Well, as SEO continues to branch out in many directions, sub categories and niches, the one that is most overlooked but is a held-close-to-the-chest secret is what is referred to as Meme SEO. If you’ve not heard of it, you’re in for a surprise to one of the best tactics out there and not only is it easy to do, it’s fun.
Meme SEO’s Basics
Primarily, we’ve all enjoyed the various memes we see on our Facebook feeds, Twitter tweets, Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit posts and more. A meme is any picture, graphic, or cartoon that expresses a short opinion or point regarding a specific topic. They work best when they’re to the point and humorous, but there are no boundaries regarding the emotional content of a meme. Memes are so popular that some top we marketers have entire divisions devoted to developing and sending out memes. The reason is that memes are easy to understand and as social media content, they get liked, shred, and commented on.
That’s the big boost right there. You can post all the opinions and comments you want on a blog or social media feed, but most people don’t have the time to read them all. If someone posts a topic and then places fifty or more comments, it burns valuable timer wading through it all. Meme’s on the other hand flip the script in this regard because they not only get to the point but have no big comprehension curve to deal with.
The formula is simple. Any post or tweet or whatever has to do one thing primarily: get attention. Once attention is garnered, the big steps are to turn that attention into not only organic traffic but customer retention and of course conversion to sales. How does this work? Because your meme has touched a spark in the person that says your goods and services come from someone they can relate to. This is like breaking the ice in a room full of strangers. Once you’ve got their attention, they’re not going to miss your pitch. Your salesmanship comes into play, and if all is successful you’ve not only got a customer abut one that will return over and over again.
Memes don’t always have to be funny. They can be important if the topic warrants so. Let’s take a look at the emotional range of Meme SEO, and you’ll catch on fast as to why this has been one of the best-kept secrets in social media and SEO.
Let’s say you own a pet supply store. You have your blogs and social media pages but so do tens of thousands of others. Yes, you can post pictures and videos and so on but so does everyone else. Unless your pics and vids stand out all you’re doing is eating up bandwidth. However, if your meme covers a specific approach then you’ll have indicated something, something that impinges on the surfer’s mind and at that point, you’ve got them on the hook.
So here you are with your pet supply blog or Facebook page. You post a meme with a picture of a cute puppy with its face smeared with ice cream. The slogan says something like, “Puppies are a mess, but a cute mess!”. Puppy lovers will giggle and especially if they have the same breed of dog will share the meme with their Facebook friends. Mind you, not all will ‘like’ or ‘share’ or comment,’ but they all will see the meme. The more that recognize or acknowledge it, the better. It then cascades exponentially after that. One friend with 3,000 friends posts your meme, 1,000 of their friends who have 3,000 friends each posts your meme and the next thing you know, it’s visually viral by default. Somewhere in all this someone is going to go to the inbound link to your site, and the rest is gravy.
Your meme covers a lot of ground especially local SEO. You post your URL and NAPs info in the meme or the link and not only do people go to your site when they click it, but the search engines will see this link on so many diverse social media pages, blogs and such that it becomes a mass link building campaign that grows while you sit on your butt drinking tea.
You need to be creative with the humor based memes, but when it comes to the serious stuff, get to the point and be complimentary.
For example, let’s say you own a roofing company. You find a royalty-free pic or make a pic of a house with a big tree limb in the roof. You entitle the meme, “Our customers don’t have this problem.” People will be shocked and get concerned about what would happen if such a disaster happened to them. People in your area will realize that your company prevents and remedies such events and will bookmark that or call and ask questions. Either way, you’re sure not to be forgotten anytime soon.
One really neat local SEO or even national SEO trick is to take pics of important events especially where celebrities appear. Look for that dramatic pic or unusual one and then post it. People who love the subject matter will download the pic or link or share it and the comments pour in. If you post your meme to your blogs first or social media page first and then post it to your blog or social media page you’re killing two birds with one stone.
There’s a math to all this, and it’s something you can do for fun any day of the week. Ask customers to send funny pics or images of successful sales or repairs, and you can post them with the right message and tags that contain the keywords, keyphrases, and key groups you want. Even hold a ‘Best Meme Contest’ where you give out a prize for the best ones. You’ll have to be careful as sometimes these things can be so popular that you’ll get overwhelmed.
Meme SEO isn’t new; it’s just under expressed because the big boys are cleaning up at it. Especially the ones who can afford cartoonists and graphics artists who make original content.
So if you want an SEO company that can work with you on your meme SEO campaigns to try Affordable SEO Company. They’ve got the staff and experience to get you started so that you can make the best of what goes viral.