On the ball campaign raises SEO awareness

Agency calls for businesses not to be “search engine also-rans” when Google moves the goal posts.

Award winning marketing agency Hydra Creative has used the frenetic world of football’s January Transfer Window to carry perhaps the most important marketing message of the year.

The Sheffield agency’s aim is to remind businesses to prepare for planned major changes to Google’s algorithms in the spring, as well as the importance of keeping up with the ongoing challenges of search engine marketing (SEO).

The search giant makes hundreds of updates every year as it finds new ways to improve user experiences and to combat the destructive and devious tactics employed by black hat operations.

Some updates have little effect on the positions of businesses in the rankings. But Google’s announcements scheduled for a spring rollout are likely to have serious repercussions for companies not up to speed with SEO strategies.

Perhaps the biggest change will hit home in March when Google will no longer index desktop websites. The move is part of its Mobile First strategy, which requires all content is optimised for mobile devices.

The second major change is coming later in the Spring, when website speed, reliability and stability will begin to affect rankings. These changes support Google’s long term strategy to improve users’ experiences.

Hydra’s campaign relates SEO to the cut-throat, high stakes world of top tier football, where the influence of a single new transfer can dramatically change the fortunes of a football team.

In the same way, an experienced SEO practitioner can radically impact the landscape of an organisation’s position in search engine results.

Get it right and the rewards are top of the table success stories. Get it wrong and your team, just like your business, can free fall down the league table or search engine results pages. The result of failure in either case can be catastrophic.

Hydra Creative made a series of video clips announcing the changes in a light-hearted way by imitating a typical transfer window football report – with its own intrepid and windswept reporter covering the action in the field.

The campaign has created its own league table, with fictious football teams to support the message. As the videos roll out across social media during January, Untapped Potential FC will climb to the top spot after taking SEO advice while SE NO FC are left facing the drop after not moving quick enough.

Keith Tarry, Business Development Manager at Hydra Creative, explains: “With Google’s latest announcements potentially getting lost during the ongoing Covid crisis, we thought it important to do our best to bring them to the attention of the business community and offer a free SEO consultation to businesses wanting to know more.

We thought the theme of the transfer window would resonate with our audience, and treated in a light-hearted  manner we hoped would bring a smile to people’s faces.”

In true footballing cliché he ended: “We’re over the moon with the result. Getting ahead of the game with Google always pays dividends. After all, what business wants to be a search engine relegation casualty?”

Back to you in the studio.

You can find out more by following this link to the campaign landing page.