Online Visibility
Making keywords more visible and web sites more successful is an award-winning search engine optimization goal. SEO expertise should ensure your company ranks in the highest possible positions in the organic listings (also known as the natural listings) of the top search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing / MSN.
For any business, online visibility is of paramount importance – done correctly, website optimization can build a brand profile, open lines of communication with the target demographic, and establish the website in question as an authority in its particular area of expertise. Contrary to popular belief, search engine optimization isn’t simply about the pursuit of search engine rankings, it’s about targeting more of the right kinds of traffic to increase sales leads and conversions.
Defining Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is a method that webmasters often practice to increase their exposure on the search engine search results (usually Google) if keywords that are related to the site that needs exposure are used as a search phrase. Try to do a search yourself and observe the top results on the first page. These pages aren’t paying for any services like AdWords just so they are on the top results, but they have earned the slot due to their high popularity and large amounts of optimized content.
Search Engine Spiders and Robots
Search engine optimization is the process of developing and modifying a website to help the search engines read and index each page more efficiently. A website is indexed by search engine spiders or robots; computer programs created by the likes of Google and sent out to analyze the internet’s millions of pages. A search engine optimizer must understand these computer algorithms and be capable of carrying out SEO both in the search engine and the end-user. SEO account managers should focus on both sets of needs each day, ensuring that not only is the site visible, but it’s also engaging and interesting to the resultant visitor.
Why do you need search engine optimization?
An estimated 80% of online purchases beginning at a search engine, can you afford not to optimize your web site for search? Regardless of what other forms of online and offline marketing you may do, no pay per click or newspaper advertising campaign can truly replicate the value of an organic search presence.
Organic search is proven to convert at least as well as clicks on PPC ads and results of SEO are typically longer lasting. Where a pay per click budget will run out, leaving no legacy of an online presence when funds are exhausted, a good search engine optimization campaign will secure longer-term visibility across the web.
SEO service is not just about organic placement though, it will also help to build overall online visibility, better brand placement, and consumer loyalty.
Importance of Optimizing your Website
Search engine optimization is an absolute must if you do not have the budget in engaging in any form of paid advertising. Search engine optimization can be a tough ordeal for beginner webmasters, but the fact that it is free and its large money-making potential, in the long run, makes it one of the more important methods that should be utilized early to see positive results sooner. Optimizing your website is necessary to attract organic traffic or traffic that comes directly from search engines. Unlike other advertising methods, you are letting the traffic come to you rather than going out to the many sites on the web to promote your site.
Another nice thing about search engine optimization is that the real efforts only need to be done once. Once you formed a good list of keywords for your site and sprinkled them throughout your content pages, all you need to do is update your content regularly to keep your site on the results so more traffic can come in daily.
How to approach search engine optimization?
One should understand that search engine optimization isn’t just about a page one listing though – it’s about adding value to your business and creating sales opportunities by targeting relevant eyeballs, driving interested traffic to your sales website, and increasing conversions.
Exceptional conversion rates from organic rankings are much harder to achieve than those from paid search. That’s why you can use traditional SEO thinking and combine it with cutting edge search marketing know-how and a strategic approach to Web 2.0, social media, and digital public relations.
Working from the ground up, SEO manager should create a dynamic SEO strategy encompassing;
- Keyword management
- On-page Optimization
- Press Release Research, Creation and Distribution
- Social Media activity (blogs, lenses, bookmarks, networking sites)
- Link Building
- Article Marketing
- Online Brand Noise
- Competitor Research
- Link Tracking
- Position Tracking
- Digital Media Liaison
Gaining the trust and respect of online audiences is paramount if you want your business to succeed online.
Getting Started
Before starting any SEO campaign, you should take the time to understand your business and perform a thorough site analysis to create a detailed plan of action. I believe it’s important that you understand the entire optimization process, to discuss keywords, competitors, technical limitations, previous search engine optimization activity, and existing social media campaigns ahead of your official campaign start date.
Search engine optimization begins with determining your niche so you can form keywords that are related to your site. Find out what you expect your visitors to type in to find your website and check if the keywords are too general or too competitive as common keywords may not help since very popular websites top the results no matter what you do. After you got a good list, simply incorporate those keywords in the content of your page or create articles that have these keywords discussing topics relating to your site’s theme.
The results of search engine optimization don’t come out overnight. But as long as you keep your site updated, you should notice a surge of traffic coming from search queries.
Essential Ingredients for a Great Search Engine Optimization Campaign
- Great SEO Needs Great Content
No doubt about it, the most essential part of any optimization campaign is great content. Keyword-rich, fresh and interesting information is the lifeblood of a website and is a great food for thought for search engines. Content underpins a search engine optimization campaign because not only does it provide a vehicle for on-page elements such as keyword density, optimized keyword placements, bold text, anchor text, and internal linking but it’s also essential for off-page optimization. Content on the site gives a reason for other web sites to direct traffic and inbound links, helping with off-page optimization.
- Ethical Link Building
Inbound links are just as important to SEO as content – as an experienced search engine optimization (SEO) agency, we believe that the optimum split between link building and content creation is 50/50. This allows time to create great content and sufficient time to work on building awareness of that content via ethical link building.
Link building is not just crucial to SEO, it’s also needed for business reasons. Search engines generally look for quality, quantity, and content when assessing web site referrals. These are also the things that can help the business boom. When building links, the aim is to put the URL in front of interested traffic – thereby driving interested potential clients to the website. This can then lead to sales. If you’re a plumber, for example, there’s little point in having a link from your local garage as someone looking at a car repair site isn’t looking for a plumber. However, if you can get a link from your local DIY store, electrician or joiner, you’re more likely to capture interested traffic by being in the right online neighborhood.
- Online PR
Most website optimization campaigns will take longer than a few weeks to show results. Therefore, an online PR campaign can help to generate awareness and create visibility in the meantime. Online PR also helps reach certain SEO goals when done properly – it’s no use simply copying and pasting a press release crafted for an online audience, the PR in question must be optimized for a digital audience when integrated with a search engine optimization campaign.
The same on-page considerations should be worked in a PR for it to be effective online and then, a targeted distribution strategy focusing on relevant online outlets developed. Again, online distribution should follow the same guidelines as those you would adhere to for white hat link building – think quantity, quality, relevance.
- Social Media
Very few effective SEO strategies ignore social media, and those websites or businesses that give blogging, bookmarking, and community sites a wide berth are potentially missing a great opportunity to brand building, link building, and relationship building. Depending on the scope of the SEO campaign as a whole, social media work may be restricted to a few select outlets or, in the case of more comprehensive optimization activity, encompass a wide range of portals and properties.
Much with online PR, social media can often be a useful tool for reaching decision-makers and potential clients while search engine rankings still work in progress. A good Facebook page or Twitter account helps to generate the cyber version of word of mouth buzz, meaning it doesn’t matter if your site itself isn’t on page one of Google just yet as lines of communication are open between your site and your target demographic.
- Reporting
Reporting is an intrinsic aspect of any marketing activity, be it online or off. Particularly in SEO where trends and techniques change so quickly, reporting provides a bird’s eye view of what does and doesn’t work. Reporting can also act as an incentive by giving visual confirmation of ranking progress and can be used to take the leg work out of link building by highlighting the links competitors have back to their sites.
Using an analytics package such as Google Analytics is recommended for all but the smallest campaigns as this kind of reporting system will show where site refinements need to be made – high bounce rates and declining visitor numbers will be picked up, suggesting that on-page efforts be focused in certain areas rather than spread around the site as a whole. This level of insight is what sets a great SEO campaign apart as efforts are focused and targeted.