In Raging Creations’ experience, prospective clients are usually familiar with the term ‘SEO’ and have some idea that it has something to do with promoting their website to search engines. For many, however, search engine optimization can be as mysterious and as daunting as alchemy. Raging Creations believes that when clients have a firm grasp of the concepts and mechanics of SEO and how it impacts their business, they tend to become more active and more effective partners in a SEO campaign. After all, no one knows their business like they do. In line with this, Raging Creations would like to offer this series of articles that aim to present the nuts and bolts of SEO in a simple yet comprehensive manner.
Why Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one part of what is now commonly referred to as search engine marketing (SEM). SEO seeks to improve the number and quality of visitors to a website from natural search results (also known as organic or algorithmic results). The other part of SEM is Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, which relies on paying the search engine to display a paid link in the SERP. Investing in PPC can be an effective means of delivering new visitors to your website, especially when the searcher is intent on purchasing a particular product.
However, PPC can come at a great cost and it is not as effective in building long-term relationships due to customers’ inherent distrust of paid ads. PPC also does not provide sustainable advantage for your website since competitors can always out-bid you for the keyword/s that you are aiming for. The popularity of ad-blocking browser add-ons also means that a large percentage of search engine users do not even get to see the PPC ads in a SERP. Thus, SEO remains the basic strategy for gaining new visitors.
It is important to view SEO as an ongoing marketing function rather than as just a one-time web project. As a marketing function, SEO requires an understanding of marketing principles such as competitor analysis, branding, promotional strategies, and customer relationship management. It must be done on an ongoing basis because the search engine marketing environment is very dynamic. Search engines constantly update their ranking algorithms, so the SEO techniques that worked before may become irrelevant in the future.
In addition, your competitors are always trying to find new ways of improving their rankings, which means relegating your own ranking to the bottom. Thus, SEO is a continuous and iterative process that requires management commitment. However, just like any other marketing function, it is important to set specific goals and objectives in order to determine whether you are getting your money’s worth from your SEO effort.
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