What is Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the oldest forms of online marketing. It is a strategy whose main objective is to attract more visitors to a website by improving the site’s ranking in the results page of search engines. SEO today is often a fundamental part of a business’ online marketing campaign. It is a useful and easy to perform technique that can be highly valuable when used properly.
The Ways of SEO
Because it’s a relatively old strategy, search engine optimization has progressed into a marketing technique that has several forms and tactics known to be under it. However, this is not to say that SEO is complex and difficult to wield. The many options that this technique poses actually create a more convenient and accessible system that any business can use for their marketing endeavors.
Search engine optimization can be done through different means online. Keyword search is arguably the most fundamental part of this marketing technique. In keyword search, a business must use different tools, such as software and free applications, to determine which set of keywords will best represent the business website. This means finding keywords that will attract the most number of relevant viewers. Relevant viewers simply refer to the target audience who has the most significant inclination to open the website and start a business transaction in it.
Because search engine optimization is a way for websites to influence their rankings on search engines, this technique is inherently concerned with the search engines themselves. Aside from the audience, businesses must also consider the search engines when they use search engine optimization. Generally, SEO aims to improve a website’s reputation both to the search engine and the site’s intended audience because having a good reputation with these two factors positively affects a website’s ranking in search engine results pages.
Good and Bad SEO
Search engine optimization works through various means, and this has allowed many websites to create different unethical practices to game the system. Many of these unethical strategies, collectively called black hat SEO, allow websites to get on top of results pages much easier and faster compared to ethical tactics, which are conveniently termed white hat SEO. Black hat SEO includes notorious techniques such as keyword stuffing, backdoor linking, and the use of shadow pages. Fortunately, all these tactics are detected by search engines such as Google. Once search engines detect unethical SEO, they automatically place the websites down on the rankings or completely ban them on the results page database. In essence, bad hat tactics end up hurting a website instead of improving its status online.
Compared to unethical search engine optimization, white hat SEO is a more reliable, safer, and more effective means of boosting a website’s ranking on the search engine results page. However, ethical practices are admittedly more tedious and require time to take effect. This, however, is the only way to go for businesses that wish to get the best out of their search engine optimization.
Supplementing SEO
Today, businesses are highly encouraged to supplement their search engine optimization with other online marketing strategies. There have been several changes with how search engines (particularly Google) rank websites on their results page so naturally, there have also been appropriate responses on how to adapt to these changes. One of these adaptations is the use of supplementary marketing techniques, such as content marketing and social media marketing, which help not only the search engine optimization efforts of a website but its overall reputation as well.
With a solid content marketing, a website can improve its relevance and thus reputation online. In this marketing strategy, a web owner or a business creates quality content and publish it on the website to further develop its image as a reputable site on the Internet. By coming up with great pieces of content, a website becomes a more trustworthy site not only for its audience but for Google and other search engines as well. Having such good reputation increases the effectiveness of the SEO as the search engines decide to support the website and increase its ranking on their respective results pages. Content marketing is also a quickly rising marketing technique that is changing the way businesses and consumers behave online. It is only wise for website owners to embrace this trend and let it help build their reputation, as this can eventually lead to an increase in web traffic and later on, sales and revenues as well.
Social media marketing, on the other hand, is another new and effective way to supplement SEO. In this technique, a business or web owner simply taps social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to further expand their viewership and improve their reputation. They can share links to their websites on their social media accounts to invite their followers and friends to visit their site.
With social media, there are unlimited possibilities on how a business can gain more viewers and potential customers. In addition, posts on social networking websites are now considered web pages on their own. This means that every post can also be ranked in the results pages of search engines. With the “social signal” created by a single post, a business’ social media account can be detected by search engine algorithms and be respectively ranked in results pages. Therefore, a social media account can serve as an alternative, representative, or an offshoot of the main website. This can then help a website increase its web traffic.
As the years progress, the rules and norms in online marketing change and so does search engine optimization. It is important for every website or business owner to stay on top of these developments and adapt with respect to the significant changes that take place. As for SEO, the options are aplenty so it will not be difficult to adjust this technique in conformity to the times. In general, though, there must be constant change with every online marketing technique as only through adaptations can a website stay relevant on the ever-changing landscape of the Internet.