Search Engine Optimization - Is it Only Keywords?

Search engine optimization has always been thought on how to attract Google.

How to use it effectively?

The URL itself



If you have the power of money to establish a brand use any simple word that's easy to remember



HOABL is a simple and effective name easier to remember and different enough to create a brand that can be associated with Land as investment, second house, Legacy, etc. More money is invested around the brand, more the recall. But, there is always a limit post which the spends should reduce and the brand recall becomes higher. So as a tech company what should we do?

The Structure or sitemap of the website



This is where the structure becomes important.



I tried to correlate Google with purchasing a new book on a topic. Try to remember the last time when you were searching for a good book. What are the steps that you took. The first obviously the title of the book, the cover, a small synopsis or summary about the topic, the recommendations of people who have an authority of the topic, reviews of the book, then a scan of the chapters in the book, reading a few pages to establish that this is what you are looking for. Finally, a good read leads coming back again and again for new content.

Search Engine Optimization is akin to helping person finding a good book to read
Search Engine Optimization is akin to helping person finding a good book to read

Google's Ultimate Job



Google's job is to ultimately help you get the right book.



Now let us look at Google's objective, it's simply to provide the right content to motivates their customer to come back to Google. Supposedly, Google keeps on suggesting Junk to their customer what will happen. Their customer will dwindle and ultimately would lead to their business collapse. So their job is not purely to provide a website that has articles written around the topic that is searched but a website that gives a content that engages the customer. Their limitation is that Google is ultimately a machine. So it will obviously first check the website structure to identify if the information is structured around the topic being searched. The website has content around the topic.

So what would we like to known for?

The purpose of our business has been well defined and we do have a few written material around the purpose. For sure, we should not divert from the objective and create a content that is vague. Further, what is the experience that we are giving to the customer. Remember the cover of the book, the looks, the impact, the clear message, etc. This is where the attractiveness of the website matters, its important to also note that today the content is accessed through mobile and desktop (or laptop). Speed of data will vary as well as looks based on which device is being used to access the website. Hence there is huge importance associated with the website performance. So let us list down the important points.

The website perfomance - Speed matters



The website performance is largely oriented on how fast the website is rendered to the customer. While There are various studies that have been done to share the importance of a fast opening website. Even our own experience in a hurry is that we don't wait for slow website and move ahead. So speed matters as every second now is becoming more and more important. There are two aspects that impacts speed - one is the server or the host performance. A poor host with a low bandwidth can definitely create a problem. So don't go for slow hosts. The second part is the coding of the webpage which is more difficult to achieve as it required a proper understanding of coding, using codes that are not slowing down the page like Javascript, or too many server code that slows down the process. there was a time that I did recommend wordpress as an easy start to website designs and still has wonderful tools. But, a drainer on the performance. I clearly recommend using pure HTML as much as possible or any other solution that does not put stress on the website. Ths is a fight that will always be there between the marketing team and the technical team.

Do not compromise on the performance of the website. Every extra milliseconds matters
Like the cover of the book we need to attract the customer

Is Our Website attractive enough?



The first few milliseconds matter we need to get out customer hooked on. This is the second critical step to keeping the customer engaged on the website. If the website looks dull we have lost the battle already. Yes we need to sync in with our content but lets remember human being love visual rather than text. Hence it is imperative to create a visual hook. Using videos (Without reducing the performance), good images, backgroud, self explaining animation (visual or static)

The Content



Now that you have got the customer hooked on this is the time to create a highly engaging content. A content that will make the customer read and spend time on the website. Now let us appreciate that Google does not have any means and ways to measure the engegment apart from the fact how much time the customer has spent time on the website, how much has he scrolled and where did the customer move post the page. Did the customer leave teh website, did he move to another page in the website, what content did he move to, etc. So the art is in creating and migrating the intangible to tangibles. As a website creator we need to be able to identify the elements, the content, the images, the videos where the customer has spent time and how long has he spent browsing each and every element. That's where a story writing will help getting the attention of the customer.

Keeping the customer hooked to the website is imperative

The Technical aspects and their importance



The technical tools can be an effective manner to capture the required information about the customer



While we all are aware that there are many free tools available on the web, even Google and facebook provide wonderful tools. But, personally we should avoid using them where ever possible. Specially if we have leads coming on those pages. For example, if one customer fills a lead form on facebook today for any product, the same customer gets similar product suggestions. Which is good from a consumer perspective but can be damaging from a supplier perspective. So placing scripts of facebook for remarketing may be fine if the landing page is dedicated to facebook only. But, if leads of other sources are coming the same could be used by facebook to remarket to different suppliers.

The Social Media Funnel for inorganic marketing

Capturing events



Each and every movement should be captured of the customer



From where the customer landed on the website, was it organic or inorganic, which page page is leading maximum flow, which creative is leading to the flow, what do we display to the customer for specific creative. If the customer has come after looking at the wealth creative, what should the flow be, if it is second home then what. While contruction could be a priority for this customer, the earlier one may take a decision if he sees appreciations and reasons for it. Identify, the journey that led to business and what led to a loss.