SEO & Digital Marketing - Masterful Insight From Semalt

1. 23.05.2018 SEO & Digital Marketing - Masterful Insight From Semalt Imagine having a store without any form of signage on it. At best, curious people might drop in to check the products or ask for products that are not related to what you are selling. But what if you had a store with a proper name and images of the products you are selling? This would induce prospective customers to check in, ask questions about the products and even buy some of the products. These prospects are likely to spread the word about your store and products to other people which translates into higher traf?c as well as sales. The ?rst example is similar to a site that is not optimized while the second example relates to a well-optimized site. The leading expert of Semalt Digital Services, Andrew Dyhan, thoroughly describes the strategy how to combine SEO and digital marketing processes. What is SEO? Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making a site easy to identify, easy to categorize and crawl. At the most basic level, optimization assists consumers to ?nd your business in the midst of thousands or millions of other businesses and is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy. SEO aims at driving users to your business through online platforms. To achieve this, your website must rank high in search engine result page (SERP). To make this easier to understand, here is a perfect example: https://rankexperience.com/articles/article919.html 1/4

2. 23.05.2018 Every month, there are more than 14 billion searches online. Now, imagine what would happen if a fraction of the 14 billion searches is looking for your business. To get relevant traf?c directed to your site, the company must rank highly in SERP, pay per click activities and social media marketing. For any business to thrive, it must advertise. And for any online business, SEO is the equivalent of free advertising. Optimizing your site makes it easy to rank on the ?rst page of SERP. Since there is a common belief that people scan and review the ?rst 2 pages of SERP, ranking on the ?rst page give your business a chance to be found by people seeking for information before buying products. How does SEO work? Search engine crawlers use text to determine page content. They complete a number of activities that bring search results including crawling, scanning, and indexing as well as assessing pertinence and recovery. Elements that are known to contribute to a quality score include: Meta tags Accessibility and usability Page content URLs and website names Page design Characteristics of link To understand how this cycle works, it is important to go into details on how SEO operates: 1. Crawling: Search engines have a software known as a spider or crawler that crawls content in a web page. Normally, it is not possible for a spider to notice if a new page has been added or an old one has been updated daily. As a result, some spiders may not visit a web page for a month or two. In addition, crawlers are unable to crawl password protected pages, Flash movies, images, and Javascript. So, if you have a majority of these in your site, it is advisable to run a keyword simulator to see if these are crawled by the software. 2. Indexing: Once the spider ?nishes crawling, pages are stored or indexed in a giant database where relevant information is extracted whenever a user enters a particular keyword on search engines. https://rankexperience.com/articles/article919.html 2/4

3. 23.05.2018 3. Search work: Whenever a search is initiated, the search engine processes the request and compares it with indexed content. To give accurate data, the search engine must measure the relevance of all the pages and match them with indexed data, and the keyword entered in the SERP. 4. Algorithm: This is a diagnostic tool designed to sift through cataloged keywords and URLs with relevant phrases. It estimates probable responses and reverts pages with the phrase or word entered during searches. Basically, there are 3 algorithms: On-site, Off-site and Whole-site algorithms. Each type of algorithm look at different areas of a web page including links, meta tags, keyword density and title tags. Since search engines keep adjusting their algorithms, you must keep abreast of the changes in order to maintain high rankings. 5. Retrieving: The end result of the process is displayed in the search results. The link between SEO and digital marketing Most people think there is no difference between SEO and digital marketing, to clarify this, it is important to examine them more deeply. SEO is aimed at bringing organic results. On the other hand, digital marketing is aimed at the holistic online existence of a business which goes beyond search engine optimization. To help an online business thrive, you should adopt a credible digital marketing approach and put in place an effective SEO strategy. SEO-Integrated digital marketing Some marketing experts refer to comprehensive SEO as integrated digital marketing. More and more, SEO is evolving into a critical aspect of effective digital marketing. To understand this, you need to appreciate how much SEO has changed over the years. Techniques that were effective in the 90s or 2011 are now out of date which calls for new methods. Today, there are many more factors that are used to in?uence SEO including social media and reputable links unlike in the past. Creating an effective SEO strategy To have a great SEO system, you need to put in place an effective SEO strategy. A good strategy includes: 1. Target market: https://rankexperience.com/articles/article919.html 3/4

4. 23.05.2018 Effective SEO is not just for driving traf?c to your site, it should help to ?ne tune customer demographics and geographic conditions to make sure you are reaching prospects interested in your products. 2. Mobile-friendly approach: Google is demanding that websites ?t into mobile devices and give equal satisfaction to users on these devices just like people using computers. 3. More options in search engines: For effectiveness, your site should not only do well in one search engine but across other search engines. 4. Keywords correspond to return on investment: Focus your attention on identifying and using relevant keywords that people use to search for information in order to guarantee ROI. 5. Quality content and clear website: Your website should be friendly to users, clear to navigate and should have quality content. Ultimately, in the world of changing algorithms, you should always know that SEO is a never-ending process. To help you thrive amidst all these changes, think about your target audience, put in place solid optimization strategies and think about the usability of your site. https://rankexperience.com/articles/article919.html 4/4