Marketing is more important than SEO.
Businesses invest in SEO and fall into the trap of:
Doing less marketing because they feel SEO is an “easier” way up
Spending their budget on SEO over marketing
The thing is, marketing buzz is a more durable signal to search engines than SEOveroptimization.
Marketing takes work and creativity, and whether intentional or not, business owners sometimes think maybe they should take a step back and substitute the marketing needs of their product / service with SEO because it feels “easier” that way.
But it’s not 2012 anymore.
You can’t game SEO and search engines. They’re smart.
And what’s more alarming is that SEO algorithm changes all the time.
There is little point trying to overoptimize everything for the current algorithm before the next change that might happen next week or a month from now. That would be a waste of time and money.
But one thing stays true: Search engines love backlinks.
What are backlinks?
To put it simply, backlinks are links to your website in other websites.
Backlinks are essentially indications that your website is trustworthy and/or useful enough to end up in other websites.
The more reputable the backlinks are from, the better it is for your website.
Get people online to talk about your product / service.
If you must choose between investing in a good marketing / public relations campaign over SEO, choose the former.
A good marketing / public relations campaign will drive people to mention your product / service and pepper backlinks to your website across social media, blogs, and news websites.
Search engines can see these signals and they are much more durable compared to any overoptimization for an algorithm that changes all the time.
So, choose and invest wisely.
Stop chasing the algorithm and focus on your audiences. Get your message to them as directly as possible.
And stop thinking that SEO is the easy way out. Don’t be lazy.