In business today it’s absolutely essential to be aware of your digital presence. Your website, your social media, and how your business interacts with search engines and online advertising – these elements can open avenues that might otherwise be closed, but they can also be a millstone around your neck.
The owners of recruitment businesses have a million different issues to deal with. Personnel, cash flow, clients and administration all take time. It’s not surprising that, with only so many hours in the day, learning how to manage your digital marketing may not be a priority. Taking time to really understand what works might just not be feasible, but there are a few tips that can help to make the best use of your time.
Bob Dylan at Massey Hall, Toronto, April 18, 1980 Photo by Jean-Luc Ourlin
Times they are a Changin’
There is a glut of information on the best digital marketing practises online. A simple search will often throw up a whole lot of hints, tips and tricks for the business owner. You might be tempted to take what you have read and implement it straight away, but this is a trap that a lot of professionals fall into.
When the World Wide Web was in its infancy there were a multitude of ways to manipulate search engines and bring your business to the top of the list. Peppering your content with Keywords, trading for incoming links and guest blogging used to be fool proof ways of boosting your digital presence. Beware; these are outdated techniques, and they can get you into trouble.
The internet is constantly changing, and the rules for successful digital marketing are in a permanent state of flux. Search engines update their algorithm, the program they use to find and filter search results, on a regular basis and this changes the whole landscape of the digital world.
Whilst there are lots of reputable people putting out information online there are also a whole lot of outdated articles. Following advice that’s out of date is at best a little risky, and at worst can land you with a penalty that will actually damage your business.
The smart way to make your recruitment business successful online is to engage with your target audience in as many ways as you possibly can, but how do you accomplish this?
What is SEO?
This little three-letter acronym is a word that gets hurled around with wild abandon whenever digital marketing is discussed, but what is Search Engine Optimisation?
SEO is the process of making your website as visible as possible to the various search engines. Because the big search engines are always evolving SEO has been a process that has to change with the times, growing to take in data analysis, content creation and an array of other strands that combine to increase the effectiveness of online marketing.
As search engines have evolved they have become more adept at detecting and shutting down techniques that try to manipulate programs. This is because a search engine needs to respond to its users and deliver the most pertinent results. Modern digital marketing shouldn’t follow this old way of working, because it just doesn’t work anymore.
What should I do?
Don’t think of your website as a static document. It’s not a billboard with your company name and contact details, and it’s certainly not an optional extra to gain a little more revenue. Your website is your best salesperson. It needs to inform your customers and clients, and it needs to offer them something worthwhile.
Chasing rankings on Google for particular terms is still trying to manipulate the system, and there is no way that any business owner can be clever enough to beat an engine that has been put together by some of the most talented minds on Earth.
Think of your online presence as an entity that is rooted into every element of your business. If you are putting content up on your site think about how it enriches your brand and what it provides for the people you want to contact. Think about what your customers want, not the search engines, and then give it to them.
A common issue in the recruitment sector is that businesses will often post vacancies on site, but fail to promote these pages via other means. Remember that your personnel are the people that you want to reach. The easier you make that, by disseminating via social media and e-mail contacts, the easier it will be for you to find and deploy the resources you need. Twitter is a great tool to get your job vacancies out into the big wide world, often your website’s content management system will let you feed straight into Twitter and other social media so that you don’t need to post onto individual social medias.
If you are interested in taking your digital marketing forwards, Novi Digital can offer professional advice, guidance and assistance to show your customers what you can do for them. Give us a call on 01524 510 570 and let us show you what we can do.