Intent Separates Social and Search

This weekend I found myself suddenly in the market for a pre-owned vehicle due to unforseen and sudden mechanical issues with my car. I socialized with trusted influencers via the more "old school" method of phone calls, because my trusted car mechanics and enthusiasts either don't have a Facebook account or do not receive updated news streams and messages on their smartphones. Once my perceptions on make and models were validated by people I trust to know a lot about cars, I became an immediately motivated buyer. I looked at a few discussion forums and automotive social networks and learned a few things about recall years, vehicle performance and accessories, but nobody was selling the car I was interested in. I was socially engaged, yet no closer to a purchase resolution.

SEO Spiders Are Night Owls



SEO Spiders feed at night

 In the early days of search engine optimization (SEO) vendors howled at prospects about the importance of "optimizing" their websites for search engines. Interactive content generators created copy that was often hard to read or understand, because they were writing for Internet robots called "Spiders". But what they didn't count on was that these search engine Spiders would eventually become too sophisticated to be hoodwinked by clever website developers, whose efforts to achieve higher organic search rankings for their clients, were soon doomed. Today, SEO continues to be an important tool for Digital Rainmakers, but it has come of age. To achieve higher page rankings in organic search these days, it's all about compelling and fresh content. That's not to say keyword research is not important, because everything users do on the web has an impact on search. Yet, it's the content that will keep those Spiders coming back for more from your site or blog. And here are a couple of other great SEO tips from some really smart folks at HubSpot:

1. Build, not buy, links to your site by producing great, fresh content.
2. Don't forget the local element of your product/service when you do your keyword research. Lot's of folks conducting mobile, geo-targeted search these days.
3. Schedule the publishing of your posts early in the week and day for optimum linkbuilding.
4. Publish on the weekends and evenings, as research shows SEO spider engines are night owls.

Timing Is Everything In Search

For digital Rainmakers looking to synchronize strategies across multiple paid search marketing platforms, timing is everything. As Google representatives demonstrated at this year's OMMA Mobile conference, the flow of usage across search platforms is significantly different from device to device. Use of the desktop is     steady throughout the workday, but starts to decline as prime time nears. That's when both mobile and tablet search usage spikes, peaking during the last two hours of the day. That means that many consumers are  "second-screening" during the prime time TV viewing period. And that presents the next big challenge for Rainmakers, who will need to create more interactive, realtime brand initiatives to enhance their television campaigns.