R.I.P. 'SEO'

You, dear term, served us well.

Technically, SEO is dead. The term that is, NOT the practice!

There is a new jargon doing the rounds and it encapsulates the idea behind search engine optimization in a much effective way. OC/DC is the term that content companies and writers are using the world over. Short for 'Optimizing Content for Discovery and Conversion' the new term broadens the horizon of traditional SEO marketing making the practice more effective and increasing its applicability to all the actions related to online content marketing.

The misconceptions surrounding SEO

For long, amateurs have regarded SEO practices as related to optimizing a site for a particular search engine and increasing traffic from the search engine to the site. The most widely used search engine is of course Google, but if you ask an expert they will tell you that they do not spend all of their time just tweaking their site so that it ranks high on Google. There is much more to SEO that the term fails to convey and which makes the nomenclature redundant in today's online marketing scenario.

Most companies and experts have now widened their activities to encompass the entire gamut of content marketing practices. Legitimate SEO tactics are still very much a part of this spectrum; perhaps even a cornerstone for some content sites, but by and far the market has moved away from focusing only on Google, and Yahoo! and the likes. With the advent of social media platforms, it is becoming more important to tap into the customer pool from these sources. Search engines still drive traffic, but not with the same fervor as before. And to correctly describe the range of content marketing tools and services available today it is only apt to use a term that does not focus solely on a single aspect of the marketing practice (read search engines).

Introducing OC/DC

As far as jargons go, this one is a killer! The term 'Optimizing Content for Discovery and Conversion' or OC/DC for short, fittingly describes the Pandora's box that is online content marketing. The term brings to light two different aspects of content marketing:

a) External Optimization

b) On-site Optimization

External optimization practices deal with traffic generated to the site, and the R&D required to improve the quantity and quality of this traffic. Apart from search engines, external optimization practices also work with refining traffic from blogs, and aggregation sites like Slideshare.net and other content syndication sources. On-site optimization deals with keeping the visitor engaged once they land on your site. There are many factors that can turn away a first time user if not taken care of such as load time, content relevance, UI design, ease of conversion etc.

Understanding the breadth of OC/DC helps companies implement smart strategies for content that are relevant to their site and content. So, leave the spammers and link buyers behind and move forward with a new lexicon and a new way of marketing your impressive content to the right audience. Apart from search engines, external optimization practices also work with refining traffic from blogs, and aggregation sites like Slideshare.net and other content syndication sources.