What is SEO exactly?
“Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid “organic” search results” Source: Wikipedia.
The business of SEO is growing as more and more businesses understand the need to be seen online and with more businesses going E-Commerce, it is more important than ever to be seen to growing live audiences online. SEO involves improving the presence of a business on the internet and of recent years has come away from simple provision of back links or keywords on website as the likes of Google change the goal posts frequently on what they believe merits high ranking positions on their search engine.
Social Media has well and truely arrived on the scene when it comes to SEO and the likes of search engines such as Google are recognising that a strong Social Media presence for a company means that a business is current, alive and delivering content of which people searching for specific items and products online should be finding. Add to the pot the importance of Video and the likes of YouTube and you get to see that SEO is a lot more Social than ever before… Why? Because people are now engaging online products and services socially, we are now able to create and maintain online target audiences through followings on Twitter or likes on Facebook Fan Pages. Important fact to know is that online consumers are initiating searches for products and services via Social Media platforms, they are engaging with brands on these platforms and sharing feedback and comments.
Just how important is it to rank number one on Google? Firstly, any company offering you to be placed number one on Google is generally telling you a white lie…. Why? Well, just how many other businesses out there are offering the same products and services as you? The answer is usually tens or hundreds of thousands internationally, so ranking number one against them all is practically impossible, unless of course you see being ranked as follows:
You sell Italian Leather Sofas and are based in Romford, Essex. You are promised number one ranking on Google. You assume for
Italian Leather Sofas…
Instead, you are ranked number for the search term:
Italian Leather Sofas Romford High Street Havering…
A lot less effective and the search term may only ever have around 10-20 searches per year. What you really wanted was Italian Leather Sofas which reaches 150,000 searches per year.
Adwords? Yes, great tool for some businesses and services, though can be very costly for certain search terms, it can provide traffic to your website and build brand awareness. Do they generate ROI? We hear many stories of negative and positive, depending on quality and content of marketing campaign and audience retention of website / webpages.
So, where is best to put your attentions and marketing budgets to in order to get the best from SEO?
Website: Make sure your website is built for audience retention. Clearly define who you are and what you offer. Use a video to capture browsers attention and increase time spent on your website. Use Social Media icons to show your pontential clients that you are indeed alive and kicking – You are approachable!
Social Media: Use these platforms as often as you can. Research through our blogs and you can read many stories on how to use Social Media for your business. Remember that Social Media platforms are meant to be ‘Social’. Educate, engage and entertain the audiences that you build, this in turn will position you as an approachable company and indeed with correct management of the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube, you can be seen as the guru for your industry.
Video: YouTube is a fantastic site for SEO. Use videos to promote your brand, products / services as often as you can. There are many cheap video production offers out there, be careful when choosing these options as a cheap video will also convey a cheap company… Imagine what would engage you online: A free do it yourself video with sliding photos and text or An imaginative video with models, outside shots, props, expectedness and fun? Once again, read through our blogs and we touch upon Videos and Viral Videos. Quite simply, there is a huge choice of videos out there to watch so do you want that cheap video that everyone else seems to be having or do you want to stand out from the crowd and go viral?
So, what should you be doing for improving your SEO?
Think Social. Think brand awareness. Think audience retention and videos. Google knows the importance of all of these and your ranking will be vastly improved if you embrace these marketing avenues.