Search Engine Optimization is the process in digital marketing which aims at optimizing the popularity of a website or a piece of content. It is done so that the website is ranked higher and shown towards the top of the page among the search results towards a user query on a Search Engine which for the most part is Google because of its popularity.
What is SEO in Digital Marketing?
SEO is the short form is Search Engine Optimization. It means to optimize a website for a better ranking in the world of internet. SEO in digital marketing includes both paid and organic search. You may pay to get your website listed on a search engine through sponsored search so that your website appears on top when someone enters a certain phrase or keyword. However, running sponsored search advertising might actually be pricey if you don’t know what you’re doing. Not to mention that over 80 percent of search engine users never click on sponsored search advertisements in the first place.
Why we use SEO in Digital Marketing?
Now you may wonder why businesses focus so much on SEO. Let us understand this with some figures. Google being synonymous with an internet search has over 700,000 queries run every second. Hence, not following the right SEO techniques can lead to businesses failing to convert potential customers which could otherwise be a lot probable if the website was ranked better for people to quickly visit.
Why SEO Marketing is so popular?
There was a time not very long ago when the bulk of a local company’s marketing budget was spent on newspaper and radio ads. To gain any business, you had to place your offerings and promotions in front of your target population. However, with the onset of the Internet, customers now have the upper hand. The present day scenario is that the marketing of goods and services is done via the internet and other digital channels, for example via email, social networking sites, third party applications, Google Ads on search results, etc. That brings us to our topic of Search Engine Optimization.
How SEO Marketing Works?
A search engine must have a library of available material to choose from in order to present results when a user puts in a query. Every search engine has its own methodology for acquiring and ranking website content. This procedure is known as indexing.
Every search engine employs bots, or crawlers, that continually scan the web for information and follow connections on each page to other ones. It is outright impossible for your website to appear in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) if it has not been indexed.
So, the main working or purpose of SEO is to index the website in Search Engines like Google, Bing etc.
As a result, major search engines such as Google and Yahoo index millions of webpages on a regular basis.
What factors affect SEO in Digital Marketing?
When assessing what a website is about and how to prioritize it among the related sites, search engines look at two major factors. They are:
- The Website Content: Search engine bots analyze each page of a website for the topics a website covers as well as examining the back-end code sometimes for specific tags and instructions.
- Inbound Links: The more inbound connections a website has, the more authority or impact it has. A prominent website’s inbound connection holds more weightage than others with relatively less prominence. For example, apple.com would have a greater impact than a start-up’s site. This event is called link juice.
Still there are some other factors which affect SEO and then SERP
- The searcher’s geographic location
- Listing’s historical performance such as clicks, bounce rates, etc.
- Website content (keywords, tags, pictures)
- Back end code or HTML of a website
- Type of links (social media sharing, link from media outlet, blog, etc.)
Types of SEO Marketing
The entire process of Search Engine Optimization can be divided into two parts: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.
- On-page SEO
On-page SEO is all about the aspects of a website which is under our control, for example, optimizing content, keywords, title tags, Meta description, etc.
On-Page SEO factors
Authority: As previously explained, search engines judge the authority and credibility of a website’s content by the number of inbound links. Not just that, the search engines also consider the authority of the websites that link to you, the anchor text used to connect to your website, etc.
Relevance: Relevance is one of the most important SEO elements. The search engines are searching for patterns to assess how relevant your material is to a certain search query, in addition to seeing if there is any usage of specific keywords. Search Engines also examine the structure of the website, page styling, etc. to make a thorough assessment. The secret to good SEO marketing is to focus on long-tail keywords. Although these keywords receive less traffic than more general head phrases, they tend to generate higher quality traffic and people who are more likely to be further along their path of intent. The good news is that determining the best long-tail keywords for your website pages is a rather straightforward procedure. When selecting the proper keywords for SEO in digital marketing, relevance is the most important thing to consider.
Content: Including high ranking but relevant keywords does take your website up the order. However, that is not all. It would be tough to just rank on the basis of certain keywords and bring visitors to your website if you do not have great content. Furthermore, if the content does not deliver value or engage consumers, there will be a far lower chance of generating leads. Not to mention at the end of the day it is the customer we are writing the content for and not for the search engine.
URL Structure: A website’s URL structure and the way it is ordered play a very significant role on the ability of search engines to index and interpret the content of the website.
Title Tag: Every webpage contains a title tag. This is the text snippet that shows in the top left corner of your web browser as the tabs that are open. Title tags are generally for most of the browsers limited to 75 characters. Hence, you should try to be as descriptive as possible.
Meta Description: Meta descriptions are generally the first place a search engine checks and it is this description that the engine lists under the link on the results page. The Meta description can only be 150 characters long. Hence, it goes without saying that it should be crisp and clear.
Pictures: The inclusion of pictures in a website not only increases the engagement of customers but it also positively impacts the readability of the site by breaking up chunks of text. In addition to that they also provide a chance to interact with search engines. Search engines cannot determine the content of a photograph by scanning it. As a result, it looks at two places to assess. First is the HTML code of a website as it also stores the file name of a picture included in the website.
Since Search Engine bots scan the code of the website completely, a nice descriptive name of the image goes a long way, for example, blue-high-top-sneaker.jpg.
Headline Tags: The search engine bots scan and assess the webpage for its contents to decide what the website is about. The metric of evaluation for a keyword is different from the other words. Hence, it becomes critical to include headline tags. It serves both the purposes of making a website simpler to digest from the perspective of the reader and also provide definitive hints to the crawlers as to what is significant on the page.
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Off-page SEO in Marketing
Off-page SEO includes everything that can be done outside the webpage in order to improve its rankings. That can include backlinks, social media promotion or sponsored searches.
How Off-page SEO is different from On-page SEO?
Off-page SEO is unquestionably harder to implement than on-page SEO. Off-page SEO comprises establishing relationships with other websites by reaching out to the owners of the websites. This relationship-building process is known as link building. Not just that there was a time when once the website had been established the owners used to reciprocate as well which used to help in the reputation building for the organization. These kinds of links are called reciprocal links. Such links have been reduced in stature or let’s just say aren’t that good anymore. Search Engines are getting smarter and the way to get around them is becoming harder and harder. Their main focus these days is either on the organic ways to bring traffic to any given website or the paid ways but be advised that one can’t be paid directly to link to you. It is mostly prohibited under the guidelines of the Search Engines. Who links to you and the way a material is spread in social media networks and throughout the web are all aspects that may have a big influence on your ability to rank on the SERP.
In addition to the above mentioned points how a link is made available in your website is also important. The usage of anchor text when another website connects to you may be incredibly beneficial in establishing aptness of particular keywords and phrases. Anchor text is the clickable hyperlink in the text the user sees. If possible it is advised to always request keyword-rich anchor text for a link that uses your domain.
The biggest factor these days especially in today’s world has become social media networks. More so when according to different surveys an average person spends one-fourth of his day on different social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. It has even become incredibly important in the age of YouTube to promote your brand through different content creators after analyzing different factors like the different age groups every creator has subscribers of.
FAQs
Which tools are available to track SEO?
As after sales service is important for any product based company, web analytics tools like Google Analytics and Google AdWords Keyword Tool are hugely substantial in determining the success of already taken steps of SEO digital marketing. It allows you to see what organic search keywords are driving traffic to your website. These keywords can act as a base of other keywords and provide you with a list of keywords and phrases for the future campaigns of SEO in digital marketing.
Is there any paid tool for SEO in Digital Marketing?
Yes, there are paid tools available for SEO in digital marketing. Semrush is one of the best paid tools for SEO. Yoast is also good for SEO marketing.
Conclusion
With the ever changing pattern of Web browsing, one must stay current in terms of best SEO practices. Focusing on the old school keyword strategy is still relevant and a step to tread. Organizations must understand that digital marketing should get the bigger chunk of marketing budget because this is what the future is. Link building and link juicing should rank much higher in the priority list.
