The Future of SEO and Marketing Through Television

The way consumers watch TV is gradually shifting from cable to streaming. Younger generations may graduate college and purchase a TV solely for the purpose of binge watching entire seasons of series. While television itself will never die, it’s becoming easier than ever to online stream on your TVs, tablets, smartphones, and PCs.

And the industry is adjusting to accommodate the changing technology. Late last year, Nielsen updated the name of its Cross Platform Report to the term Total Audience Report. This was a reflection of the fact that online streaming viewers grew at a rate of 60 percent in late 2014, while TV viewership was down four percent. In other words, the distinction between traditional television and streaming media is disappearing, to viewers and advertisers alike. As a result, marketers have a better chance than ever to reach customers.

SEO and Online Streaming

Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus assume most online streamers go straight to their sites, and many of them do. But when a customer is interested in finding a TV show that doesn’t immediately come up in that service’s own search, that customer will often head to Google and enter the search terms, “Watch [Name of Show].” This search effort will typically put an ad for paid options at the top, followed by a variety sites featuring the show available to stream, with plenty of junk results mixed in. It’s a frustrating experience, as anyone who has ever searched for a TV episode or movie online can attest to.

Rabbit TV

As the demand for streaming content continues to grow, and consumers set their sights beyond a handful of top streaming content providers, new aggregators are coming online that strike a balance between a search confined to a single provider like Netflix, and a search engine like Google that can deliver millions of results with varying degrees of relevancy. One example is Rabbit TV Plus, which has made it easier for viewers to quickly access all the shows they want to watch. For only $10 a year, this service lets them watch TV shows and movies or listen to radio stations. Viewers merely type in the name of the show and Rabbit TV Plus delivers it, whether it’s posted on a network’s page like ABC, NBC, or CBS, streaming on Netflix or Hulu, or anywhere else on the web.

The Importance of Aggregators

The growing popularity of online streaming provides all-new opportunities for marketers to match relevant ads with target audiences far more effectively than advertising on cable and broadcast networks. But with thousands of online video providers, even knowing where to start takes on a whole new challenge of its own. The reason for that, is that knowing where to start is a challenge for consumers as well. If your audience doesn’t know where they want to go, neither do you. A highly targeted web advertising campaign can’t begin with guess work, but marketers can make use of the same aggregators that consumers do to demystify the process of eyeballs reaching content.

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/04/15/the-future-of-seo-and-marketing-through-television/

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