Social Media Marketing as Google Failure Insurance

August 30, 2012 - David Hall
Category: Social Media Marketing

As we were collaborating in the office and digesting the impact of the recent Google Penguin Update, we knew we needed to respond aggressively.While the overwhelming majority of our clients were not really adversely affected by the update, I found the thinking behind the update unsettling. I have been doing SEO since before Google was founded, and I have a sense of these things. Google is attempting to undermine everything it sees as “artificial” search engine optimization activity. Construed broadly, they are attacking the very existence of search engine professionals. Their interests are in providing what they call “natural” search results, uninfluenced by us “hired guns.”

We decided on a three-part strategy to meet the challenges of the Penguin update and to buttress our position against future updates. (See the humorous reference to a possible future Google Piranha update in an earlier post on this blog).

One part of that strategy was a decision to develop a social media department within the company. We had some people wanting to outsource that but I pushed us to develop that in-house. I believe this going to be a big part of the future of SEO. Not only will it enhance the Google rankings of our clients right now, it will provide a buffer against future Google upheavals. If a client has a strong social media presence, even if their Google rankings were to all go away, they could rely on social media marketing to provide a level of new patient flow.

We were lucky, or blessed, to find a great individual to help us launch that department. Danielle Azar is a recent honors graduate with a marketing degree from Rutgers University.

Read the update page on our company website about Social Media for Dentists.