The digital marketing community talks about Google algorithm updates as if everyone understands the importance and as if it they affect everyone. But let’s step back for a moment and put ourselves in the shoes of our clients. Do they care about Penguin 4.0? Only if it affects their bottom line. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as a client of an online marketing agency.
Are you Communicating Effectively?
One issue online marketing experts have talked about since the dawn of the internet is effective communication. Call it branding, call it messaging, call it positioning if you like but it all boils down to one thing: Can your users understand what you do? Can they see the value in what you offer? If they can, you’ve probably avoided stilted spammy language and you should weather most algorithm updates just fine.
Are you Communicating Consistently?
A static website is a dead website. From the perspective of your users and from search engines, if there is rarely new information, there isn’t a reason to come back. Not every product or service is exciting, and not all business models are easy to explain, but a consistent conversation with your clients in clear language will help generate business and interest from search engines.
Are you Following Online Marketing Best Practices?
It can be hard to stay current on the complete list of best practices involved in good SEO, good SEM and cross-channel messaging and marketing, but following Google’s best practices leads to long term rewards. SEO–and for that matter most marketing–isn’t a short term game. That means you’ll want to stay up to date on the small items like microformatting and word choice as well as the big items like website usability and mobile device compliance. It can seem like a lot to stay on top of but a competent digital marketing agency will help you create a roadmap that helps you succeed on a budget you can live with.
If your current SEO or SEM company is helping you stay current with these three components of online marketing, don’t lose sleep over the algorithm updates. That’s their job. If you have doubts about how well you’re doing on these three points. Get in touch. You can always get a second opinion on how well your online presence is being managed.