- 2023-12-11
In the modern world, technology is an essential part of life, and search engines play an important role in that reality. Thousands of users perform search engine queries just about every second of every day. That is a tremendously large and constantly replenished audience to reach from a marketing perspective.
Digging a little deeper into the data, it becomes clear that marketing SEO is an exceptionally powerful tool. Courtesy of SEO Tribunal, the statistics below represent approximate figures to demonstrate the impact of search engine marketing:
Taken as a whole, search engines represent a massive pipeline of potential customers for marketing purposes. Furthermore, SEO marketing strategies tend to have a much higher conversion rate than traditional marketing or advertising endeavors. Therefore, organizations that disregard search engine marketing do so at their own peril.
To learn more about how to maximize marketing SEO benefits, it is necessary to understand the inner workings of two major categories — On-page SEO and Off-Page SEO.
Sometimes referred to as “on-site SEO,” on-page SEO relates to the optimization of websites and pages to improve rankings in the major search engines. Organizations have a high degree of control over the elements of on-page SEO, making it relatively straightforward to optimize these factors and improve search rankings.
Several important aspects of on-page SEO include (1) Content, (2) Keywords, (3) HTML, and (4) Architecture.
Search engine marketing is highly dependent upon the production of good content on a regular basis. From this standpoint, content must satisfy a need, generally by supplying information or answering a question. At the end of the day, content needs to be useful to rank highly in search results, whether that content appears in text, audio, or video format.
Overarchingly, digital content should adhere to the following rules to optimize search engine marketing:
As the major search engines have evolved over time, content has emerged as one of the best ways to improve marketing SEO. Without producing high-quality content on a consistent basis, it is extremely difficult to achieve search engine marketing goals.
Keywords refer to the subject or topic of a content piece that is the basis of a search query. Keyword research and selection are closely tied to content production and fundamental to SEO marketing efforts. To maximize search engine marketing, organizations should select appropriate keywords, both in terms of search frequency and competitiveness.
From a frequency standpoint, organizations should leverage a keyword research tool to evaluate how often users search for particular terms. Even if a particular keyword is highly relevant to business products or services, it is unlikely to be an effective tool if no one is searching for it. Consequently, choosing a popular keyword is essential to marketing SEO.
That being said, it is also vital to assess the competition for popular keywords. If there are many other companies already using a keyword — particularly well-established organizations with a high degree of online gravity — it can be difficult to break through into the top search results. When the landscape is this crowded, it can be a good idea to evaluate related keywords that have less competition.
Optimization of specific HTML elements can help improve the search rankings of a website or page. In this sense, the way HTML pages are tagged, described, and labeled indicates a level of quality to search engines. Taking the time to clean up and maintain HTML elements can have a great impact on digital marketing efforts.
Of particular note, the following HTML elements tend to come into play from a marketing SEO standpoint:
The architecture of a website or page is another important aspect of on-page SEO. Although an end-user does not usually visit a page to examine its architecture, these behind-the-scenes elements can have a drastic impact on SEO marketing.
When optimizing websites or pages for SEO benefits, the following architecture elements are of crucial concern:
Whereas organizations have a broad degree of control concerning on-page SEO, it can be a little different for off-page SEO. On a larger level, off-page SEO relates to the reputation and popularity of websites and web pages. For example, external references to a site or page — often referred to as “backlinks” — are vital to maximizing the impact of marketing SEO.
Several important aspects of on-page SEO include (1) Links, (2) Authority, (3) Geography, and (4) Social.
External links to an organization’s digital content are a highly valuable aspect of search engine marketing. Internal links from one page of a website to another are also important as they demonstrate a level of organization and cohesion to the major search engines. However, not all links are created equal.
The quality of a link is often more important than the overall quantity of links to a particular site or page. The highest quality links to digital content come from reputable destinations elsewhere online. These linking websites have a high degree of authority (more on this below), which demonstrates a certain level of credibility and usefulness.
While not quite as important as the quality, the number of links to a site or page is also important to marketing SEO. When there are many links to a piece of digital content, it can demonstrate value and popularity. But this is not a quid pro quo situation. Augmenting link quantity does not necessarily improve search rankings, particularly if the links have little value or come from low-level destinations.
Ultimately, marketers should remember that building a solid link profile takes time. There are no shortcuts in this arena, as search engines tend to devalue spammy links that add little to no value. Whereas, discrete links from numerous reputable sources can increase the trustworthiness of a particular website or webpage. Moreover, internal links help organize the layout of a website and can improve SEO marketing efforts.
The authority or trustworthiness of a particular website or web page is another vital aspect of off-page SEO. Viewed through a macro lens, trustworthy and authoritative websites will generally occupy the first page of results in the major search engines. To build authority over time, employ transparent SEO practices and build a credible reputation online.
Important aspects of authority from the standpoint of marketing SEO include:
The geographical aspect of off-page SEO relates mostly to location and demographics. Given the rising prevalence of mobile search, geography factors heavily into the ranking of search results for a specific user. More precisely, local search results within a particular city or zip code are growing rapidly in popularity. Search engines have reacted in tandem, shifting focus to local results for many types of queries.
From a national standpoint, search engines tend to have separate websites for each country. This allows for the segmentation of websites and webpages, specifically targeted for users in a particular country. Even if two countries share the same language — such as the United States and Great Britain — users typically want results within their own nation.
From an international standpoint, global organizations typically establish separate marketing SEO strategies for each country in which they operate, including any necessary translation. In this way, international organizations can utilize a targeted approach across multiple countries and search results, attracting prospective customers from all over the world.
Establishing a solid presence on social media can also help boost search engine marketing efforts. More specifically, search engines look at how users share an organization’s content from the standpoint of:
To maximize the social aspect of off-page SEO, the discussion comes full circle back to the importance of content. By creating superior-quality content and posting regularly, it is possible to amplify the quality and quantity of social shares.
In short, the best way to boost search engine marketing efforts is to employ a dedicated strategy for both on-page and off-page SEO. Of particular importance, content tends to rise to the top. Without producing superior content on a regular basis, it is difficult to gain popularity and build extensive links. At the end of the day, the most efficient and optimized page is of little use without excellent content to drive traffic.
That being said, organizations seeking to maximize their marketing SEO benefits should adhere to the recommendations below:
As noted previously, search engines represent an exceedingly vital and constantly expanding arena for marketing opportunities. Organizations that employ the on-page and off-page SEO tactics above stand to reap substantial benefits.
It is true that major search engines update their algorithms on a regular basis. From a general standpoint, search engines are constantly trying to refine their approach to provide the optimal search results for each query. The ultimate goal is to provide a search user with the best answer as quickly as possible.
In the quest to provide users with top-notch results, major search engines also have to minimize actors who are trying to artificially improve their results. This reality leads search engines to update their algorithms regularly to penalize bad actors (“black hat SEO”) and reward good actors (“white hat SEO”).
Black hat SEO actors use shifty tactics to artificially increase their search engine rankings, without engaging in established SEO strategies. These actors focus on quantity over quality, posting a ton of content, keywords, and links that tend to have little value. Even if these approaches yield short-term results, search engines learn quickly and close off these loopholes.
On the other hand, white hat SEO actors dedicate time and resources to building trustworthy and authoritative digital assets. These actors employ on-page and off-page SEO techniques, create high-value content, optimize pages, and build quality links. When organizations take the white hat SEO approach, they are less likely to suffer when search engines update their algorithms.