Much has changed over the years in how search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Baidu crawl, index, and rank webpages in their search engine results. Maximizing your company’s exposure in search engines is critical to achieving your business revenue goals.
Consider this:
Bottom Line: The majority of your potential buyers who do not know you may not learn about your products and services unless you show up on page 1 in Google’s organic search results.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) relates to the organic search listings that show up on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
There are different types of SERPs, which we will cover in more detail later in this article.
Paid search ads are a form of advertisement on search engines based primarily on the keywords or phrases chosen for your ads, along with your ad budget and ad performance.
One of the key differences in paid search ads is that results (clicks on ads to your website or landing page) can be achieved much quicker than trying to get new pages ranked high in organic search results. Your ads will normally show up very shortly after you activate the ads.
Also, in paid search ads, you are typically charged on a per-click basis, thus the phrase Pay-Per-Click (PPC).
SEO efforts can take weeks, months, and even years, depending upon your success and performance on the fundamentals that we will cover in this article. That’s the bad news about SEO.
But the good news is that once your webpage is listed high in the organic listings through your SEO efforts, you do not have to pay each time someone clicks on your listing. Hundreds and even thousands of visitors can come to your website through your organic listings without you having to spend money each time someone clicks on your listing.
So how do you know which listings are considered organic and which are considered paid advertisements?
Here is a search engine results page that shows you the SEO (organic) listings and the paid ad listings (PPC) on a SERP. Search engines will normally show the paid ads above the organic ads. They will also sometimes show additional paid ads at the bottom of the page after the organic listings.
Each paid advertisement will be identified with the word Ad in bold to the left of the ad.
While search engine results can be achieved quicker through PPC, organic search results from SEO can achieve a higher ROI over the months and years.
Roughly 70% - 80% of searchers click on the organic listings versus 20% - 30% of searchers who click on the PPC ads in search.
Google dominates the search market, so what Google thinks and does with its algorithm matters – a lot!
In fact, according to Statistica, Google controlled 87.96% of the search market in 2019.
Search engines like Google use algorithms, or computer programs, to crawl, index, and rank websites based on keywords or phrases entered into the search bar. They send out web crawlers (aka spiders or robots) to find new webpages and record information about them.
Their purpose is to find new webpages that exist and to check the content on pages they have previously crawled to see if there are any changes.
Indexing is when a search engine determines whether the content it crawled on a webpage is worthy of being placed in the search results for a particular term or phrase.
If the content on your webpage is unique and considered valuable, it will be stored in the search engine’s index and made available to show up in a search result.
SEO scammers use “black hat” techniques to try and trick the search engines and the results they display. But search engines like Google are smart and continually update their search algorithms to try to find and punish the websites who use (knowingly or unknowingly) these tactics to manipulate the search results.
Your webpage may not be placed in the index for ranking consideration if:
While there are numerous changes and updates made to search engine algorithms each year, the following three optimization factors remain relatively consistent when determining how the search engines find, evaluate, and rank websites:
Ranking your webpages is the most critical step.
Your website pages can only be ranked after they have been crawled and indexed by the search engines.
There are more than 200 variables that search engines use to sort and rank web content. All of these variables fall under the three pillars of SEO we mentioned earlier: technical optimization, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization.
Some of these variables include:
When we use the term “keyword” to describe what people enter into the search engine, we are actually referring to a word, phrase, or question that you use to find the information you are seeking.
Most people do not search using just one keyword. Most searches are done using multiple words to better define exactly what someone is searching for.
Increasingly people are searching using a question. In fact, about 30% of “keywords” used in a search are entered as a question, and that number is growing each year.
With the growing adoption of smartphones and virtual assistants (Hey Google, Siri, and Alexa), voice searches are snowballing and will one day dominate the search engines.
So, when we use the term “keywords,” it is really referring to the words used by someone to conduct a search on a particular topic.
Navigational keywords form the smallest proportion of all keyword searches. They tend to be brand-related and happen at all stages of the buyer’s journey.
If your company or product has significant brand awareness in your market, then people may come directly to your website to search for your products and services. Therefore, you need to make sure you have the right content on your website with effective Calls-to-Action (CTAs) to support moving your buyer through each stage of their buyer’s journey.
Informational keywords form the most substantial proportion of all keyword searches. People use them during the awareness and consideration stage, which are the early stages of the buyer’s journey.
Your website content needs to be more educational in these stages and have effective CTAs to move them to the next stage of their buyer’s journey.
Transactional keywords form a smaller proportion of all keyword searches. They are used during the decision stage of the buyer’s journey when the potential customer is ready to purchase, subscribe, or signup for something you offer.
These keywords are easier to convert to a sale but are more competitive to rank for in search engine queries. In many competitive markets, you may need to have some type of incentive to encourage people to try your product or service.
As we mentioned earlier, the Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs are the results you see after entering your keywords in a search engine like Google. However, there are different types of SERPs.
The layout and results vary based on the types of keywords used in the search, your personal search history, and your location. Results will vary based on these factors as well as the type of device (desktop, tablet, smartphone) used in the search.
Classical SERPS typically show up after a navigational keyword that includes a brand has been entered into the search box.
Classical SERPs will consist of elements such as a website URL (website address), title tag, meta description tag, and site links, which are links to internal pages on your website.
Universal SERPs may include videos, images, local listings, shopping results, and news.
Much of what you see in Universal SERPs depends upon the type of information you are seeking and whether Google assumes that you are looking for a local source.
Setting up and optimizing a Google My Business (GMB) account for your business is a crucial SEO tactic to create more awareness of your company in the Universal SERPs. It can also help you rank well for many informational keywords when Google determines that the person searching is looking for a local provider.
Extended SERPs are relatively new, coming on the scene in the last few years.
Some of the more common elements in an Extended SERP are knowledge graphs, related questions, and direct answers. Many question-related keywords can also have transactional intent in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey.
The Extended SERP is typically in response to a question keyword. As mentioned earlier, Google has shared that 30% of all searches are question-based keywords.
Question-related keywords are used even more in voice-activated searches with smartphones and virtual assistants. We expect question-based keyword searches to continue to increase as a percentage in overall search.
Search Engine Optimization is vital to the vast majority of business owners, marketers, and sales professionals.
The benefits of being ranked on page 1 in the SERPs include helping you:
The challenge is that a page 1 organic search ranking is not a quick endeavor for a new company, new website, or for a company that has not invested the time and resources to establish a strong website domain authority in the eyes of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Baidu.
To be successful with your SEO results, you need to:
SEO is not a standalone strategy but rather a key component of your overall digital marketing strategy.
Learn more about how to develop an effective digital marketing strategy to achieve your goals.