SEO Marketing is one of the most popular advertising activities for companies that run websites and look for opportunities to attract more customers on the Internet. SEO is of interest to both experienced marketers and business owners who know the online marketing market perfectly, as well as those who are just taking their first steps in this world. So let’s say at the outset that although it is one of the most popular channels, it will not always work for everyone, or as the first online marketing channel. When and for whom will SEO Marketing be profitable? What effects can you count on? About it in the article below!
– SEO Marketing is a process whose goal is to constantly increase the position of a website in the search engine.
– It is a good solution for both service websites and online stores. However, your SEO strategy will be different in each of these cases.
– SEO Marketing is the cheapest method of acquiring customers on the Internet in the long term.
SEO Marketing – What is it?
SEO Marketing is a process of taking planned actions, thanks to which a given website will be found more effectively in the search engine, i.e. it will achieve better positions for specific phrases. As a result of SEO activities, pages become more visible to web crawlers.
We divide SEO optimization into two basic areas
– technical – we can mention here, among others code optimization, speed of the website, fixing errors, etc.,
– content – here we distinguish, for example, expanding the text content, optimizing headings, etc.
SEO should be an ethical and fair process, both for competition and website users, and thus follow Google’s guidelines for webmasters. For example, obtaining artificial links and automatic linking are inappropriate, which unnaturally inflate the position of websites in search engines. SEO should, however, include link building activities aimed at acquiring links from other websites. Thanks to links, the promoted website is more often visited by search engine robots and rated higher than the competition’s websites.
SEO Marketing is therefore a combination of optimization activities and page linking. Both of these activities should be carried out in a consistent manner. When designing a strategy as part of the SEO Marketing service, it is always worth considering the benefits and needs of the user, business goals and taking into account the operation of algorithms and additional guidelines.
SEO Marketing – What does it consist of?
SEO marketing involves a comprehensive approach to website visibility in search results. SEO and link building are part of a broad spectrum of activities. Apart from them, the scope of optimization activities also includes monitoring and eliminating potential threats to the effects of positioning as well as searching for and implementing beneficial solutions.
More than half of the work on the success of most positioned websites is spent on analyzing, preparing and implementing optimization changes on the websites. Linking complements thoughtful optimization.
On-site activities – these are all activities that we conduct within our website, i.e. technical optimization of the website, content enrichment, internal linking.
Off-site activities – include linking the website from external websites (back-end, blogs, internet forums, sponsored articles, taking over domains).
SEO Marketing – Who Is It For?
Both local and regional businesses advertising their services through their website and owners of online stores can benefit from SEO Marketing activities. SEO Marketing allows them to gain an advantage over the competition by appearing higher in search results. What’s more, it also allows you to gain the trust of customers and strengthen the effectiveness of other marketing activities, such as Google Ads campaigns, advertising in social media or offline marketing. How can particular types of businesses benefit from SEO Marketing?
– Service companies running their local businesses. Such companies are mainly interested in positioning on local phrases in order to attract new customers from their regions, for example by entering search queries “Las Vegas hairdresser”, “London plumber”, “Manila tailor”. It will be especially important for these companies to get traffic from searches in the areas where they operate.
– Online stores that expect long-term results and want to get high positions in search results, both for branded, non-branded and long-tail phrases. These are companies that cover much larger areas, often operating throughout the country. Positioning for local phrases does not fulfill its function here. Often the keywords here are more specific and unique, as well as more elaborate.
How to measure the effects in SEO marketing?
The effectiveness of SEO Marketing activities depends on the market environment and changing Google algorithms. Therefore, it is important that conducting SEO work is a long-term process that is monitored on an ongoing basis. Constant factors, independent of market conditions and changes in algorithms, also work for their effectiveness.
The constant factors influencing the effectiveness of SEO Marketing include:
– activities related to the posted content (texts on the website, guides, articles);
– implementation of new pages, subpages or products;
– site redevelopment or relocations;
– supporting and complementary advertising activities.
When developing an SEO strategy, it is also worth planning the method of evalsuating the results of work and analyzing periodic control reports on the basis of which you can objectively assess the implemented and supervised activities. The guarantee of the effectiveness of SEO work is the continuity of optimization processes and consistent rationalization of all necessary areas related to the operation of the website.
The effectiveness of SEO Marketing will be determined, among others, by previously established KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). The most frequently used KPIs in the case of SEO are, for example:
– Increase in website traffic in a given period by the assumed number of unique users;
– Increase in the number of brand phrases in TOP100, TOP50, TOP10 and TOP3;
– Increase in the number of non-brand phrases in TOP100, TOP50, TOP10 and TOP3;
– Ultimately, an increase in conversions (sales of specific products, inquiries, complex contact forms, material downloads, etc.) from organic traffic;
How long do you have to wait for the effects?
There is no clear answer to the question of when we will see the first effects of SEO activities. Most specialists will tell you that it depends on many factors, including those described above. However, we can assume that for websites or online stores that have never used any SEO techniques before and have not undertaken optimization, the website should notice an increase in the first 6 months. Very often, it is enough to implement the first recommendations from an SEO specialist to see how they will positively affect, for example, the reception of the website by users, and thus also on web robots.
Starting a cooperation in the field of positioning is associated with relatively high initial costs and no return on investment in a short time. However, with the following months, the position of positioned phrases increases, which translates into an increase in traffic on the website. As a result, the number of clients acquired through positioning is increasing.
In the case of websites with an established position, which were previously positioned and optimized, we can achieve the first significant increases based on a long-term strategy. As an example, we can take the website of one of our clients, who, thanks to the compilation of SEO Marketing activities, increased the traffic on the website by 394% in 3 years. Importantly, when assessing the effectiveness of positioning activities, we should also take into account, among others, whether the given increases are relatively constant, and the revenues and other KPIs that we achieve also go up.
What does the cooperation with an agency look like in terms of SEO Marketing activities?
When deciding to entrust SEO Marketing activities to an agency, it is worth realizing the need to implement all the proposals and changes signaled during positioning. The knowledge of the positioner is supported by extensive experience, and the priority in his work is to propose changes to the client that will bring measurable, i.e. the best results. Cooperation between two entities whose common interest is the best possible website optimization effect is effective only when the positioner can count on the client’s trust in the area of website rationalization activities.
What if the proposed changes cannot be implemented?
If, in any case, the introduction of changes will be difficult due to, for example, emerging restrictions resulting from insufficient functionality of the website engine, it may be recommended to change the software responsible for the operation of the website. Each case is considered individually, and major changes that require website preparation and planning positioning and optimization activities are always agreed with the client.
During the SEO cooperation, changes to the website are being worked and implemented all the time, subsequent errors are eliminated and less important elements of the website are optimized. It is worth noting, once again, that website optimization is a continuous process. After introducing changes, the actions are analyzed and how they influenced the visibility of the website in the search results. Based on the conclusions drawn, subsequent stages of optimization are carried out.
The latest trends in SEO Marketing
Website positioning itself is a term that has been known for many years, and many companies have invested in its activities. However, it is impossible to notice certain trends that have more or less affected the environment and practice of SEO specialists.
User Experience
In recent years, we have been talking more and more often about users, including their experience on the website (UX – user experience) and how important they are also in terms of website positioning and optimization. Why is it so important? Why does SEO Marketing have to consider UX?
The website is now a powerful advertising tool on the web. You may be tempted to say that “if your business does not have a website, it does not exist”. The website is a showcase of the company on the web, presents the offer, portfolio and enables direct contact with your company. Therefore, website designs are more and more advanced, they allow you to place high-quality images, quick payment methods or the presentation of thousands of products. In order for all the amenities to really benefit users and make the company achieve better results, it is worthwhile to adapt them to the needs of potential customers.
SEO Marketing must also take these guidelines into account. Therefore, when setting an SEO strategy for a given business, it is also worth bearing in mind the aspect:
– visual – related to the ease of reading messages by the user, the simplicity of navigation on the website and its readability.
– user-friendly – including the page loading speed and its adaptation to various devices (mobiles, tablet, desktop), having a simple purchase and payment process.
– business – the overriding goal is to sell / attract more customers. The pages should therefore contain a clear CTA (call-to-action), the possibility of contact, customer service chat window, etc.
User intention
Therefore, more and more attention is paid to adjusting SEO activities to the user’s intentions. Google understands better and better what the user means when typing a given phrase and what search results he expects. If it is possible to give him a simple solution in TOP3 or TOP10, this page will be there. No matter how much we saturate our content with keywords. It will be important for the algorithm whether they are really valuable from the user’s point of view and whether he received an answer to his query after entering our website.
