrepreneurs, and I’m a SCORE volunteer and have provided tons of free advice to entrepreneurs by meeting with them on a complimentary basis. And, related to all of this, I’ve had a blast partnering with fellow marketing experts to give presentations that address multiple marketing areas of expertise! Thank you! You know who you are!
I’m a data geek and SEO geek and proud of it. I’m a huge data slicer and dicer and that’s what separates me from a lot of others in my space. I always say I won’t encourage clients to start or continue with marketing activities that don’t make sense for them based on what data is showing. I consider myself to be my clients’ accountability partner, and I’m not afraid to give tough love when I need to. I’m not afraid to voice a different opinion than other marketers. If I think something isn’t going to work, or isn’t working, I speak up.
I’m also proud that my marketing agency survived our recent COVID-19 pandemic and was extremely proactive about providing helpful insights from the very start of the pandemic for marketers to appropriately respond to the pandemic/pivot, such as these blog posts about using paid ads during the pandemic and how to make sure your social media presence wasn’t offensive and was relevant.
I give back significantly to the community. I was involved with the Braintree Relay For Life Committee for a while, and now, I do a number of charity walks in addition to all the other beneficial work I mentioned above.
Our Focus On Health & Wellness
If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ll know that I’ll throw in a good blog post about walking once in a while. You can use the categories search tool/drop-down menu to search on “walking” to see the various walking topics about which I’ve written.
Since my corporate marketing days, I’ve always loved to share health & wellness tips — whether they be with fellow employees as part of an internal communications role, or with members of a health plan I worked for, and from the get-go with Results Communications & Research, I’ve aimed to inspire those with health (and other challenges) to never give up, and keep fighting via my “Keep Up The Fight” website page. And, I recently put up a new blog post about an invisible disease with which many health warriors who have battled or are battling other forms of illness have to contend.
Our Thank You
My digital marketing agency/SEO company and I would have never made it this far without all the help of great collaborators, cheerleaders (friends, family, my husband Jay, and other fellow small business owners), and most importantly, our clients who looked to us for expert marketing guidance and assistance. We have many clients with whom we’ve served as an outsourced marketing department for years, and we thank you for your faith in us! We’ve so enjoyed being a part of your business family! We also thank those who we haven’t had the opportunity to work with for as long as some of our long-term clients, but have enjoyed or are enjoying being a part of your organization’s success story.
What’s Next
I don’t know what the future holds for Results Communications & Research, but I’m excited about what’s to come! And, I know I will continue to try to give back as much as possible with the platform that this fun, educational, and interesting business provides!
Want To Benefit From The Marketing Services Of A Digital Marketing Agency/SEO With A Long Tenure And Who Gives Back?
As I shared with entrepreneur attendees of a recent webinar I gave with a colleague on “ensuring your website is your workhorse,” search engine optimization (SEO) is not a one and done activity. SEO should be viewed as an activity that continues as long as your business or organization does. That said, there are steps you can take to stockpile some SEO work, while knowing that you can’t fully stockpile SEO because of needing to respond to yet-unknown industry, life, world, and personal events that may impact your organization and the products, services, and solutions you offer. Think about the onset of the 2020 pandemic. None of us really saw that coming, right? And, we had to pivot and put out new information, and/or add or tweak products and services to better serve our customers in a new world/business landscape.
How You Can Stockpile SEO
Google continues to reward websites who provide fresh/current “helpful content.” This was reinforced by their August 2023 algorithm update that indicated having “helpful content” was a key factor “the king of search engines” would continue to take into consideration when deciding which websites to serve high up in search results for relevant terms.
By creating an editorial calendar that documents future blog post topics for the next quarter, or more, and then, actually writing the posts and creating or identify images for use along with the posts, you can certainly get ahead of the SEO game — by doing all you can to have content that your target audience will value queued up for several or many months. The aforementioned is particularly true if your content management system (CMS)/website platform allows you to schedule posts to be published at a future date.
Why You Can’t Completely Stockpile SEO
As expressed in our blog post intro., there will always be unforeseen circumstances that arise that will cause you to want or need to put out new unanticipated content, or to add or change product, service, and solution offerings. Here’s an example: a blog post I wrote with a colleague about how to best employ social media during the pandemic. Could I have foreseen a need for this post months in advance, and therefore, created and scheduled this, i.e., stockpiled it? No. I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the severity and length of COVID’s impact on organizations and businesses many months in advance.
In sum, you can and should take time to create an editorial calendar detailing future blog post topics and publish dates, and you can and should write those in advance; plus, use CMS capabilities to schedule them to publish on your website at the right time. But, there will always be times when you’ll need to respond immediately to unexpected events that occur — either ones that may pose a challenge to you and your customers, or provide an opportunity for you and your customers that you’ll want to capitalize on quickly.
Need Help Building OutA Blog Post Editorial Calendar?
Not sure where to begin to figure out topics for future blog posts that will provide meaningful, beneficial information to prospective and existing clients?
Recently, as the owner of a digital marketing agency with an SEO (search engine optimization) specialty who is always looking to improve on the SEO services we offer our clients, I signed up for a subscription to “Answer The Public.” I had learned about the tool via a free webinar offered by Neil Patel, a digital marketing expert I greatly admire and follow on LinkedIn, and one of Neil’s colleagues. The aforementioned tool allows you to see what questions individuals are asking related to the products, services, and solutions to problems that your organization offers, and to see how frequently, for a particular geography, individuals are searching Google for answers to those questions.
I’ve already used the tool numerous times with various clients to inform FAQs (frequently asked questions) on their websites, as well as topics for future blog posts. And, of course, I plan to use the tool to inform future blog posts for Results C & R too.
The data available via “Answer The Public” is so in keeping with the blog post we wrote last year about the algorithm change Google shared about placing greater emphasis on “helpful content” when determining which organizations’ websites to serve up high in search results for relevant queries.
When thinking about what to write about “Answer The Public,” the song below came to mind because isn’t that what helpful content, and answering the questions people want answered, all about? Giving people what they want and need?
Reach Out To Talk About Your Marketing Challenges and Opportunities and How Our SEO Services Might Address Them
I always love a great marketing and communications brainstorm, so reach out today to talk about your awareness-, sales-, and service-engagement- challenges. I’ll always give you an honest evaluation of whether I believe your organization would benefit from pull marketing tactics (like organic and paid SEO), push marketing tactics (like social media advertising), or both. Use my calendar app to schedule a complimentary discussion at a day and time that’s convenient for you, or e-mail me at gail.moraski@allintheresults.com.
