NUTRITIONAL BLAST: THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN DIGITAL MARKETING
I know, I know… I am sending out my Nutritional Blast at the end of the week… But I did this because of the seminar I was attending at Google’s NYC Offices on Wednesday, since I thought marketing would be a good thesis for my blast. I felt like sharing something I find interesting with everyone, even if it doesn’t interest you hopefully you can find it educational.
The seminar was put on by Blue Fountain Media Group and Google. One of the 5 presentation was by Bryn Dodson, Director of Content Marketing for Blue Fountain Media Group, titled “SEO Tactics in 2017” (Search Engine Optimization). The presentation began with an interesting timeline of modern digital marketing and how software has evolved.
The beginning of the digital marketing is the “Age of Bots”, which basically means that originally programmers created software robots that would be-able to heighten traffic to websites through basic SEO. The SEO tactic was simple, plug in as many keywords as possible into a webpage or article so search engines would direct traffic to your website. This caused a massive issue, we are all familiar with SPAM, because it meant quantity over quality.
These bots over saturated the web by stuffing keywords in bulk, into websites, videos, articles, etc. resulting in spamy links and pop-ups. Basically, user satisfaction was secondary because marketers focused on driving traffic to the website at all costs. Things had to change because user experience was poor.
The next stage is what we are still involved in, and what will most likely last forever, called the Age of Humans. This means that people officially got sick of being spammed with information they can careless about and the digital marketing world took notice. Everything has alternated from pure SEO to valuable content. Now marketers spend a majority of time doing intense research on their audiences needs and create content that is uniquely valuable with an intent to teach/engage the audience. This has been working great for the industry when done correctly because users want great content!
What formed this change above all is the search engine itself. Search Engines (like Google) went from basic “search and find” to a complete solutions provider and connector. Before when searching in Google it would direct you to the destination with the most resembling keywords (SEO), but there was a heavy bounce rate (when a user goes into a webpage for a few seconds and leaves), which means the page that Google directed you to didn’t meet user standards, basically the page wasn’t up-to-date or didn’t have specific information the user was searching for, causing the user to leave and go somewhere with the information they desired. This created a huge problem because search results didn’t become reliable, so Google began to do its diligence on the results its software would discover for every user search, making the official jump from quantity to quality for marketers.
Now Google wants to intuitively find the answers each user desires, which is why Google wants you to make an account so it can perfect its results for you every single search. For example: Say you have a Google account and when you search for something you consistently go to the Wikipedia page of our search results (if there is one). Google analyzes the users tendency to click on Wikipedia and proceeds to put it at the top of your results more frequently. Not just that, Wikipedia is acknowledged as a reliable source of information in Googles eyes because the user finds it reliable thus heightening Wikipedia’s SEO profile.
For e-commerce sites, every item you search for Google monitors using your cookies (search history) to track your tendencies to put the right type of ads, from the right type of companies, at the right time, and in the right geographic location; in front of the user instantaneously so they are more likely to make an action, or purchase. This is called “Google Ads” and it is used by a majority of websites that take in a high volume of traffic per month, like social media platforms, blogs and publications, as well as e-commerce companies that have an item to sell, even medical device companies. The blogs and publications host the advertisements and e-commerce businesses pay for the ads to be in front of the right users, using user’s cookies. This makes targeting your audience a lot easier for marketing and sales purposes. Throw in mobile optimization and things get more complicated, thus more targeted.
The next step became Digital PR, which means establishing relationships with blogs and media publications to produce great resources and stories in an effort to drive the traffic to your brand/company. This enhanced SEO, because the links from these established sources were seen as high quality material, which is today’s content GOLD. Plus, as social media developed into a resource for content distribution socially shareable content began to build awareness and spark search interest with organic material, which allowed more business to engage in customers in ways they never could before. Also, it added a second digital advertising platform other than Google Ads and it is LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, Instagram Ads, and Snapchat Ads. Each of these social media platforms now optimize their users regularly based on the activity they do on the platform.
Now, the marketplace is as hectic as ever! The last stage Dodson discussed was about SEO in the age of humans. SEO is no longer a set of technical rules because it has become a lot more intricate and extensive. Now good digital marketing requires off-site recognition and on-site optimization, also all keywords and links need to be optimized appropriately for your audience and users desired answers.
Lastly, the brightest minds at Google project that by 2020, 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen, which means voice command will only become more prevalent over the next few years. Imagine in a couple years scrolling through the Internet on your TV in the living room and switching to cable TV, Youtube, or Netflix with a simple voice command. Google believes this will be the norm just in a short few years, after all 10 years ago social media and smartphones were just entering the ball game. In 2006, Youtube was sold for $1.65 billion and today its estimated that independently the site is worth over $70 billion.
Here is Google’s Algorithm Timeline complete with all of the updates it has had since inception: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Google_Search
About Global Interconnect: GII is a team of engineers providing custom cable and wire solutions based outside of Boston, MA. Founded in 1995 GII has consistent revenue growth supporting some of the world’s leading medical device and high-end industrial companies. You can learn more about our products and solutions by contacting Colin Angle, Digital Marketing Manager, at (508) 563-6306 EXT 122 or by going to our new website: www.GlobalInterconnect.com.