What is SEO?
SEO is the theory and practice of website optimization in order to obtain the highest possible positions in search results (Search Engine Optimization).
Of course, there are many worthy sites, but for each query, the search engine gives a limited number of results.
Moreover, sites are sorted in a certain order, and each position in the ranking is only one. How to determine that one of the sites deserves the first position, the other will enter the top 10, and the third will not get into the search results at all?
The best minds of Google are working on algorithms that process queries and generate results, and the most advanced data centers implement the technical side.
From the point of view of digital marketing, when we are engaged in search engine optimization – we are looking for touch points of the website and search algorithms to maximize positions, traffic,
conversions – which means the profitability of the entire project.
How to find out that your site needs to be promoted in search?
Incoming website traffic is divided into channels. Typically, the main traffic channels are as follows:
- direct and referrals;
- social media traffic;
- paid traffic;
- organic traffic.
Whereas you can work with the first three channels in the short term, then with organic traffic everything is much more interesting.
Search engines are the source both for paid search traffic (i.e., contextual ads) and for the organic channel. Thus, these two channels share a common territory: the search results.
Although paid channels can provide a quick influx of traffic, they require constant spending on advertising budgets and specialists conducting advertising campaigns. At the same time, the risk of draining the budget is always high, and expenses often barely pay off.
You didn’t replenish the advertising account and the traffic immediately disappeared on your site? This is a sure sign that your website has a weak organic presence that affects brand perception, and traffic and sales depend mainly on paid channels.
At the same time, organic traffic can be a constant source of high-quality leads for your business. For this, advertising budgets are not needed, but a systematic and long-term work on SEO is.
Our common goal is to make sure that you compete with the websites of other companies as efficiently as possible, and paid and organic conversions to your site complement each other most effectively. This is the basis for strong digital marketing.
Why are high positions in search results so important?
The higher the position in the SERP (i.e., page with search results), the more traffic the page receives. New data from Backlinko analysts confirm the observation that the first 3 positions collect the bulk of traffic in the organic. In addition, the first position has a 10 times higher chance of getting a visitor than the 10th position. Differences can be estimated using the CTR metric (i.e., the ratio of clicks to impressions).
So, the click-through rate (CTR) of positions in Google’s organic SERP:
- position – 31.73%
- position – 24.71%
- position – 18.66%
- position – 13.60%
- position – 9.51%
- position – 6.23%
- position – 4.15%
- position – 3.12%
- position – 2.97%
- position – 3.09%
This difference in SEO CTR makes it clear why successful projects are so active in getting into the top SERPs – with each increase in rankings, their advantages over competitors are growing rapidly.
So is Search Engine Optimization worth it? The answer is clear. Next, we consider what stages the search engine optimization of a site consists of.
Basic SEO stages
Keyword and phrase optimization
- Collection and clustering of the semantic core – competitors analysis and the selection of keywords based on statistics;
- Optimization of meta tags of site’s pages based on collected keywords;
- Recommendations for improving text content on pages.
Technical optimization
- Analysis of the technical parameters of the pages and issuing detailed specifications for developers to fix technical errors;
- Verification of the changes made on technical optimization.
Behavioral targeting optimization
- Studying the user’s path, optimizing touchpoints and conversions;
- UX/UI analysis in terms of SEO and marketing;
- Measures to improve the bounce rate and duration of sessions.
External SEO
- Analysis and recommendations for building an external link profile;
- Optimization of the structure of incoming traffic and the entire marketing mix.
To understand the first point, I will explain the term “semantic core”. SEO semantics means all related to the choice of keywords for pages, their meanings and how they match the offer/product and the user’s intentions.
The semantic core is a set of keywords and phrases that correspond to the tasks of the site and the real needs of users in search engines. The semantic core is clustered (structured) into groups by directions and by the frequency of use in queries. Work with meta tags and text content is based on the semantic core, therefore its accuracy is extremely important for effective website promotion.
The stage of technical optimization intersects in time with the stage of work on semantics and is repeated by iterations. The stage of behavioral optimization and the stage of external SEO in marketing both depend on the volume of real traffic and the results of its analysis since statistics and big data are important for insights.
Often the site looks nice after development and there are not even any questions about the content. But with competent SEO analysis it is obvious that such a website is far from ready, and then we proceed to the steps described.
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