Few companies have driven headlines over the past decade with the same consistency as search engine giant Google. This hasn’t been for lack of good reason, as the company’s online search engine drives global internet traffic on a massive scale, and how well your business can execute search engine marketing can have a huge impact on revenue. Unfortunately, it seems like the deck is stacked against you, and the nature of the beast is such that not everyone can count on even their most dedicated search engine marketing efforts to give them the type of exposure and traffic they hoped for. Accepting this narrative and getting frustrated as you see others making money is not the only option though. In fact, with some basic digital marketing, you can capture some of that same success for yourself.

Your Journey to the Top

Your journey to the top of the search engine marketing world doesn’t begin with trade secrets, black hat SEO tricks, or any other mystical overnight fixes. Instead, the first thing to do is to look at what you’ve been doing, evaluate what kind of assumptions you’ve been holding about search engine marketing, and then set those aside so you’ll be open to a fresh perspective on the issue.

Step #1 – What you Know:

• You have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at search engine marketing, hoping that one of the many techniques employed would yield results.
• The scatter-shot approach mentioned above did yield some success, but it was erratic, unpredictable, and ultimately unattainable on a consistent basis.
• At this point, you know search engine marketing can be a useful component of a larger strategic digital marketing plan, but you are worried that the time you’re spending on it is wasted given the lack of progress.

Step #2 – What to Accept:

• No matter how effective my search engine marketing may be, it is not the only one of your marketing strategies; search success alone is not going to pay the bills.
• The old approach to search needs to be thrown out the door. If you had it right the first time, you wouldn’t need to be reevaluated in the first place! Starting fresh is the best way to go sometimes.
• The above point is absolute. Without throwing out the old there’s no way you’ll have room for the new.

Step #3 – The New

Once you’ve reached the final step, your mind should be a blank slate in regard to understanding digital marketing as it relates to search. The frustration, stress, and other pain points that you experienced prior to this stage need to be put behind you. The process of building a quality base of knowledge about search engine marketing will take time, but these three points should lay the foundation:

• Start viewing search engine marketing as your anchor point. Social media marketing, email marketing, and online video marketing should all be optimized to reinforce the core principle of search.
• Stay current on Google’s digital marketing best practices, search engine marketing what they consider to be ethical behavior, and pretty much anything else they release that pertains to how they want you to behave. It may seem unfair that one company can dictate so much of your behavior, but your potential customers live in a Google world, which means so do you!
• Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away. Because saying it once isn’t enough: “The process of building a quality base of knowledge about search engine marketing will take time.” Be patient, stay true to the above two points, and good things will come in time.

Step#4 – Bonus

The bonus step that you should take when revamping your approach to search engine marketing is simple: read a book. There are plenty of titles out there that deal with the subject at hand, as well as covering a variety of other digital marketing best practices and basic materials. Companies operating in the space are great places to look for literature, such as this e-book from Digital Marketing Keys. Use the knowledge found inside to help super-charge your transition from a search result “not” to a search result “a lot.”