What’s the Best Approach for SEO: Generalist or Specialist?
· BlueHat Marketing
While the role of an SEO professional is still to drive organic traffic and increase organic revenue, the methods that are used have changed quite a bit, making it necessary for these professionals to acquire additional skills to continue seeing results. Today, the SEO professional has to act and think like a creative marketer, digital strategist, user experience advocate, content developer and even cheerleader if you plan to survive the ever-changing landscape of SEO.
As a result of this information, there are two new trends that need to be carefully considered:
· Are you specializing in just one facet of digital marketing, or has the landscape of the industry changed so much that you have to be cross-functional?
· Is SEO now considered marketing? Are there SEO professionals out there who are not embracing this change?
There are some professionals who believe that when you do SEO, it should only be SEO. While this is not wrong, it does not take a full look at what SEO in 2015 entails.
There are a number of situations when it is impossible to just implement tech improvements to ensure a whole-side increase in your organic traffic. While there are some instances when this is necessary, there are more when a multi-faceted approach is necessary.
How to Use SEO Specialists in a Generalist Approach
To develop the most effective strategies, we believe that SEO companies should approach their projects by employing specialists in different areas. One person, whether they are a specialist or generalist, cannot be effective/efficient doing everything. Since SEO is now such a diverse field, combining specialists in each facet creates an effective general approach. The key is to cover all the angles to successfully launch an SEO campaign.
For example: content writers, SEO specialists, social media experts, conversion optimization specialists and graphic designers are all required to execute an effective general SEO campaign that contributes to a business’ the bottom line. In essence, SEO companies now need to engage more departments to successfully launch and maintain a successful campaign. There is no simple and straightforward way to “do SEO” that involves either a specialist or generalist.
Is SEO Really Marketing?
A decade ago, SEO was not considered “real” marketing. It mainly involved the optimization of keywords and code structure for your website. Needless to say, times have changed.
So when did SEO make the transformation from this state to “real” marketing? About the time the Panda and Penguin updates hit. With Google improving its algorithm and ensuring websites were covering all the bases in terms of on-site fundaments, SEO then became the trendy action to take and one that really could no longer be ignored.
You may be wondering what all of this means for modern businesses.
The first concept is a fairly obvious one. Marketing is being able to educate potential customers regarding a service or product you offer and persuading them to actually make a purchase. By this definition, modern SEO is definitely marketing, and currently one of the largest and most effective methods for driving traffic to your site. If you are part of an organization that still does not see the value offered by SEO, then they need to either change their thinking, or you need to find a different organization.
The second concept is the fact that “good SEO” is never going to exist if you don’t have a mix of technical skills and marketing. There are far too many case studies that prove it is impossible to focus on only the content strategy or the technical architecture of your website. This will never lead to success.
In terms of the better professional option, understanding one factor extremely well, or being cross functional both offer benefits. In the long-run what you need for a business is going to determine the skillset of the person that you hire.
To get the most out of your SEO campaign , trust the experts at BlueHat Marketing.
