Categories: Articles

Search Engine Optimization Question

It is not so much a question as a challenge. As SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) firms jockey for position on your marketing budget I have come up with an interesting challenge/question:
What keywords or keyphrases are completely unrelated to your company, products or services that would still drive immense traffic and convert the casual surfer into a lifelong customer?
It seems like an impossible question to answer, but rest assured that after two years of Blogging I am finding out that the answers are astounding, powerful and way more interesting than any standard SEM fare.
Here’s just one example: If someone happens to be searching Google for “IAB Canada” – which is the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (a place I happen to also be the Vice-Chair of Quebec) – a couple of Blog postings that I have written on IAB Canada rank us second on Google.
How qualified of a lead is that? Yes, it does depend on what the user was looking for, but I am beginning to uncover an incredible power in Blogs, search engines and customer’s thinking patterns. A day does not go by that Twist Image does not receive some kind of business inquiry based on a Blog posting on a random topic.
The link?
The topic is of mutual relevance and the content within is not a sales pitch for Twist Image. In fact, it’s just personal ramblings and musings on the marketing and communications space. The fact is, that’s enough and much more than someone who is ranked on the first page of Google for the keyphrase “Montreal web design” but whose site, design and content speaks little to their capacity to truly deliver. Usually these prime rankings speak more to that person’s ability to front-load relevant keyphrases and back it with powerful links.
This is only the beginning of future Blog posts on the power of Search Engines and Blogs. In fact, you can be sure that I will be covering this exact topic at upcoming Search Engine Strategies conferences and at other related events.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.