You won the SEO gold medal. Now what?

Michael Phelps has won all the Gold medals he could at the age of 23 breaking seven world records on the way. The question arises “what now?” what is left for him to do?

Now, let’s assume you won the seo gold medal and are sitting on the top position in Google for your most important keywords, the same question can be asked “What now?”…

Michael Phelps actually answered this question in one interview he gave after his last win and said that he might now compete in different swimming styles. So basically “Try New Things”

In the wonderful world of SEO, winning the Gold doesn’t mean you can rest. Unlike swimming, in web marketing there are no limits to the number of gold medals you can have. There are an endless number of keywords (long and short tail) that are out there and every single one represents its own podium finish. Moreover, web marketing is a constantly growing and changing field which means that the gold you hold right now might not even carry you through the end of the day.

Whether the gold is getting top positions in Google, raising your traffic by 70% or increasing your online sales, there are many ways you can choose to achieve it.
Today one of the most popular ways to achieve your target is using Social media websites and online communities. Social media generally referred to as Web 2.0, can be a very rewarding way of achieving your online goals. It is however, also a demanding one.

Writing good and interesting titles, descriptions and choosing the most relevant keywords are only one aspect of the equation. The cliché “Content is King” remains true today and without content that will capture your readers attention and imagination, you’re going to be treading water To effectively use social media you need to be web 2.0 active.

As I’m sure we’ve all found out more then once, just posting content and forgetting about it doesn’t work. That’s the main reason many web marketers found Social Media to be disappointing when it didn’t deliver the traffic they thought it should.

A good Web 2.0 strategy must have at its core a well developed social persona. Someone that others can believe is real, relate to and most importantly want to keep in touch with.

For ongoing Web Marketing you need to not only bring in the masses, you also need to keep them coming back and bringing their friends along as well.

According to numerous surveys done over the past 2 years, and out of personal experience (unfortunately) I can say that most web 2.0 users have an instinctive dislike towards spammers and fake users, and to be perfectly honest that’s a good thing. That’s the quality check, spamguard, call it whatever you like.

Spammers are very easy to spot as are most of the fake user profiles. Most social sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Stumbleupon have a few unwritten rules, the first and most important one being “be real”: don’t spam and don’t promote yourself without having anything of value to add.

For example, if you’re watching a video about SEO, and you add a comment, then a link to your site will appear in your signature; which is the correct way of doing it.  Comments along the lines of “I have a great SEO site check it out at:  www.mysite.com” will not be received well and will be marked as spam.

Think before you add content to the social sites. Make sure it is not just self promotion but has real value to your would be site visitors and potential clients. People will respect you more, follow you and probably end up following you, twittering you or digging you.

Once you manage to find the right combination of quality content and marketing, the next important thing is to be consistent and persistent. Unless you want a one time only rise in traffic, you should be active online and let people know you’re out there not just to market yourself but also to interact and listen to others.

As your online community will grow and expand so will your ability to better market yourself and your site. It might take some time and hard work but it’s definitely worth it.
After all, if getting a Gold medal was easy it wouldn’t have any value.