SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for- Products you sell,Services you provide and etc.
Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to be found and clicked on.
Ultimately, the goal of search engine optimization is to help attract website visitors who will become customers, clients, or an audience that keeps coming back.SEO is a channel that drives the traffic you need to achieve key business goals (e.g., conversions, visits, sales).
It also builds trust – a website that ranks well is generally regarded as authoritative or trustworthy, which are key elements Google wants to reward with better rankings.
Some other terms :
Click-through rate (CTR): Your click-through rate is the rate at which your site is clicked on through to your website from the search engine results pages.
Search Engine Result Page: These are the pages that the search engine displays when a query is executed.
Bounce Rate: A bounce rate is the rate at which someone visits your website but fails to interact with any of the pages, and leaves, usually within a few seconds of being on the page.
Conversion: A conversion is an event where a visitor takes a desired action to become closer to making a purchase, providing contact information to download a digital resource, reaching out for more information, etc.
Organic Vs. Paid Results: Organic results are those search engine results that include all the webpages that are optimized using on-page or off-page SEO and are simply ranked according to the search engine algorithm, based on how well the pages are optimized for the search query. Paid results (pay-per-click ads or PPC ads) are results that are displayed as a result of a search engine marketing campaign, which is based on the search query and may appear before organic results, regardless of page optimization.
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Importance of SEO in digital marketing
SEO landing page
Need of SEO landing page
Creation of SEO- a friendly landing page
Ranking in SERPs
Importance of SEO in Digital Marketing -
SEO is a critical marketing channel.
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SEO is as much about people as it is about search engines. It’s important to understand what people are searching for online, and knowing how to answer their questions will connect you right to them. Knowing your audience’s intent and being able to deliver it in a way that search engine crawlers can find and understand is the sweet spot of SEO.Some roles are -
Boost your authority and credibility online - It can help boost your authority and credibility online, because the higher that your website ranks on search engines, the more trusted your business will seem to both your target audience and search engine crawlers. This can boost brand reputation and encourage visitors to trust and engage with the brand.
Improve organic search rankings - By optimizing your website's content, structure, and technical aspects, SEO helps improve its ranking on search engines. A higher ranking leads to more visibility and traffic, which can translate into more leads and sales. This can be achieved through several tactics, such as keyword research, on-page optimization, technical optimization, and link building.
Gain organic website traffic-SEO can be used as a customer acquisition tool. By conducting effective SEO, you will help to drive traffic to your website, which is done by improving your visibility on search engines, or in other words, your rank position. This traffic can then be leveraged to convert these new visitors into customers, subscribers, or followers.
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SEO Landing Pages:
An SEO landing page is a strategically designed webpage that aims to rank well in search results and drive conversions or leads.
Landing pages exist to drive leads and conversions.
An SEO landing page is a landing page specifically made to rank on search engines.
It focuses on a topic your target audience frequently researches on Google.
SEO landing pages are typically part of a larger inbound marketing campaign, where the goal is to increase your share of total search traffic within your industry.
Effective landing pages are clear and direct in hopes of providing an overall positive user experience.
They don’t distract with gimmicks.
They funnel users efficiently toward a conversion event.
The average landing page conversion rate across all industries is 5.89% and 38.6% of marketers say video is the #1 landing page element that impacts conversion.
58% of landing pages include clickable graphics.
77% of landing pages are home pages.
48% of marketers build a new landing page for each new campaign.
When do you need a landing page :
PPC advertising- A landing page dedicated to a specific advertisement appears higher in search results because Google judges the quality of pay-per-click(PPC) advertising partly on its relevance to the linked page. A dedicated landing page with PPC advertising can be used to feature a new product whose exclusivity creates momentum for sales. A dedicated landing page will draw customers who are only interested in that event, even though an event promotion should be included on your brand's website, where it will be found by existing customers.
Lead magnet- A lead magnet is any type of helpful content gated by a form, where a user must fill out the form to get the content. Even when they only provide their name and email, they become a lead. Design a landing page specifically for the lead magnet focusing on content, the form, and keywords.
Focus attention-A landing page focuses visitors’ attention on the content.
They can either complete the call to action or return to search results.
Attract different types of customers- Custom landing pages can be created to appeal to different types of customers.
The content, page style, advertising, and offer it contains will determine its impact on the targeted customer group.
Landing pages can be focused on drawing customers from a specific location, demographic, or individuals looking at price and quality.
Easier testing- A landing page is one page with one focus, making it easier to test. With the right tools, the page can be tested often to make it compelling and user-friendly. Aspects to be tested include copy, voice, media, or keywords.
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How to create an SEO-friendly landing page -
- SEO best practices can make your landing pages rank higher in search engine results and ensure you reach your target audience.
- Publish to a custom URL
- Determine your keywords- Focus on Keyword Research, Keyword research is the foundation of a successful SEO landing page.
- Include your keywords strategically on your landing page
- Landing pages aim to convert targeted traffic into leads or conversions. So you should choose transactional, bottom-of-funnel keywords.
- Don’t worry about the length of your page.
- Secure backlinks to your page.
- Leave your seasonal landing page.
- Speed up your page.
- Make your content shareable
- Curate Content and Design for Search Intent
- Leverage On-Page SEO
- Optimize the URL
- Monitor Page Speeds and Core Web Vitals
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How to rank in the SERPs
Create and manage your Google My Business account -The first thing you want to do is set up a Google My Business account for your business and website.
The process of creating the account is easy, and if you have a Google account already, it syncs right with your existing account.
You’ll need to verify your listing before it goes live, though.
Typically, most businesses verify by mail, which takes up to 5 days to be delivered, and then you’ll need to enter the code on the letter from Google to verify the listing.
Once that is done, the listing is live and will show any time someone searches for your business or organization.
How it helps- The Google My Business listing helps for a few reasons.
First, it displays your business’s contact information without a user having to click on your website.
It allows you to create a small post every 7 days to highlight a product or service that will be seen on your Google Business profile when displayed in the SERPs.
Submit your sitemap to Google and Bing -Submitting your page and post sitemaps to Google and Bing can not only help you rank higher in SERPs, but it can also help Google and Bing (and other search engines) to index (add your site and its pages to its directory of websites on the internet) your pages faster.
For instance, without manually adding your website to Google, it would take a Google bot to index a new website between a few days and a few weeks.
How it helps- Google Search Console helps by speeding up the indexing process with Google and Bing, getting your website found faster.
It gives you insights into how people find you and helps provide analytics that are helpful and actionable.
Lastly, it gives you the ability to manage how Google sees your website, as well as discover any issues that might be experienced by visitors to your website.
In short, it is an essential part of search engine optimization and ranking higher in the SERPs.
Connect Your social media accounts to your website -Connecting your social media accounts to your website shouldn’t be a surprising suggestion and you probably already do just that, however, what you may not know is the major SEO ranking implications it has.
Google’s algorithm uses inbound links to websites to determine ranking authority – that is, the sites with the most backlinks from reputable (and popular) will ultimately rank higher.
How it helps- The number of backlinks from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
greatly increases the chances of your site ranking higher in the SERPs.
But, it’s not enough to just have social media accounts connected to your website – they need to be active – for instance.
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Optimize your On-Page SEO -Optimizing your on-page SEO will be the biggest help to your site overall.
If you’re using WordPress, use the plugin Yoast, which makes on-page SEO a breeze.
In general, you’ll want to make sure you have a focus keyword/phrase and use the keyword throughout your page.
In addition, you’ll want to make sure your page URL, slug, meta description, and page title all use the same keyword/phrase consistently.
How it helps- With a keyword-optimized page, your page is more likely to rank for your target keywords.
The better your page, the higher you’ll rank in the SERPs.
Focusing on the keyword not only helps your SEO but it improves the user experience by being abundantly clear about what the subject of the page is.
Optimizing your on-page SEO is imperative to ranking higher in SERPs.
Create engaging content (Blogging, Whitepapers, Downloadable Assets)-Creating engaging content (like a lead magnet) can also give your site a boost and rank higher in SERPs.
This tactic helps drive traffic to your website while establishing domain authority.
And, while Google and other search engines may not use web traffic as a metric for ranking.
How it helps- By creating content that is gated – that is, people are required to give you their email address before they can get access to your asset or resource – you can collect leads and reach out to them later via email and other digital marketing methods.
What’s more, by creating valuable content, your domain authority score will increase, as well as your dwell time, and give you a boost in your search engine page rank.
Use paid ads to drive traffic and awareness- Probably the most popular way to increase traffic to your website is with the use of paid advertisements through Adwords, the Google Display Network, or social media.
paid search ads do not have a positive effect on page rank.
However, using paid ads widens your search audience, increasing the number of searchers that see your website.
While this tends to be a controversial topic, there is evidence to suggest that PPC ads and organic search work together in a somewhat symbiotic relationship.PPC ads are a great way to increase visibility and local traffic to your website.
While it doesn’t directly have an impact on your organic SEO, PPC does work together with organic search to increase your brand awareness and generate more local leads.
It helps identify more valuable keywords and maximize your SERP real estate by exposing searchers to both your organic listing and your paid ad, which then leads them to believe (hopefully) that your business provides reputable products and services.
How it helps- PPC ads do not directly impact organic search engine listings.
When used together, well-optimized websites have the potential to generate more clicks from local searchers and be visible to a wider audience, thus increasing the chances that your website will be visited by more people.
PPC coupled with organic SEO has been proven to increase brand awareness, local traffic conversions, and visibility.
Creating effective SEO landing pages is crucial for boosting conversion rates. A well-designed landing page can drive targeted traffic and encourage visitors to take targeted traffic and encourage visitors to take the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource.
What are the key elements to optimize on landing pages
Focus on meta titles, meta descriptions, header tags, keywords optimization, quality content, mobile-friendliness, and fast page loading speed.
What role do backlinks play in landing page SEO
Backlinks from reputable sites can enhance a landing page’s authority and improve its search engine ranking. Focus on quality rather than quantity.
How can one optimize images for landing pages
Use descriptive file names, include alt text with relevant keywords, and ensure images are appropriately sized for faster page loading.
Is it necessary to have a mobile-friendly landing page for SEO
Yes, having a mobile-friendly landing page is crucial for SEO as search engines prioritize mobile-friendly sites, considering the increasing number of mobile users.
How often should one update the landing page content for SEO purposes
Regularly update your landing page content to keep it relevant. This shows the search engine that your page is current and provides value to users.