In this POV paper we investigate some of the challenges of SEO and opportunities for marketers in the post-Panda / Penguin world of search optimisation.

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Search Engine Optimawhat?
– a Point of View from Resolution.
A point of view on why your business needs to engage in a Content
led Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy
21 May 2013
Data from Google highlights the importance of search in category research globally
The story of Theo and Neo
Theo and Neo were both homeowners, proud of their investments and commitments to
providing a home for their growing families for the rest of their lives. But soon after buying their
homes Theo and Neo started to think differently about how to manage their properties.
Theo knew that his house was his biggest investment, he knew that without maintenance and
careful upkeep the house might not only retain value but that things might start going wrong.
Theo regularly engaged the services of specialists to keep things in order – electricians and
plumbers to keep systems running, HVAC engineers to ensure heat and cooling throughout the
seasons. Sure, it cost a little – but he knew that spending ahead of damage would pay off in
time. When Theo found out he was going to become a father of twins he engaged a builder to
extend his house for his growing family. He knew that the house would grow and adapt as his
life changed. Theo loved his house.
Neo on the other hand took a very different approach – he believed that having spent most of
his life savings on the property it owed him. Everything worked, so why spend all that money on
maintenance? He enjoyed his life and ate out, holidayed and spent his hard earned money on
things he loved doing. But then came the storm they said would never happen, rain as Neo
had never seen – and because Neo hadn’t invested in drainage maintenance his basement
was flooded. The following winter it was cold. But that was ok, Neo had a furnace. Until it

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stopped working. It couldn’t be repaired, and the cost of replacement in winter was twice
what it should have been. Neo was happy to learn he was going to become a father, but his
exhuberant life meant he couldn’t afford to extend his house. The baby had to sleep with his
parents. It would take Neo ten years to afford to move house. Neo found his house to be
nightmare.
What does this have to do with SEO I hear you ask?
The stories of our happy (and unhappy) homeowners should resonate with more astute digital
marketers, marketers who have for the past decade understood the need for investment in
maintenance, support and growth of web properties – the significance of progressive, agile
test and learn strategies. For non digital marketers the careful, slow and steady approach
might seem counter intuitive? Traditional marketing has been driven by big ideas, big media
and big broadcasts. And it’s worked. In the past.
This point of view paper has been created to present a strategy for why brands need to invest
in SEO, and what it really involved (and why it’s a lot more interesting than you thought it might
be..)
What is SEO?
Let’s start with what SEO is and isn’t.
In the early days of SEO back in the late 1990’s it was easy for consultants to setup operations –
the internet was still quite small and in order for your website to be found a series of technical
processes could be used to “optimise”. This typically involved modifying code and systems and
introducing link building strategies to extend reach.
SEO has moved on from these dark, technical days – because Google has moved on. Google
– while rather secretive in letting us know what factors it uses to store and distribute content has
been open in telling us that user experience is now
critical to both the success of Google and the success
of brands
Today SEO looks a lot more like good marketing
Without boring you with the seismic changes
implemented by search engines over the past couple of
years it’s safe to say they are a lot more “human” in
their thinking. Search visibility is now driven by factors
that consider the effectiveness, relevance and
favourability of your content. Notice the highlights?
These facets should be familiar to the most successful
marketers of any generation.
So, if SEO looks like the principles of good, successful, modern marketing why aren’t we or our
clients focusing more on opportunities?
The answer, as with a lot of digital marketing challenges, lies with legacy – the ‘old’ SEO is still
part fo the DNA of many organisations and agencies and the ‘new’ principles of SEO are yet to
permeate through the systems.

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Google the Verb
Google as a verb was added to the Oxford
English Dictionary in June 2006 and has part of
our everyday language since then. People use
‘to Google’ in the same way that Americans
will use Xerox for photocopying or the English
use Hoover for vacuuming.
We all Google things, in fact so many of us
Google things – whether it’s to research friends,
jobs, products, services, places or events – that
ComScore reported Google was the first
property to hit a global audience of 1 billion
back in 2011.
Which begs the question – if (a) people use
search to find things and (b) Google makes
those same things available within 5 minutes of it being published – so why aren’t we spending
more money optimising content for search?
SEO is not part of the advertising stack
Because of the legacy in technical SEO it’s not seen as part of the advertising stack, but the
truth is – we can use search as a proxy for brand health based on understanding the
importance of demonstrating
· Marketing Effectiveness (if your campaigns are effective, people will search for your
stories to share and pass along)
· Content Relevancy (if your content is useful and relevant it will be both found and
shared)
· Technical Prowess (yes, technology is still important – but should not be the central
focus of your SEO strategy)
Let’s take an aspect of SEO that probably isn’t part of the conversation from technical SEO
practicioners – Social TV. A quick look back to the 2013 Superbowl and we saw 38% of

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advertisers using a #hashtag (designed for Twitter search and conversation) and 46% using a
URL (designed for direct web visits and search) in their ad content.
Why would advertisers do this? It’s simple really, and digital marketers have been arguing for
the “return path” in advertising since it’s early days – media is and should be two-way and not
broadcast only. So, when traditional print and TV is adapting to the digital age we know we’re
in for something pretty big. That big news comes in stories like Twitter buying Bluefin Labs, a
leading Social TV company for $90m in February 2013.
In thinking about the advertising stack, the arguments are building – people search for content,
advertisers are integrating searchable content in traditional advertising and the search engines
are adapting a more human friendly approach to content delivery – so why aren’t we
spending more money optimising content for search?
SEO is too complicated
But so is understanding the customer, crafting
messages that resonate and managing the
channel mix to find ways to make advertising and
marketing messages function effectively in the 21st
century.
That’s not an argument that’s going to stick.
And so when we look at the components that
make up an effective SEO programme (right) we
see that there’s a high level of probability that your
business is already engaged in some of this. This
paper would argue that a modern SEO
programme should be constructed from an
effective content marketing platform, suppootred
by a social business programme that’s supported
with a user experience that’s designed for, well,
the user. Technical optimisation is (and always will be) a component – but it’s not the most
important.
What search marketers need to do is get involved in conversations around these programmes
and help to direct strategies to enable social search, mobile search, web search to tap into
investments that are already being made.
And if you haven’t adapted your marketing programmes in this way, then how about kick
starting your content marketing or user experience initiatives by integrating with your SEO
expertise. You might be surpised by what this will achieve.
So what’s next? What do we need to do?
Search Engine Optimsiation, as with any kind of optimisation is a long term initiative – it’s
impossible given the state of change with the internet (and social and mobile..) for any activity
to be a permanent fix.

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But, with our recommendations about integrating
SEO with existing marketing programmes and
bringing everything together holisitically it should
be a lot easier to have a conversation with your
CMO about the importance of search optimisation
(regardless of device or platform) and integration
of marketing channels.
We see a need to integrate the four facets of
search – social business, user experience, content
and stories with the technical expertise of
traditional SEO wrapped with an analytics service
that integrates attribution based analytics to assign
marketing value to search.
With this in place you have a solid start on your
SEO programme.
If you’re still not convinced
Here are two factors that might help you decide to make the leap into content led search:
marketers get a 7:1 ROI on search investment and there’s been an average YoY growth in
internet marketing spend from 2003 of 39.7%. So, if you’re not investing in search you can be
sure your competitors are.
For information about Resolution in Asia Pacific
· Visit our website: www.resolutionmedia.com.
· Get in touch: asiainfo@resolutionmedia.com