Question

Subject : Marketing Analytics

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

1. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

2. What would you want to learn more about SEO?

3. What would you want to learn about customer journey?

4. Where would you start if you had to improve my company’s website’s SEO status?

Answer 1

1. Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) — including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

2. We need to learn the following from the SEO:

i) The big picture. Before anyone get started with individual tricks and tactics, take a step back and learn about the “big picture” of SEO. The goal of SEO is to optimize your site so that it ranks higher in searches relevant to your industry; there are many ways to do this, but almost everything boils down to improving the relevance and authority. The relevance is a measure of how appropriate the content is for an incoming query (and can be tweaked with keyword selection and content creation), and concern's authority is a measure of how trustworthy.

ii) Domain and page authority. Next, one should learn about domain and page authority, and how they predict the site’s search rankings. Here’s the basic idea; the site’s domain authority is a proprietary score, provided by Moz, of how “trustworthy” particular domain is. It’s calculated based on the quantity and quality of inbound links to particular website. The higher it is, the higher all your pages across your domain are likely to rank in organic search results. Page authority is very similar, but page-specific, and you can use it to engineer a link architecture that strategically favors some of your pages over others. Authority depends on the authority and volume of inbound links.

iii) General on-site optimization. On-site optimization is a collection of tactics, most of which are simple to implement, geared toward making your website more visible and indexable to search engines. These tactics include things like optimizing your titles and meta descriptions to include some of your target keywords, ensuring your site’s code is clean and minimal, and providing ample, relevant content on every page.

iv) The facets of content marketing. Though content marketing can be treated as a distinct strategy, I see it as a necessary element of the SEO process. Only by developing high-quality content over time will you be able to optimize for your target keywords, build your site’s authority, and curate a loyal recurring audience. You should know the basics, at the very least, before proceeding with other components of SEO.

v) Link building. In some respects, guest posting – one popular tactic to build links, among many other benefits – is just content marketing applied to external publishers. The goal is to create content on external websites, building your personal brand and company brand at the same time, and creating opportunities to link back to your site. There are only a handful of strategies to build quality links, which you should learn and understand as well.

vi) Measurement and analysis. You won’t get far in SEO unless you know how to measure your results, interpret those results, and use your analysis to make meaningful changes to your approach. The best tool for the job is still Google Analytics, especially if you’re new to the game. Spend some time experimenting with different metrics and reports, and read up on Analytics knowledge base articles. There’s a deep world to dive into.

vii) Keyword research. Specific target keywords aren’t as important for SEO success as they used to be, now that Google search is fueled by semantic and contextual understanding, but you should still be able to identify both head keyword (short, high-volume keywords) and long-tail keyword (longer, conversational, low-volume keywords) targets to guide the direction of your campaign.

viii) Technical SEO. It is one of the most intimidating portions of the SEO knowledge base, but it’s an essential one. Don’t let the name scare you; the most technical elements of SEO can be learned even if you don’t have any programming or website development experience. For example, you can easily learn how to update and replace your site’s robots.txt file, and with the help of an online template, you should be able to put together your sitemap efficiently.

ix) Troubleshooting and adjustment. In your first few years as a search optimizer, you’ll almost certainly run into the same problems and challenges everyone else does; your rankings will plateau, you’ll find duplicate content on your site, and you’ll probably see significant ranking volatility. You’ll need to know how to diagnose and address these problems if you don’t want them to bring down the effectiveness of your campaign.

3. There are 4 questions to ask about Customer Journey, those are as follows:

i) At acquisition, users are thinking about what makes you different, so ask them about their needs.

ii) During onboarding, users are figuring out how to use your product, so ask them about how they currently use your product.

iii) At engagement, users are thinking about the different features you offer, so ask them about which features they find the most helpful.

iv) At retention, users are thinking about new ways to use your product, so ask them about what kinds of support they need from you.

4. The below mentioned 7 ways to improve my company’s website’s SEO status:

i) Approach keywords strategically : Without proper keyword research, any SEO campaign is doomed to failure. Keyword research sets the stage and lays the groundwork for an SEO campaign. Keyword phrases should be as specific to your company as possible and have an easy, conversational sound not a marketing vibe. Just consider how you search for things online.

ii) Strictly adhere to an originality rule: When it comes to SEO, originality refers to duplicate content or the same text existing at two different URLs -- something that you should always avoid. Republishing articles from other sites is not only a potential copyright infringement, but it also creates duplicate content, which can ruin your site’s search rankings.

iii) Strategically adjust your site’s navigation and internal links: The way your site’s navigation is structured plays a major role in how search engines determine the importance of each page. Simply put, the more often a page is linked to within your website, the more PageRank flow it has and the higher it will rank in search-engine results pages for relevant queries.

iv) Optimize on-site elements across your site: While title tags are still important for SEO purposes, meta descriptions have lost their influence in the ranking algorithm. Meta descriptions do, however, provide a perfect place to put some marketing talent to use, through the creation compelling copy that attracts clicks from the search-results page

v) Optimize your site’s load speed: A site's load speed is a factor in search-engine rankings and it also affects the rates of converting visitors to customers. Amazon calculated that a one-second increase in page-load speed would cost a company $1.6 billion in lost sales per year. Other studies have shown 40 percent of website visitors abandon a site that takes longer than three seconds to load. Still, most business owners or webmasters fail to put enough effort into optimizing their site’s load speed.

vi) Don’t buy links. Earn them: Because the quantity and quality of inbound links have a significant impact on a website's rankings, the temptation to buy links on other sites is strong. But link buying and selling are against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

vii) Be natural: If you feel like you have to wedge a keyword into a sentence, you’re approaching SEO with the wrong mind-set. Whereas keyword density was a popular concept five years ago, it’s irrelevant now. Instead, focus on creating content that your readers will find valuable.