Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO), the process that every digital marketer can't live without, and its for good reason. SEO has become one of the most important tools available to the digital marketer's disposal. This week's blog will provide an overview of SEO and its impact on digital marketing professionals around the world.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search engines such as Google use algorithms to push relevant information to the top of the search results page. SEO is the process of making modifications to a firm's website design and content to aid it in appearing in search engines. By optimizing a website for search engines, digital marketers are able to increase the visibility of organic search results. SEO is about knowing what consumers are looking for online and then portraying it so that search engines and crawlers can "find" it.
Crawlers are programs that are used by search engines to gather data from the web. Crawlers store data from websites in what can be compared to a sort of digital library, or databank. This data is then "indexed" or organized so that it can be displayed as a relevant search result in the engine. Once the data has been indexed it is then "ranked" by a myriad of factors that will influence the position of the website in the search engine results page or SERP.
These ranking factors include:
- Secure and Accessible Website
- Page Speed
- Mobile Compatability
- Domain Age and URL
- Keywords
Why is SEO important?
It is important for firms to use search engine optimization so that value searching consumers are able to find what they are looking for, amongst billions of possible search results. While paid advertising can be used to boost search results generating higher amounts of traffic, the vast majority is still fostered by organic search. Having good SEO not only builds credibility for a firm's website, but it also delivers a better user experience. SEO as mentioned previously also effects the order in which a website is displayed in the SERP. Consumers are also less likely to visit websites that are several search engine results pages back, making SEO vital for effective website exposure.
Link Building
Link building is used to establish credibility and reputation for a firms website. Having a credible and reputable website is vital for good SEO. Increasing the number of backlinks, which are one-way links(the links used in this blog) leading to a firm's website provides not only more exposure to the website but leads to increasing its rank. These links according to Moz are comparable to "currency on the internet". Google uses the acronym E-A-T, which stands for expert, authoritative, and trustworthy in regards to websites. Sites with these characteristics generally acquire a higher rank within the search engine.
Important Trends and Issues in SEO Today
SEO is constantly evolving and adapting to the changing technology of search engines. It is important for firms to be adaptable and on top of it or they will be quickly left behind. Below are some of the issues and trends currently facing SEO in 2020.
- Increased Importance of User Experience: Adapting a website experience that delivers a superb user experience is becoming more and more important. It has become one of the key deciding factors in ranking. Firms can increase their user experience by minimizing the number of irrelevant ads, optimizing load speeds, improving the user interface, and ensuring a mobile-friendly experience.
- Voice Search Optimization: Voice searching has been dramatically increasing in the world. Google estimates that 50% of all searches in 2020 will be searched using voice search features. The reason this is important is that when voice searching using Google, it chooses the number one ranked result. Anything else than first is essentially last and irrelevant when it comes to voice search.
- Content-Length Determining Rank: Webpages with long, high-quality content are generally more visible within the search engine. This is not to say that creating lengthy content for the sake of being long is the way to go. Content must be dedicated to solving the question or delivering the value that the searcher seeks.
Wrap-Up
SEO is a key practice for all digital marketers that is constantly changing and is too important to ignore. Having good SEO can be the difference between massive success or failure. This blog only scratched the surface of SEO and what it entails. For more info on SEO check out the links below. As always, thanks for checking out this week's blog, and I will see you all in Thursday's edition!