Search engine optimization is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. Search engines use extremely sophisticated computer programs to classify many websites. By entering a search query into the search engine, a user introduces the search term that the search engine then compares to the catalog of the website. As a result of this process, the search engine on the search results page displays the best search queries.
The aim of the search engine is to create a list of the most relevant results so that the user can find what he is looking for. As a search result, most of the displayed results are website links, images, maps or videos. These results are mostly displayed at the center of the page and are called either organic or unpaid.
Search engine optimization strategies
Search engine optimization consists of two strategies, i.e. on-page optimization and off-page optimization. On-page optimization is done for each website separately according to the keywords website visitors enter in the search engine when searching.
The factors affecting Search Engine Optimization can be given as follows:
- The number of keywords on the page – Keywords should be used at least three or four times in the page text. The more extensive the page, the more possible it is to repeat keywords.
- Quality Content – Users like texts that are easy to read and easy to follow, so it is recommended to write high-quality texts. It is also recommended that the person who writes the text is familiar with the topic and uses the relevant but yet not too expert language so that any user can understand it. Keywords should be included in the text, but not too often, because keyword stuffing is the unauthorized practice that violates the terms of business of the search engine.
- HTML Title Tags : This is one of the most important tags because it tells users and search engines what the subject of a website is.
- Anchor Text : The anchor text for the users and the search engine provides information on the page it is linked to. If the text contains relevant keywords, the search engine considers it an additional and significant recommendation;
Off-page optimization follows after on-page optimization and includes all actions done outside of the website. It has a more significant impact on the achieved position in the results after search results than on-page optimization. A backlink plays the most important role among the parameters of off-page optimization.
SEO is a process itself and it takes time to get the website ranked higher in the search engine results. While SEO is continually changing, it is still an essential part of the process of delivering the right content to the right people. SEO helps the audience to find online businesses, and it also guides them through each stage of the buying cycle. It builds awareness because via organic results people can find some website and become aware of the products and services of the business advertised by that website. It also helps people with their research.
Unauthorized practices, popularly called “Black Hat SEO”, are a set of techniques used to increase site rankings in search engines by breaking the terms and conditions of the search engine. These are practices that mostly have a short-term effect until they are discovered. Once they have been discovered, their rank is lowered.
Some of the examples are:
- Keyword stuffing – too many repetitions of the same keywords to make content more relevant for search engines,
- Link farms – False websites used to inflate the popularity of the original websites using a massive number of fake links to get a better position on search engines.
To prevent Black Hat SEO, Google has developed some algorithms such as “Panda” and “Penguin”, which prohibit unauthorized practices by punishing those methods, especially unnatural links, or websites of poor quality.
Google Search Networks
The Google Search Network is a group of sites and search-related apps where ads can appear. When advertising on the Google Search Network, ads can appear above or below search results on Google Search, Google Play, Google Shopping, and Google Maps. The text ad in Google Search is the simplest ad type offered by AdWords. It consists of three parts: title, destination URL, and text description, often including ad extensions such as the location or a phone number. In Google AdWords, an advertiser can choose between manual bidding and automatic bidding. Manual bidding is an option in which the advertiser selects the maximum bid amount for an auction. Automatic bidding is the most commonly used option. By using it, the advertiser defines the daily budget, based on which the AdWords system tries to get most user clicks on the ad within the budget. Remarketing
The most important feature of display advertising is called remarketing, and it allows the use of the user’s activity on the advertiser’s site to target them with a unique advertising message, even when they leave the site. There are many remarketing solutions, and many display networks offer this feature. The first step is to define who the target audience is. The target audience can be identified as users who added the product into the cart but did not make any purchase. A remarketing service may require adding a small code to a web page that allows collecting a list of users from the site, i.e., visitors who are suitable for specific criteria and who can later be targeted. The next step is to create ads tailored to their needs. These ads could include, for example, special offers of additional content, a coupon with a discount, or other incentives to get users back to complete their purchase. When users make their purchase, there is no need to show them the same ad, so a new targeting list for the existing customers should be created. Then they can be targeted with another ad campaign, for example, they can be encouraged to come back and explore other options and products on the site.
Share this:
Business Frontiers 