Search engine optimization (SEO), also known as organic search engine optimization, is a process which attempts to affect and improve the visibility of a particular website on the search engine result page (SERP) of Google, Bing, Yahoo and more. It is done by integrating elements and keywords in the website which are search engine friendly.
For years people manipulated links and adopted techniques that gave their websites higher or better ranking search results. However, there has been constant movement in the general landscape which has led Google and other search engines alike to revise and upgrade their search algorithms. This means that whatever techniques that used to work in SEO, are not applicable or successful anymore.
Why SEO is Important for Businesses
SEO serves as a very important tool for businesses in order to triumph and achieve success. Especially today, due to the intense level of competition in the market, SEO has become more important than ever. Every business which has an online website, a social media page, or a blog; they all require a powerful SEO strategy to make their online presence effective and to beat the competition and thrive.
Despite SEO being a relatively complex and difficult process to achieve, it is important that businesses invest in it. Here are some of the reasons that businesses should seriously commit investing in SEO.
To grab a greater market share
Users who search online are likely to click on the top most suggested links on the SERP. To be successful, businesses need to take advantage of it. They need to make sure that potential customers are able to locate their website easily rather than their competitors. This might also result into your website being promoted on different social platforms as users share the link.
This can only be achieved if they have an efficient SEO strategy and are thereby ranked on top of the search engine result page.
To have a greater visibility
Visibility is more about being able to persuade users to click on your website. If a particular business is repeatedly appears among the top most search results every time a user edits their search terms to search again, it is likely to increase the probability that the user will click on your link.
To gain credibility
Users tend to trust the results recommended by the search engine, in retrospect trusting your website. If a webpage displays among the top search results, it is likely to be credible and trustworthy in the user’s mind.
To beat the competition
There are a lot of companies selling similar products or services. When potential customers try to search that product and your website isn’t search engine optimized, they will stumble upon your direct competitor’s website making you lose market share to your competitor. Therefore, it is extremely necessary that businesses use SEO.
To give insight into the customers thought process
Google Analytics is a tool which tracks the traffic caused by SEO. It helps companies analyze the behavior of the customers when searching, the search terms that they use mostly, the language as well as how they browse. Google Analytics also determines the location of the users, the time of the day they often search and various other habits. All of these things then help out businesses to have a greater understanding about their customers’ perception and thinking. This enables them to better design their strategies.
Ways that SEO Has Changed Over the Years
Search engine optimization was first developed during the mid-90s. Since then, SEO has seen gradual changes and development over the years. Search engines are continuously evolving and have introduced new updates to keep up with the changing marketing environment. Google has already updated its major algorithms 4 times in 2015.The very same techniques that worked initially to optimize your search engine results, if implemented now, have the ability to jeopardize your business.
Today, SEO has become an extremely refined tool which is used by businesses and companies as more of a strategy to build a powerful brand rather than as a marketing tactic.
Here are some of the ways that explains how SEO has changed now.
Users are turning out to be more demanding
The constant advancements to make their webpages load faster by major search engines and companies alike has elevated consumers expectation as they now prefer websites to load quickly and in barest of time. Around 47% consumers expect a webpage to load in two seconds or less while 40% people are likely to abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Not only the consumers expect the webpages to load faster, they also demand exceptional content. Even if a company manages to make its website visible among the top most results on the search engine result page, if the customers do not like the content then they will exit your website and search for a different link.
Choosing the right keyword has become difficult
Initially, businesses aim was to include as much keywords as possible in their content as their SEO strategy. Though the general rule was to include keywords that make up around to be 4% of your entire content, people started using as many keywords as they possibly could. This led to comprise the quality of content as a result of keyword spamming. Today, SEO is not much about choosing and mentioning the right keyword numerous times in your content, in fact search engines now provide search results based on the topic the search query is associated with rather than the parallel keywords used.
Thus, Google reinforced its policies which have led them to take entirely different approach to the ranking of websites. They give priority to websites that are highly proficient and trustworthy and not to those with high keyword density.
Stricter penalties by Google in case of violating SEO rules
That’s right, Google, over the years has not only tightened its policies regarding content spamming but also has taken action by serving companies with penalties if they violate the rules.
Famous brands that have used unnatural and paid links and violated any other of Google’s law in order to gain visibility on the SERP have been penalized by Google. For instance, BMW was penalized by Google as it was involved with cloaking where their website showed different things to the customers and the automated system of Google. The site was removed for three days. Rap Genius’s ranking was devalued by Google in 2013 because they were reported to have been promoting unnatural links.
Not only did Google penalize other brands for breaking its SEO rules, it also penalized itself. In 2012, Chrome was discovered buying links. Though claimed it to be unintentional and apologized, it still lowered Chrome’s home page ranking which lasted for 2 months.
SEO Practices for 2015
The constant changes in the SEO landscape owing to the frequent updates by Google, yahoo and Bing have led businesses to change their tactics as well in order to survive the competition and be successful. They need to adjust to the new SEO environment. Following are some of the ways that businesses need to adopt in 2015 to ensure their survival and success.
Improve your keyword tactics
Choosing the precise keyword and its evaluation in 2015 has to be broader than it was ever before. Instead of using keyword tools to generate high ranking keywords and grouping them with respect to their ranking ability, you need to target more precise search words by users. This can be done by searching the web and then gathering the content and search related to your topic. Before, companies used to make the list of pages based on the popular keywords. This doesn’t work anymore though. In order to be successful and have greater visibility, you should search keywords related to your topic and content. After all it is not about matching keywords, rather you should group them according to their shared goal.
Thus keyword evaluation is much more complex today. It should include business value, target the users and potential customers’ habits as well as fulfill the content requirements by not compromising it.
Earn your links
As discussed above, Google has tightened its SEO policies and penalizes anyone with unnatural links, even itself. It is not about the quantity of links, rather a single link which is highly influential is enough to generate traffic on your website. Aiming to get links for higher ranking on SERP or trying to acquire them manually through spamming and buying will get your website nowhere as they can’t compete in todays landscape.
Therefore, companies and brands need to build relationship with users and establish trust in order to earn a high quality link. This can be done by interacting with customers through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Not only will this build relationship and establish trust, it will also give your website and company greater amplification by getting more followers on your social media page. By making your content much more interesting and shareable, links tend to come naturally.
Upgrade your content
Even though businesses publish content regularly (read: everyday) along with their content being unique and relevant, they have noticed that they still don’t get results on the SERP.
Content creation is still central to effective SEO strategies as search engines; in general, try their best to provide their users with the most relevant and qualitative content. Businesses thus, need to upgrade their content with respect to today’s trends and analyzing the type of content which is successful. Visual content, today, is the most effective content.
Not only creating the relative content will make your business successful, but it is important to promote them on the right platforms to gain more exposure and amplification.
Using social media to reach potential customers is the ideal tactic to promote your content. If it captures the users’ attention and is interesting enough to convince them to retweet on Twitter or share on Facebook, then it will generate traffic to your webpage. Paid advertising, blogging and good public relations are effective ways to promote content, in turn, being an effective SEO technique.
Many companies have observed that building a brand is more beneficial than building an effective search engine optimized website as search engines generally tend to rank brands higher on the SERP. Almost all of these brands have an in-house team that provides them with successful SEO strategies.
Search engine optimization is getting harder and harder over time. However, if you are able to beat the competition and succeed, it means boundless success for your business. Today, the key is to understand and comprehend the signals conveyed by the user through the data generated by search engines and then provide them accordingly in order for your SEO strategy to be effective.
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