Why you need to be visible on Google and how to do it
All major athletes didn’t become champions overnight. It required a lot of effort, investment and renunciation, winning unbeatable, overcoming challenges and obstacles… Having good SEO is pretty similar. So think of it just as another sport discipline. :)
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) represents the process of optimizing the complete content on the website (including its code) for web browsers, with the aim of increasing the visibility of the website through organic search. The optimization process takes place in several phases and requires expert knowledge of marketers and web developers who work together on SEO analysis and improvement. Customizing for the web browser is, in fact, a customization for a Google bot (when it comes toGoogle).
What is Google bot? In short, it’s a special Google mechanism (robot, crawler) that moves over the Internet and collects information about your website. Google bot explores the website by tracking links from one page to another (within your website), so it’s necessary for your pages to be crawlable (quick check at Search Console). Based on the collected information, Google bot analyzes your website, taking into account factors, precisely known only to people from Google.
How many times a day you google?
Think before answering. Have you lost yourself in numbers, already? :)
If you are planning a trip, you will definitely be interested in cosy place to eat and relax in the city center after a few hours of sightseeing. You will ask Google for suggestions, completely natural. However, imagine, just for a moment, of the level of effort it takes to get to the first page of search results for this query.
Have you ever… clicked on the 2nd page of search results?
Life in constant hurry with great deal of stress, multitasking, a desire to get the information right now, imposes an imperative that, if you want to sell your product and service online, you must show up at the first page of the search results.
Plenty of information, and in the end, you only go through the most relevant. However, if the info isn’t easily noticeable, you’ll have a problem. Visibility through organic search is the visibility of your website at SERP (Search Engine Result Pages). Unless you do marketing or SEO, you probably have never clicked on the 2nd page of search results. Further, many SEO specialists claim that people don’t see even the entire first page, but only the first 5 results, which is, when we take in considering that we want to get information quickly, a very understandable assumption.
Photo source: Twitter
We believe that this saying, although cruel, but rather realistic, speaks enough about Google positioning.
Why is SEO important?
SEO is important to you as much as you think you need to be visible on the Internet. No more than that. And you know what they say about online visibility? If you aren’t on Google, it’s like you don’t exist. And even as Miroslav Varga says, it’s better to have not so nice things about you on the Internet, than you don’t even exist at all. (See the blog post about the impressions and useful tools we got from the Varga’s seminar ).
When you are at the top of the search results, in addition to a fact you are visible, it also means that you are easily accessible, popular among the online audience and that you are publishing important and useful content. In order to have that rank on the search results page, it’s takes a lot of effort and time. If you want to do good marketing, look at the SEO as an investment that will pay off to you in the long run. The initial settings are demanding and they require maintenance and alignment with trends and changes.
How you should do SEO?
Like every big task, this one begins with research, too. First of all, it is assumed that you have a huge theoretical knowledge and then you can switch to the practice. A detailed overview of your website (website analysis) and how your website ranks on Google are the first steps. For this purpose, you’ll benefit from some tools, but also from simple typing keywords into the search box. For tools, take advantage of all free tools provided by Google, such as: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Page Speed Insights, etc. Other tools that may also be useful are: Ahrefs and Moz and very precious Screaming Frog SEO Spider. If your business has a physical location (address), open the Google My Business page. When you notice what isn’t good on your website, start improving (technical and textual).
Swipe sleeves for the next step, because what follows is the keyword strategy. In order to create a keyword strategy, it’s important to turn completely to your customers or to enter into their role. Think about what you would type in the search box to get information, if you were in their place, and then type, type and type… :)
Here, among other things, you have to pay attention to the competition. Type your keyword in the search box and see how many competitors appear in search results. Following, answer the following questions:
- Have they been there for a long time?
- What’s shown on their site?
- Do they use keywords in a better way?
- Do they have more relevant posts?
- Is the site updated regularly?
- Is it easy to get the information?
Some of the tools that will help you create a keyword strategy are Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner.
After well-established “SEO foundations”, you have to track the results and compare them with the set goals. And then, again, upgrade something more and so on. :) It’s necessary to regularly monitor changes in Google’s algorithms, as this directly affects the positioning of search results pages.
To upgrade your website, identify problems and questions and then consider the best way to offer consumers the answers. Perhaps a blog post with information and helpful tips, which further refers to the product in your offer is a good solution. Maybe we have now inspired you to create even better concept that is closest to the needs and characteristics of your target group. It’s important that you keep in mind that bringing users to your website (and keeping them there!) is an essence. Though, not any user, but the ones who will make conversion.
Although the process is called Search Engine Optimization, much more attention needs to be paid to the users themselves. Because in the end, users are the ones you sell the product to. Google bot tries to mimic the user and thus improve the algorithm; however, no matter how progress has been made, no robot can have all the human characteristics.
Who can do SEO?
For a well-done SEO analysis and improvement, you’ll often need a team of people, so you’ll find that there are agencies that provide only SEO services. For SEO, you’ll need at least one person who will create and modify both textual and graphic content, as well as a person who will provide you with technical support. To put it short, you’ll need a marketer (or a complete team) and a developer (or few of them). Although, you may find a person who works well in both areas, which is rare, but not impossible. To sum up, this job is quite extensive and demanding, so we suggest you to leave it to professionals.
Conclusion
A visually appealing, easy to navigate website and useful content are crucial for SEO. Search engine optimization is complex and demanding, but not impossible and if you love what you do, success won’t miss out.
SEO is the key factor of your visibility on Google (and generally on the Internet), but that doesn’t mean that your business will succeed. You must continue to do your job well. So, if you run, for example, a real estate agency which is listed first on Google and your sales decline, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have a good SEO, but that you need to pay more attention to some other factors of successful sales (communication with customers, personal contact, price policy corrections, etc).
We believe that now it’s clear why you need to optimize the content you create for users, but also for search engines. This is often a big challenge, so we say that optimization is never perfect, but optimal for a particular goal.
Jelena Novaković & Sanja Mračević
