Conversational SEO: Conversations that increase your rank

Nov
30

Conversational SEO: Conversations that increase your rank

It’s actually really simple if you think about it. While the term – conversational SEO – does sound cool and everything; it’s nothing more than thinking strategically about the way you (as marketers) have online conversations with your customers. By employing the basic fundamentals of SEO (on-page optimization); whereby you use key terms that you are trying to rank for within your conversations, you can reap the benefits of a nice increase in rank. The challenge is that you do so naturally and not like the following:

“Thank you for comment on our website that sells computers and printers. While we understand your frustration about our computer and printer shipping policy; there is nothing we can do to assist you. We do hope that you will be patient for your computer and printer; and you may want contact the shipping company. They may have your computer and printer in their warehouse.”

Okay, totally exaggerating but you catch my drift.

The benefit of conversational SEO is threefold. You will continue to build relationships with your customers; contribute to a positive customer experience; and increase your search engine rankings. It’s really that simple. More to come on this topic.

Technorati Tags: conversational marketing, conversational SEO, SEO

Author: Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Vice President of Social Media at Edelman Digital. All thoughts and opinions on this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer or clients; neither past or present. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or subscribe to this blog.

Michael Brito

@ MEl

Hey you...thanks for the message. I wrote an article for imediaconnection.com that covers this topic in depth. It's being published on Monday. I'll email you the url.
Melanie Phung

Hi Michael. My work is moving towards social media much more than in the past, and what you describe is absolutely part of my strategy. My new employer does a ton of social media/conversational marketing stuff, but so far they haven't leveraged all that activity for SEO purposes.

Would love to read more of your thoughts on this topic.

Melanie
SureFire Guy

I've been to countless sites where SEO keywords take precedence over the readability of the text (i.e. there's no flow). Like the example you gave, saying "computers" and "printers" as often as possible can create a very unfavorable end-user experience...especially when they're bolded, hyperlinked, etc. (:

Do you happen to have any research that shows that littering your text with keywords for SEO purposes either helps or hinders your sales?

Look at OpticsPlanet.net, for instance. These guys do some serious SEO. However, if I ever tried to buy something on their site, I'd probably punch my computer monitor out of sheer frustration...so much text! However, maybe they're raking in the sales? Who knows?

Anyway, your comments and feedback would be much appreciated.
Michael Brito

true. well, you just earned yourself a link -- see below in my blogroll.
Isabella J Mori

I don't think they will be linked to anyway, simply because it's too much work. I try to link back to people as much as possible but if you don't have an actual system for it, you're only going to be able to link back to the odd commenter.

Yes, of course on opens oneself up for spam. However, most do follow plugins have ways to cut down on that.
Michael Brito

Isabella - aha. Well, it really depends; because you will then open the door for more spam. If a marketer is truly engaged with the conversation (whatever it may be); and provides value to that conversation, it’s most likely they will be linked to anyway.
Isabella J Mori

Here's a question: If we truly want interaction, shouldn't we have dofollow for our comments? (Still trying to install that on my blogs, without much luck, btw)
Michael Brito

higher ranking = more conversions = and then more coin in your pocket!
geri

Conversation SEO = SMO = Blogging = ?
Michael Brito

Kalison...yes indeed. Sorry but I have no follow on my comments!! LMAO!
Kalison

You mean like this:
Great post. So, let's have a conversation...your website is awesome and everyone needs low cost web hosting. Let me know if you are interested!
How'd I do?
Mark

Hi Michael thanks for sharing. And Michelle, take it in stride haha. In IM, new terms are inevitable. But the term does sound misleading. It's like saying "Hey I'm Google, talk to me" Cheers
Michelle

oh great...another new term.