In the age of digital, e-commerce, and m-commerce or artificial intelligence. Generating traffic on their site remains one of the biggest challenges for most marketing and communication professionals.
It is estimated today that 54% of visits to a website are made from search engines. SEO is therefore a major issue that holds a very important place in new digital strategies. To such an extent those communicators and marketers, without becoming experts, must know the main principles.
SEO, An Essential Marketing Tool
What if we told you that being in the first 3 results of a search on Google is now equivalent to an advertisement broadcast on television?
With 8 out of 10 people online and 89% of consumers using search engines for their purchasing decisions. It is more than necessary to have a well-ranked website on search engines to be visible.
Besides, it’s no secret that being on the first page of results is preferable. If not essential, to generate more traffic.
On Google, the click-through rate is 92% for the first page, dropping to less than 5% on the second page. Beyond that, it is worse, since one of the 10 links on the third page is only clicked once out of 100!
However, an SEO strategy is complex to set up; so many criteria must take into consideration.
Indeed, Google’s algorithm, which scans all the sites on the web to position them in the results pages would change several times a year. It seems that Google is fine-tuning its algorithms to meet the needs of its users with ever more relevance, as their purchasing behaviour changes.
Thus, even if we know that certain criteria count in the positioning of sites, we never know completely how much or how long it will last.
To realize this, just consult the major updates made by Google.
So, do you know that all of these factors can improve your search engine ranking?
The number of visits to your site:
The more daily visits you have. The more Google will be able to identify you as a referral site and therefore improve your ranking
The creation of relevant and SEO friendly content:
Google scans all the pages made available on the web. And indexes them according to the relevance of the keywords present on the page.
Almost daily updating of the site:
This goes hand in hand with a content creation strategy. Indeed, if Google scans all of the published pages, it will also favour sites that are updated daily.
But beyond being visible, the whole attraction of SEO is also and above all to generate qualified traffic to obtain a good conversion rate.
SEO Essentials to Know
If you want to set up a relevant and effective SEO strategy. It is best to call on an SEO professional. And ask yourself the right questions before choosing it.
However, knowing the basics will be essential for you to set up a strategy, and optimize it. And ensure that the results meet your objectives. Thus, without being an SEO expert, you can, thanks to training courses lasting only two days, acquire the essential basics.
There you will be a useful and necessary purpose. As a project manager, communication manager, responsible for web marketing or webmaster to know the functioning of the search tools to implement the best possible strategy.
Knowing the best SEO techniques and having the SEO toolbox available will be a real plus in your daily marketing activity. Highlighting this knowledge on your professional profile can only be a lever in your job search.
Likewise, you will need to know how to evaluate the results of your SEO campaign. And why not, set up a paid SEO campaign through Google Ads. To further boost the number of visits to your site and improve your conversion rate.
No SEO strategy without a content strategy
We can’t talk about SEO without talking about content. Because it is what will allow you to generate traffic on your site. Via the blog part for example, or by publishing this content on social networks.
Another significant asset, creating content that will help you position yourself as an expert in your field of activity.
You should know that in terms of content, Google now wants to become a “response engine” rather than a search engine, by displaying ever more relevant results. This will force marketing and communication professionals to create quality content. And offer users high added value content, which provides expertise and information that your customers or prospects need.
The content, if it is well located and well-targeted, will surely able to engage your customers. Also, remember to write long content that is often better referenced.
To increase your chances of being well ranked. You have to ensure that you correctly fill in the HTML tags and technical files intended for Google robots (robots.txt, sitemap).
Finally, don’t forget that there are always more innovations. That you will soon have to consider voice search in your future SEO strategies. Artificial intelligence should also disrupt SEO strategies because Google already uses it in its algorithms to make them more intuitive.
