If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either already making money online or you’re considering exploring the lucrative world of digital marketing, SEO, or content marketing, among others. If so, then congratulations! You’re in the right place.
Why? Well, I’ve been there. I’ve been working hard to create a passive income stream online for the past three years, and what I’ve learned along the way is something that might just help you succeed too.
What is it? Data labeling. Let me explain.
What is Data Labeling?
Data labeling is the process of giving digital or otherwise “labeled” content a “category” so it can be more easily filed and organized. The categories can either be based on keywords or an actual purpose like “autos”, “pets”, or “sports”. When an item is labeled with a category, it typically gains a higher priority in a search engine’s algorithm, meaning it will pop up as a result of a user search more often than not. This in turn can dramatically boost a site’s organic traffic and revenue.
Most importantly, though, is that data labeling makes content easier to find. If you’re using keywords in the content or the meta data of your site, you’re already doing this. However, having an actual category for each piece of content can help further narrow the results of a search engine’s autocomplete when a user is entering keywords. This in turn makes it easier for the searcher to land on the content they’re looking for.
Why Should You Care About Data Labeling?
Although search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing have been around for decades, we’re only just beginning to see the true power of data-driven marketing.
According to HubSpot Blogs research, 64% of marketers said they’re using more data to make marketing decisions. Further, 40% of those said they’re using more data to target customers.
As a marketer, you ultimately want to reach the right audience, which in turn translates to paying attention to analytics and using that data to inform decisions about your marketing program. The key is being able to analyze that data and prove that a particular marketing program drives real results.
How Big Is The Market For Data Labeling?
The analytics firm NewBay Market Research estimates that the global market for data labeling will be worth $10.9 billion by next year.
Specifically, the market size of the U.S. data labeling market will be worth $6.68 billion, while the market size of the global market will be worth $10.89 billion. This represents a 44% increase in market size from 2016 to 2025.
What’s interesting about this market study is that it breaks down the demand for data labeling by platform. While Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, and other similar tools exist, the biggest demand comes from online marketplaces, such as Alibaba and Amazon.
Forrester Research found that 41% of consumers use online marketplaces to find products or services, while 15% use search engines, and 14% use social media such as Facebook or Twitter.
As a marketer, you can see how important it is to have a clear understanding of where your target audience is coming from. In the case of online marketplaces, you can assume that a significant portion of your target audience is already on the site and might just be waiting for the right offer to come along.
What’s Next For Data Labeling?
Faced with the task of keeping up with fast-paced changes in technology and the ever-evolving marketing landscape, you might be wondering where to start.
If so, here’s a short checklist to get you to the next level.
Understand The Difference Between Marketing And Seo
An important thing to wrap up is the difference between marketing and SEO, or search engine optimization. While SEO is the process of improving a website’s search engine rankings, marketing is the much broader task of communicating with and engaging with customers to get them to act in a particular way that benefits your business.
Often confused with and intertwined with SEO, marketing encompasses everything from advertising to public relations and includes the ways companies interact with customers, shareholders, and other relevant stakeholders.
As you might imagine, marketing and SEO are not the same thing. SEO is about making a website easier for search engines like Google to crawl and understand. Once a website has been optimized, it can start to appear in search results without necessarily having marketing campaigns tied to it.
Understand The Difference Between Paid And Organic Traffic
Paid traffic is what you might think of when you hear the term “paid advertising”. This is traffic that you’ve specifically sought out and paid to get to your site. For example, if you’re running a video marketing campaign on YouTube and you’ve paid to have your video shown in the recommended videos section of the platform, you’ve likely got paid traffic.
On the other hand, organic traffic is free, natural traffic that arrives at your site as a result of following a link, viewing an ad, or performing some other organic action. It’s also known as “earned” or “legitimate” traffic.
Organic traffic is valuable because it implies that someone has vouched for your site’s content by linking to it or recommending it. This is important because it means people are discovering your site because they think it’s valuable and interesting, not because they’ve heard of your company or brand and are looking for you specifically.
Get To The Point
As we discussed above, digital marketing and SEO (and similar fields like performance marketing and social media) have grown increasingly complex, especially in the world of PPPs, programmatic private placements, and digital asset optimization.
If you’re looking to get into the field but don’t know where to begin, continue through to the next step.
Consider Specialized Training
If the idea of getting into the weeds of digital marketing and SEO excites you but you’re unsure of where to start, consider specialized training. There are numerous certificate programs, online marketing degrees, and even a whole college program dedicated to this field.
While traditional marketing degrees may not provide you with all the in-demand skills needed for this field, specialized training will undoubtedly make you more marketable. What’s more, gaining valuable industry knowledge will no doubt prove useful when you’re trying to establish yourself in a brand new industry.
Try It Once Or Twice
If you’re really worried about getting started in the world of digital marketing and SEO, why not try it once or twice, see how it goes, and then either decide whether or not to continue pursuing this path. No one is an expert in every field, and if you’re new to digital marketing and SEO, why not take a step back and see how things go for a bit before you commit yourself?
If your first instinct is to dive in without any training, try as much as possible to get experience first-hand. Go through the online tutorials, read blogs, and listen to podcasts to get a sense of what’s going on. Then, when you’re ready to make the move, jump in with both feet and seize the opportunity.
As with any new industry or career, establishing a reputation is incredibly important in the world of digital marketing and SEO, especially now that Google is cracking down on low-quality and suspicious content. In order to establish credibility, you’ll need to demonstrate that you know what you’re doing and are capable of doing it well. To that end, it might be wise to consult with industry experts or take a class from a reputable university or training program. You can also begin to build credibility by establishing yourself as an expert in social media and performance marketing on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram, among others.
Bottom Line
To wrap things up, let’s review what we’ve learned so far. Data labeling will be a $10.9 billion market in 2025. Essentially, data labeling allows you to assign keywords, categories, and other metadata to content so you can more easily find it later. As a marketer, you can see how this could be valuable since you can use keywords and other metadata in the content itself. What’s more, data labeling makes it easier for searchers to find your content since the results are narrowed to items matching the keywords or categories you’ve applied. Ultimately, this might just be the key to making money online.