Tag Archives: seo
SEO – An Important Marketing Strategy For Any Business
Search engine optimization, also more commonly known as SEO, is one of the main marketing techniques to enhance your websites ranking in the search engines. Using your SEO tactics effectively and revising and adapting these tactics should show an apparent increase in your sites placement on the search engines.
You firstly want to begin about choosing your Keywords. This is a crucial decision and should not be taken lightly. The Google Analytics application is extremely useful in tracking, revising and adapting your sites rankings. This application enables you to see which key phrases result in the most conversion goals, which is obviously your main objective. The main bit of advice would be to stay away from popular, general keywords. Because these are extremely common, you will find that the competition to achieve a high ranking is very tough.
The AdWords keyword suggestion tool is brilliant in assisting you in your choice. This will suggest niche key phrases that will have a high search volume, with low competition. Yes your site may not be as widely available with niche key phrases, but youll be targeting the right market that is more likely to actually purchase from your site.
Content is another crucial element when trying to increase your sites rankings. The content needs to be relevant, well written and have lots of it! This will, more than likely, appeal to the search engines in comparison to a great looking website, but that is just filled with videos/images etc. Other sites will be more inclined to link to your pages, if the content is good, therefore further increasing your search engine ranking. Updating your content regularly will help visitors go to your site as everyone likes fresh content. Therefore resulting in more visits to the site, equaling in more traffic going to your site. You need to also consider your sites structure; having a simple navigation through your site and having it well indexed will make it easier, not just for visitors finding their way round your site, but for the search engines retrieving the pages and content. Dont forget your links! Put links appropriately and in large volume to link the pages in your website, again it allows the search engines to find your pages easily.
A big no no is copying content from one page and pasting it onto another page on your site. By duplicating your content throughout your site you are giving your site a much lower ranking. Search engines really dislike this!
Dont forget your description tag; this should be a descriptive summary of the page content.
The description tag is used for the summary of your page in the search engine results. Be sure to make it full keywords, but to still be readable and grammatically correct. Meta tags are slightly different as these are still information about a given web page, but they are not visible to the visitors on your site. These help search engines categorize your web pages correctly and are inserted into the HTML document.
Remember It is vital that you track your sites SEO performance. Use tools provided for this like Google Analytics and Google Webmaster. It enables you to see your sites ranking, measure its progression or its decline and permits you to change your tactics and strategies if need be.
Why Search Engine Marketing is So Important
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around, does it make a sound? Perhaps, but if nobody is there to hear it, who really cares? This cliche is never with a greater degree of truth than for website design. You may have an immaculately designed website; pleasing on the eye, easy to navigate, with a host of well thought out information and in-built functional components to keep it running smoothly. The problem being that if nobody is there to see it, or at least if its only getting out to a fraction of its potential audience, then it may as well not exist. The key to solving this conundrum is Search Engine Marketing.
The vast majority of end users come across websites through one of the various Search Engines out there. The results these Search Engines turn out are anything but random. Prospective clients will only be able to find your website via Search Engines if it has been optimised for Search Engine Marketing by a qualified Search Marketing Specialist. These are the web magicians who make sure that online traffic is being driven to your site, and therefore your company, rather than that of your competitors. Search Engine Marketing maximises the online visibility of your business in an increasingly crowded online marketplace.
Effective Search Engine Marketing can be achieved by employing a number of strategies including Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and Google AdWords. SEO is a legitimate way of improving your websites Search Engine rankings using targeted keywords to place your business at the top of the results page for relevant search terms. A specialist in SEO will be able to identify the most popular keywords for your industry, build content around this principle, and use internal linking to best market your website within Search Engines. They will also be able to drive traffic towards your site through article marketing and the creation of sitemaps. With ongoing analytics and further recommendations traditionally included in SEO services, your website will be in a position to maintain the initial momentum push gained from Search Engine Marketing.
Google AdWords offers increased exposure on Google for a nominal fee set by the website owner depending on the level of exposure they require. To maximise the impact of a Google AdWords campaign, while keeping costs down, it may be wise to have a qualified management consultant on hand. They will be able to carefully research the most effective way of appealing to your target market, and monitor your campaign as it develops.
If youre going to have an online presence which is a reality of modern commerce, you may as well get your brand out there in front of the largest possible audience. The most effective way of doing this is to seek the advice of a specialist in the field of Search Engine Marketing.
Ultimate Goal Of Doing SEO Or Adwords
The general knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation in Africa admittedly is low at this current time but the good news is that it gets better and better every year.
In saying that some people still have a vague idea that the method involves optimizing your website too reach the top of “The Google” (that is right, The Google). Others think SEO is some form of a position in a company just under the CEO.
What people in Africa need to know about SEO or PPC or Adwords or any other form of jargon thrown their way is that it is simply an evolution of advertising. Just now online
with a twist. I love twists!
Millions of Internet users interact with Google on a daily basis searching for information, products, services, directions, social environments and much more. This interaction with the search engine allows anyone the opportunity to be visible in a method never offered before by any other advertising mediums. Now we have the ability to advertise in a space where potential buyers are actually looking for YOU. The focus moves a little away from persuasion and more about if you are within the top 5 of Google when users are looking for their specific requirements.
If a company embarks on web marketing they open the doors to high quality traffic. Dont get me wrong; I am not putting down traditional mediums. I am a strong believer that television, magazine and radio efforts can gain huge respect perhaps amongst the bigger spenders or investors but online can drive those end-users right to you.
If we consider human nature and the love for simplicity and ease then its no wonder why Google became such a hit in such a short amount of time. Why flip through a telephone directory for 20 minutes looking for what you want when Google can return your answer to you with directions, phone number and recommendations from your friends in less than a second.
In saying this, just getting yourself to the top of Google using search engine optimization or pay per click is not the only answer to success in the online world. It must be said that once a user clicks on a Google result it is now up to you the company to be 100% sure that your website is pleasant to look at, easy to use and easy to convert. If all these aspects have never been considered then spending money on advertising is a waste.
An experienced SEO consultant would help you work through these aspects during a campaign. Guessing is for fools, a true consultant would read the statistics generated by your website and analyse what visitors are experiencing when landing. With this data one could then restructure the online campaign and website accordingly.
The ultimate goal of SEO or PPC is too fundamentally advertise your company and increase potential business through the online market that is out there. Dont concern yourself of what jargon it takes or positions you are ranking on etc. concern yourself with your return of investment on the advertising.
Say to yourself, how much am I spending on this online marketing campaign? And then the big one “How much am I making back?” Its advertising! You dont ask the company exactly how they make your TV Ad or Magazine Ad you may approve certain sections that refer to your business but essentially what you are wanting is more potential clients banging on your door and ringing your phone off the hook.
It is true that search engine optimisation is a long-term investment. The reason that this is a fact is because all of the elements it takes from On-Page SEO to Off Page SEO takes time. There are a ton of factors that come into effect during a campaign and unfortunately you cannot do them all at once or you will just be penalised.
This is why running both pay per click and search engine optimisation campaigns are so fundamental. One needs that instantaneous support from pay per click as the Organic ranks grow. This strategy would yield a low ROI in the beginning but getting better month-by-month. This would be better than nothing at all whilst you wait for the organic to kick in.