An opportunity to get firsthand knowledge from a Search
Engine Marketing expert. Some non-technical answers to
basic questions on Search Engine Optimization.
1. Can you briefly outline what exactly Search Engine
Optimisation (SEO) is all about?
Simply put, SEO is the process of applying various
techniques to a website to improve the volume and quality
of traffic to the site from Search Engines via "organic"
search results and also improve the overall ranking of the
site in the Search Engine Index.
2. Is it a continuous battle between yourselves and
changing search engine algorithms?
There will always be an "ongoing battle" to get your site
into a higher ranking on the Search Engines. Changing
Search Engine algorithms is not the only thing that affects
ranking. Search Engines aim to always deliver quality and
targeted results for the keywords and phrases searched for.
The integration of "mixed" or "blended" results where
related news or videos or pictures or blog posts are shown
together with web pages have become the common trend
lately. The Search Engines will always want to deliver the
most relevant or most accurate page to you, whether it is
video content, blog content, news content or web page
content. You are now not only competing against rival or
competition sites; you are also competing against UGC (user
generated content).
Traditionally, updated fresh page content, the amount of
quality one-way links, on-site optimization and off-site
optimization were the only important factors which the
search engines used, but now the game has changed and you
have to not only compete by optimizing your site, but also
compete on the Social Media or Social Networking space.
3. What kind of demand for this service is there in South
Africa?
SEO has been around for quite some time now and many people
have used it before, but I believe the demand locally is
growing rapidly. Companies - from SMME's to large
corporates - all realize that competition is heating up in
this new space called Social Media.
Social Media together with Social Networking is
distributing "user generated content" all over the web and
the "integration" of video, blogs and photos are becoming
the new trend in Search Engine Result Pages.
This is where the Web is heading and everyone wants to move
into this new space. Gone are the days of traditional
marketing and optimization methods to just focus on your
one page or product.
4. How important is it to be in the first page of a search
engines results?
It has always been important to be on the first page of
Search Results, however, the introduction of "blended"
results have made it even more competitive and thus more
crucial to be ranked in the first top 5 positions of any
search result page. This is vital as recent studies have
shown that people don't really look further than result 3,
much less click beyond page 1.
A joint eye tracking study conducted by two International
Search Marketing Firms has shown that the vast majority of
eye tracking activity during a search happens in a triangle
at the top of the search results page. This indicates that
the areas of maximum interest create a "golden triangle."
The study shows the importance of page position and rank in
organic results.
Websites at positions 1, 2 and 3 are most important and
looked at the most.
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longtail is a digital marketing and strategic consultancy
agency that can help you put together a 360°
integrated digital strategy for your business. We pride
ourselves as trend setters in this new media, strategising
and developing solutions to make this medium work for the
stated objectives. http://www.longtail.co.za
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