Last night I was chatting with Brian about his recent article. We were talking about how when people get into online marketing they suddenly become enamored with the technology. Have you noticed that?
There is one key to success online and let me tell you now, technology is not it.
Yes, the technical side is important and has a very key role to play. Get the technology right without another critical ingredient and failure is guaranteed.
What is this magic sauce? People.
“People” are the key to your success, online or off.
What a bizarre thing to say! But it is true. Let me explain.
Take a look at this list and tell me what they all have in common …
- Subscribers
- Traffic
- Links
- Social Media Votes
- Comments
- Search Engine Results
- Advertisers
- Sales
Got it? They all rely on other people!
You might think that SEO is all about technical tweaks and tricks. Black arts, keyword stuffing, getting the right number of keywords in the right places. But I would argue the best Search Engine Optimizers are actually masters of psychology – Social Optimizers if you will.
Your best links come from other bloggers. Links and anchor text are key to search results. Social Media is partly about phrasing headlines and descriptions, but it is mostly about getting votes. Votes come from people.
Get the people side right and you have won over half the battle.
Focus on people first, when your audience is happy you will find the rest a whole lot easier!