Five Things I Learned About SEO
Erik Greene, a GVSU alumni and account coordinator/strategist came to discuss Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with a few Grand Valley students on March 27th. During the hour long event attendees received insight on how SEO has affected the advertising/public relations industry and how it plays a role in our personal brands. While Greene fit in a hour worth of information about a topic that would probably take at least a semester to fully understand, I left with some great information that will benefit students as they start building their brands. Here are five things you should know about search engine optimization.
1. "Everything has changed. Nothing as changed."
While the methods of how we communicate have changed a lot in a very short amount of time, the reasons why we communicate remain the same. When speaking to your audience, always deliver relatable and relevant content. With so many platforms to showcase your content, sometimes the message is lost in flashy animations and sleek website design, but what do you want the viewer to take away from what’s being shown to them?
2. Post. Wait. Measure. Repeat.
Whether you’re creating content for a personal blog or working for a client, writing is a trial and error process. Figuring out what correlates best with your audience is important to build and maintain a group of people that are following your brand. So the four steps: write good content, let people consume the content, measure the success of your writing, and repeat!
3. What is SEO?
Before going to this event my knowledge on SEO was pretty much using keywords to be placed higher in search results. Search engine optimization is simply optimizing search results for a user. When you click on a website SEO helps find sites similar to it that you may be interested in checking out. When you’re creating for the consumer, proper tagging of your content is what helps make your site relevant to your audience and easier to find.
4. Content is King
I know I’ve talked about content a lot throughout this post and there’s a reason for that…content is king. You can’t expect everyone to gravitate toward your work, so knowing the target audience for your website or “brand” is important. Search engines are getting smarter and don’t deem a post with a bunch of buzzwords as something that should be featured on the top of a Google search. When your content is good and it receives consistent views, advertisers will notice that, and that is how you generate money for your work (Popular YouTubers like Tyler Oakley, Grace Helbig and Jenna Marbles are a good example of that).
5. How to Impress in an Interview.
One of the last things I learned about is how to use what I know about search engine optimization in an interview. While I’m not an expert on the subject, Greene taught me that you don’t have to be to impress an employer who might not have a lot of knowledge on the subject. Knowing your terminology related to SEO and being able to say how you would use it in certain situations could land you that next interview. Good luck!
Marcel Jeremiah is a junior majoring in Broadcasting and minoring in Public Relations. He is involved in a few student organizations and co-hosts a weekly radio show on GVSU's radio station "The Whale." Marcel has plans to pursue a career in radio and entertainment PR, and is currently interning for GR's 105.3 Hot FM. In his spare time, Marcel enjoys writing about music on his personal blog (itsmarcelj.com) and music site FDRMX.