NEXA Â E-BOOK SERIES
1ST EDITION
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
2
SEO BEST PRACTICES
4
CASE STUDY DIGITAL NEXA
13
WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE
14
OWNERSHIP SEO VS GOOGLE ADWORDS
15
SEO VS SOCIAL MEDIA
16
IS SEO A BUSINESS ASSET?
17
IT'S TIME TO LOOK AT SEO DIFFERENTLY
19
CONCLUSION / ABOUT US
21
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is the practice of increasing the quantity and more importantly, the quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. For example, with quality SEO in place, when someone is searching for a product or service you offer, your website will be one of the first pages suggested to them in the search engine results page (often abbreviated as SERP). The ultimate goal of SEO is for your business to rank higher than your competitors on search engine results. If your page ranks higher than those in the same industry, you will get more traffic to your website than they will, you will receive more leads/conversions, and you will build a tangible value to your business.
So, how do you get to this point and begin to rank higher than your competitors? To put it as simply as possible, you need to increase the technical quality of your website as well as the quality and volume of the content contained on your website in order to be placed at the top of the results. SEO is made up of a few important elements, two of the most fundamental being the technical aspect of your website and the quality of your website content. Let's take a brief look at these two SEO fundamentals.
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CHAPTER 1 - CONTINUED WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION? 1.Technical Quality of your Website Technical SEO is the process of optimising your website for the purpose of successful SEO. The main goal of technical SEO is to optimise the infrastructure of your website, making it appealing to search engines. This is done by making sure your website is indexed correctly so that search engines can access it without any issues, providing search engine "crawlers" with the right signals to understand the structure of your website, and giving search engine algorithms a reason to trust your website.
2.Quality and Volume of Content Google and other search engines are searching for pages that contain relevant, meaningful, helpful, and high quality information related to the searcher's query. These search engines want to make sure they are directing a user to a website that can help them and offer them exactly what they are looking for. Search Engines will determine the relevance of your website by “crawling” your website's content and evaluating whether or not the content is relevant to what the user is searching for. This is done through specific search engine algorithms. As you begin creating content to help your website rise up the search engine ranks, make sure it is:
Informative and helpful: Your website needs to contain your contact details and provide a clear outline of what you offer as a business. More useful and valuable than your competitors content: If your content is made up of information related to your industry that can assist the viewer, then you will be viewed as a page that offers value. Unique and high quality: The content on your website should always be unique, specific to your industry, and of the highest quality. You do not want to overload your content with keywords and information that does not help the viewer. Google will know that you are just doing this to "stuff" your page with content in order to rise-up the search results, and you will quickly drop in rankings. You want to give your viewer the best possible experience when they visit your site because a good, helpful experience leads to trust, and this is how visitors become customers.
In Conclusion The average customer will always turn to a search engine such as Google whenever they have an immediate requirement for a product or service or are in the process of researching their next supplier. It's therefore important for your business to be visible at the very moment a potential customer is searching for a business such as yours. So, where do you begin with SEO?
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CHAPTER 2
SEO BEST PRACTICES 1. KEYWORDS AND KEY-PHRASES
The first step in Search Engine Optimisation is to determine what you are actually optimising your website for. This means that you need to identify the terms or words that your target audience will be searching for when they are looking for your services or products online, and it is these words you will want your website to rank for in the Search Engine Results Pages. This is not as simple as it sounds and there are a variety of factors that you need to keep in mind when choosing the keywords and key-phrases you want to target on your website.
SEARCH VOLUME: The first factor to consider is how many people are actually searching for a given keyword. The more people there are searching for a keyword, the bigger the audience you stand to reach. Conversely, if no one is searching for a keyword, there is no audience available to find your content through search.
SEARCH RELEVANCE: If a term is frequently searched for that’s great: but what if it’s not completely relevant to your target market? Relevance seems straight-forward at first: if you’re selling coffee machines you don’t want to show up for searches that don’t have anything to do with your business, like “smoothie machines.” But what about terms like “Coffee machine for sale”? This might intuitively seem like a great description of what you do, but if you’re selling to big restaurants, most of the traffic for this very competitive term will be searchers who don’t have any interest in buying a bulk purchase. An experienced SEO agency will know how to target your ideal audience based on the specific key-phrases they would use to find your product and services, ensuring you do not reach an audience that you do not want to reach.
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SEO BEST PRACTICES KEYWORDS AND KEY-PHRASES - CONTINUED
COMPETITION:
PRO TIP:
As with any business opportunity, in SEO you want to consider the potential costs and likelihood of success.
Once you’ve taken the time to understand how your prospects talk, and what they search for, and once you have looked at the keywords driving traffic to your competitors and related sites, you need to analyse which terms you can conceivably rank for and where the best opportunities lie.
Keyword Competition Analysis is the process of evaluating how the top rankings in your industry fare when it comes to important SEO factors, including their use of specific keywords. The goal is to get a clear and precise view of what you are up against, which helps you identify your opportunities.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR PROSPECTS: You need to understand who your prospective customers are and what they’re likely to search for. From there you want to understand: What are they interested in? What problems or issues do they have? What type of language do they use to describe the things that they need? Who else are they buying from?
“TODAY IT’S NOT ABOUT ‘GET THE TRAFFIC’ — IT’S ABOUT ‘GET THE TARGETED AND RELEVANT TRAFFIC.” – ADAM AUDETTE, CHIEF KNOWLEDGE OFFICER, RKG
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CHAPTER 2 - CONTINUED
SEO BEST PRACTICES 2. ON-PAGE OPTIMISATION
TITLE-TAG
Once you have finalised your keyword list, the next step is to implement your targeted keywords and key-phrases into your website's content. Each page on your website should be targeting a primary term, as well as a few related terms. Below, we take a look at a few important, basic on-page elements you will need to understand and implement in order to successfully drive search engine traffic to your website.
TITLE-TAGS A search engine such as Google is constantly working to better understand the meaning of websites and the pages within the website, rather than simply reading keywords and ranking a page based on keywords. An aggressive and manipulative use of keyword stuffing will immediately be flagged by Google and your page will not rank. So, when it comes to keywords, one of the most valuable ways to use them is in your page's title-tag. A title-tag is not your page's main headline, the headline at the top of a page is referred to as an H1 or H2 HTML element. The titletag is what you will read at the very top of the web browser, and is made up of your page's source code in a meta-tag.
A title-tag length can vary, but the general rule is 55-60 characters. If possible, you will want to insert your primary keyword in the title-tag. Always remember that the title-tag is what your user will see in the search results, almost like a headline, so you need to make sure your title-tag adequately reflects the content on your page.
META DESCRIPTIONS A title-tag is essentially your search listings headline, while your meta description is the additional copy seen below the headline in the search results. Google may or may not show your meta description in its results, however if you have a strong description it will likely show up in the results and this will increase traffic to your website.
META-DESCRIPTION
SEO BEST PRACTICES
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ON-PAGE OPTIMISATION - CONTINUED
BODY CONTENT The actual body content on your pages are arguably the most important, as this is the place a viewer will find the information they require and you want to provide them with content that keeps them engaged and on the page for as long as possible. There are a lot of things to consider when creating content for your user, and for Google: Informative and Helpful: Your website needs to contain your contact details and provide a clear outline of what you offer as a business. More Useful and Valuable than Competitors Sites: If your content is made up of information related to your industry that can assist the viewer, then you will be viewed as a page that offers value. For example, if you are a digital marketing agency, providing tips for social media marketing on your blog would be viewed as helpful content, something the viewer will want to engage with. This kind of content is what will help your site rank higher than your competitors. Unique and High-quality: The content on your website should always be unique, specific to your industry, and of the highest quality. Your content should not be copy and pasted from other sites and should be designed to give visitors a great user experience.
You do not want to overload your content with keywords and information that does not help the viewer. Google will know that you are just doing this to overload your page with content in order to rise-up the search results, and you will quickly drop in rankings. You want to give your viewer the best possible experience when they visit your site because a good, helpful experience leads to trust, and this is how visitors become customers. Engaging: Google is always analysing website engagement and user experience metrics. You can leverage off this by ensuring your content will answer user questions so that they are more likely to stay on your page for longer and read the content from beginning to end. Make sure your pages load quickly and stay clear of overly aggressive design elements that would likely hinder the experience and turn searchers away from your content. Shareable: Not every single piece of content on your site will be linked to or shared hundreds of times. But in the same way you want to be careful of not rolling out large quantities of pages that have thin content, you want to consider who would be likely to share and link to new pages you’re creating on your site before you roll them out. Having large quantities of pages that aren’t likely to be shared or linked to doesn’t position those pages to rank well in search results, and doesn’t help to create a good picture of your site as a whole for search engines, either.
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SEO BEST PRACTICES ON-PAGE OPTIMISATION - CONTINUED
ALT ATTRIBUTES
SCHEMA & MARKUP
It is vital to mark up the images on your pages as this helps the search engines understand what the images represent on your page.
Once you have all of the standard on-page elements completed, you can take it a step further by implementing Schema, a process that helps Google understand your pages in greater detail.
An alt attribute is an HTML element that allows you to provide alternative information for an image if a user can’t view it properly - and it helps the search engines understand what the image represents on your page. Never keyword stuff your Alt Attributes , rather give variations of the keywords in the description - remember that the words need to fit naturally together and if you force keywords into a description, Google will penalise your site - simply make sure you provide a description that is honest and to the point.
URL STRUCTURE The URL structure of your site is important for tracking and shareability. Just like Alt Attributes, do not keyword stuff your URL, rather create a short and descriptive URL that is straight to the point and let's the user know what the page is about.
Schema will not make your page rise up the search engine ranks, however, it does give your listing some extra "real estate" online. If your competitors are not using this tool, you will have a greater advantage and higher clickthrough-rate because your site will show up in ratings while your competitor sites will not. There are a few types of markup you can use on your site, some may not apply to your business, but it is more than likely that at least one form of markup will suit your sites pages.
PRO TIP: On-page optimisation helps you to rank well in the Search Engines and also helps in improving the overall readability of your website for your users. On page optimisation is essential for gaining visibility in the search results without optimising your on page factors, you will not be found in the Search Engines.
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CHAPTER 2 - CONTINUED
SEO BEST PRACTICES 3. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE & INTERNAL LINKING Information architecture refers to the organisation of your pages on your website, and the way you organise your website and interlink between pages can have a significant impact on how your content ranks in regards to searches. This is because search engines view links as authoritative and serve as a vote of confidence for the website. Search engines are able to look at the text you use to link pages, this is known as anchor text. To sum it up, Anchor text means using descriptive text to link pages on your site and this helps Google understand what your page is about. Additionally, your pages that have the most external links from trusted sites will have more power to help your page rank higher in the search results.
Pro Tip: By organising your pages and interlinking between pages, you will experience a significant impact in your search engine rankings.
4. CONTENT MARKETING Search engines are looking for pages that contain meaningful and relevant information related to the searchers query. Search engines want to make sure that they are directing their users to websites that can assist them and offer them exactly what they are searching for. This is why content marketing and SEO go hand in hand. You need to regularly add quality content to your website so that Google can know your page is legitimate, helpful and what the user is looking for in their search endeavor. When creating content you need to consider what kind of content would likely be shared and promoted by viewers. There are a variety of content tactics you can focus on.
Solve your prospects’ and your customers’ problems: Create blog posts that can help your consumer, from how-to guides to tips related to your industry. Reverse engineer what works: Take a look at your websites analytics and view what already works and what kind of content attracts users. By understanding what is already working, you are able to create something better and more powerful, mitigating risk and ensuring your content is failproof. Establish your business as a thought leader: Get articles written by experts in your industry, or by the experts in your business. When you’ve highlighted a person or a specific product or service, your website becomes a valuable resource which established you as an industry thought leader.
Pro Tip: Content marketing is important because it answers your audience's questions. With content marketing, you can build trust with your audience, improve conversions, connect with your customers, and generate leads.
5. OTHER ELEMENTS TO CONSIDER Page Speed: This refers to the amount of time that it takes for a webpage to load and it is determined by several different factors, including a site's server, page file size, and image compression. Make sure to check your page speed and ensure all pages load quickly. Mobile Friendliness: More and more people are accessing website through their mobile devices and it is vital that your website is mobile friendly, that is, responsive on any device. XML Sitemap: A Sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs for a site. XML sitemaps help search engines understand your website and find all of its content.
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CHAPTER 2 - CONTINUED
SEO BEST PRACTICES FINAL SUMMARY Search Engine Optimisation works by focusing on a few primary elements, this include: 1. Keywords and Key-phrases 2. On-Page Optimisation 3. Information Architecture and Internal Linking 4. Content Marketing ' 5. Page Speed, Mobile Friendliness and XML Sitemaps Now that you have an understanding of the steps you need to take to ensure your website begins to rank, keep in mind that Search Engine Optimisation is not a quick fix and it will take time to see results. You will not immediately experience the benefits overnight but if you follow the search engine best practices mentioned above, your website will continue to grow and you will bring in new organic site traffic for years to come.
"SEO ISN’T ABOUT GAMING THE SYSTEM ANYMORE; IT’S ABOUT LEARNING HOW TO PLAY BY THE RULES." – JORDAN TEICHER
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CHAPTER 3
TRACKING AND MEASURING SEO Above, we unpacked what goes into creating strong SEO, but how do you go about tracking your campaign and its success or failures? The answer to this is quite straightforward however, there are some key metrics that you need to focus on, and each metric contains key factors that need to be considered when measuring SEO performance.
KEYWORD RANKING
Checking where your site ranks for specific keywords is not the be all and end all of your SEO because personalisation in search results make them variable across different locations, and this makes it difficult to track. But getting an idea of where your site ranks for specific terms is the leading indicator of your website's health in the search engines. Do not become overly obsessed with rankings in the beginning of your SEO process, as this takes time and you need to remember that your ultimate SEO goal is to drive relevant and high quality traffic to your site, as opposed to just getting unnecessary clicks. There are many SEO keyword tracking tools that you can use that will help you track and understand your SEO progress.
ORGANIC TRAFFIC
Organic traffic is defined as the traffic you gain from appearing in the search engine results pages, without having to pay for this placement - and that is the essence of Search Engine Optimisation. You want your site to rank for keywords related to your niche, organically. Organic traffic is a better indicator of the health of your SEO than keyword rankings. By viewing your organic traffic, you are able to gauge the actual volume of visitors that view your site, and you are able to see how they navigate your site. You are able to measure organic traffic easily with analytics tools that are available, including Google Analytics.
Organic traffic is important as it lets you know how individuals are finding your brand online, in the beginning you will find that most of your site’s traffic will come from “branded queries.” That is; searches that contain your brand name however, you want your SEO to reach people that are searching for your product or services using non-branded keywords. Your ongoing SEO should be centered around driving incremental traffic to your site - that is, individuals who may not have engaged with your brand otherwise. And this is how you gain new leads, and ultimately new business.
SEARCH VISBILITY
Search Visibility plays a vital role in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and is the key success metric of your strategy, but what exactly is Search Visibility and how do you measure it? Search Visibility is the measurement of how many users view your website in search engine results related to your business offerings, and it measures how much traffic you are likely to receive from your organic reach. It also a strong indication of how many times you are present in the search engine index, how high you rank in the results and how much traffic you receive due to the keywords and key-phrases you are listed for online. Your search visibility score refers to the percentage of clicks you are likely to receive based on your organic ranking positions across all your keywords and key-phrases. There are a variety of methods marketers can use to get website's to rank higher in the search engine results such as AdWords and PPC campaigns - these methods are paid for and offer quick results but are not sustainable for long-term success. This is why Search Engine Optimisation is vital for your Search Visibility as it is a long-term strategy that gets your site ranking and keeps your site ranking.
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CHAPTER 3 - CONTINUED
TRACKING AND MEASURING SEO SEARCH VISIBILITY How Search Visibility is Calculated: Taking all of your rankings for your chosen keywords and key-phrases. Applying a click through rate (CTR) based on each of the ranking positions. Adding your CTR and dividing the number of keywords and key-phrases you are tracking, providing you with a metric of 0%-100%. A Search Visibility Score of 0% means that you are not getting any traffic and none of your pages are ranking in the top 50 results in the search engines. A score of 100% means you own the search results for all of your keywords and key-phrases. It's important to note that a score of 100% is almost impossible to reach but you should aim for a minimum Search Visibility Score of 35% - 45% as this is the average click through rate of a URL in the top position of the search results. This score would indicate that your business ranks well across many important search terms for your business - but with plenty of room for improvement. By knowing your score, you are able to track your search visibility and watch its progress, compare your results to those of your competitors and develop a strategy based on your findings to boost your score. 3 Key Factors that Affect your Search Visibility and Website Traffic: Search Volume: When you choose your keywords, you need to ensure that they are going to be used by people when searching for products or services related to your business. If you have a keyword that is almost never used, your ranking does not matter as you will not gain traffic through this tactic and you can find out if a keyword is viable by checking its click through rate, and this can be done through Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool or through Google's excellent Search Console platform.
Placement: It is important to get your website ranking higher in the search engine results related to your keywords and keyphrases - this is not simple and takes a lot of strategy, planning and continuous implementation from your SEO team. If your website gains authority through well executed search engine optimisation, you will be noticed by the Google algorithm, and begin ranking higher in the results.This is done through technical SEO and content creation. Learn more about this process, here. Keyword Volume: The number of keywords and keyphrases that you choose will improve your search visibility score. Sites with a high visibility score show up more frequently in the results as they have a lot of keywords in their content - however, it is vital to note that you cannot spam your content with keywords. You need to deliver content that is helpful and insightful. If you are simply spamming your blogs or website with words in order to rank, Google will pick up on this immediately and you will be penalised. Whatever keywords you choose, make sure to use them organically in your content and give them substance within your content creation. Above, we have stated some technical facts, however it is important that we show you how a search visibility score and professional SEO can build your business to greater heights - and give you a great return on investment. In the next chapter we will unpack the Search Visibility of Nexa and how a strong search visibility is of value to any business.
CHAPTER 4
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A CASE STUDY At Nexa, we believe in transparency when it comes to all of our services, and when it comes to SEO, transparency is vital to success. We believe that every business needs to know the process in order to understand the long term benefits but we also believe that our clients need to see results in a way that they can understand. This is why we make sure that our clients are always made aware of three areas once their SEO process begins. We make sure that all our clients are made aware of their: 1. Search visibility: The percentage of clicks received based on organic ranking positions, across all the keywords being used for their SEO. 2. Search visibility compared to their competitors: By knowing where they rank in relation to their competitors we are given a strategic advantage. Once strategies have been put in place to get them to rank higher than their competitors, they will gain more leads and make more sales. 3. The monetary value of their website traffic: How much their SEO is worth in terms of cold hard cash. Without analysing and unpacking the above throughout the SEO process, you will never be able to see the rewards and understand the value of the service provided.To help give you more perspective as to why it is important to know all of the above, let’s use Nexa as a case study.
THE NEXA CASE STUDY: Nexa and Search Visibility Based on data from June 2020, from a set of 400 keyphrases and keywords based on Nexa’s service offerings, we have reached a search visibility score of 75.1% for desktop and laptop users, and we are at 75.9% for mobile searches. This means that for any of those 400 key-phrases and keywords, we are likely to convert 75% of these searches into website or blog traffic. Nexa and Search Visibility in Comparison to our Competitors: But how does our search visibility score of 75.1% compare to our closest competitors? This is an important metric for any business as a click to your website rather than a click to a competitor's website can be the difference between a sales and a missed opportunity.
Using the same data, keywords and key phrases, our closed competitor's search visibility score is at 33.7%. As per the June 2020 data, our search engine visibility drove 7,469 visitors to our website through organic search alone. Using the same set of keywords and key-phrases, our competitors drove only 2,453 visits in this time. This means that we received 3x more visits due to our high search engine visibility. Nexa SEO in Monetary Value: As stated above, for the month of June 2020, our organic traffic reached 7,469. And we can calculate what this means for us in monetary terms. If a new competitor had to enter the market and their objective was to generate the same amount of traffic as Nexa, we can determine how much investment they would have to make in their marketing efforts to reach the same visits and clicks on their website. Based on Google data and analytics for the same set of keywords and key-phrases, the average cost per click using the Google AdWords platform would be $7.20. This means that our competitors would have to pay $7.20 for every click through to their website using Google AdWords, which equates to US$53,086 for that particular month. This means that they would have to spend this amount every month to reach the same traffic that we reach organically and for FREE.
And this is why we are changing things up! No longer should we talk about Search Engine Optimisation - we should be talking about Search Engine Ownership...
CHAPTER 5
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SEARCH ENGINE OWNERSHIP Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is defined as the “process of growing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or web page to users of a search engine.” SEO is known as one of the purest forms of digital marketing, and is a process that is backed by science and logic. If given the opportunity, anyone could understand how SEO works and why it works.
If we look at the case study we provided regarding Nexa, let us take a look at how much a new competitor would have to pay to achieve the same level of traffic as we have. In June 2020, our organic traffic equated to 7,469 website visits. But how much is this traffic actually worth to our business?
However, many agencies do not feel it necessary to explain this science or methodology to their clients. At Nexa, we are transparent when it comes to our SEO services and believe that every client needs to understand why SEO is important, how it works, and why it works.
If a new competitor enters the market and their objective is to generate as much traffic as Nexa (as the market leaders) to their website, using data provided by Google, we can determine exactly how much investment would be required to generate the same number of clicks / visits to their website.
Without this understanding, a business will never fully grasp the potential that comes with strong SEO. We are fully committed to providing our clients with the best search engine optimisation services, but we have taken it a step further, and now offer our clients what we call “Search Engine Ownership."
For the same set of 400 keywords and key phrases, Google estimates that the average cost per click, using the Google Adwords platform, would be $7.20. In other words, if the competitor creates a series of Google adverts across all relevant keywords and phrases, each click to their website would cost an average of $7.20.
So, what is Search Engine Ownership and how will it benefit your business?
Using this data, Nexa's 7,469 visits can be multiplied by $7.20 per visit which equates to US$ 53,086. In other words, $53,086 would need to be spent by the competitor EACH MONTH, to generate the same volume of traffic to their website, that Nexa generates for FREE.Over a period of 12 months this adds up to US$637,032.
The ultimate goal for Search Engine Optimisation is for a business to rank high on Search Engine Results such as Google. There are two main processes that get you to a high ranking position and these are:
By having a technically sound website, filled with high quality, helpful and meaningful content, you will rise up the Google and search engine ranks.
This is clearly a huge asset for our business and if you consider that most Google users prefer to click on organic search results rather than adverts, the reality is that any competitor - even with this level of investment, is unlikely to match the same website traffic currently enjoyed by Nexa. But website traffic should not be the only determinant of value.
One thing that is vital to successful SEO implementation, is that a business ranks higher than its competitors in the search engine results, because ranking higher than your competitors has immense monetary value.
At Nexa, our website traffic converts into a consistent and predictable flow of inbound sales leads. In essence, these leads cost Nexa nothing but actually converts into new business for us.
By outranking your competitors you will see enormous value and better your bottom line.
For example, If we convert even 1% of that traffic into new business at an average value of $10,000, the ROI from Nexa's Search Engine Ownership becomes even more significant with the SEO value of our business easily being worth $millions.
1. The technical quality of your website. 2. The quality and volume of content on your website.
The benefits of outranking competitors include: More traffic to your website than your competitors. Your business will receive more leads / new business opportunities than your competitors. Your business builds tangible value making your SEO an asset to your business.
The Value of Search Engine Ownership Search Engine Optimisation is simply about optimising a website for the search engine, our Search Engine Ownership strategy allows you to understand how much your traffic is actually worth.
And this is why we phrased the term “Search Engine Ownership.” Based on the above it is clear that Nexa has achieved Search Engine Ownership and the value of this means that our investment in lead generation activities can be diverse and spread among multiple channels, while competitors are forced to pay for the same search engine visibility that Nexa enjoys for free. In fact, Nexa spends no money on Google advertising campaigns at all.
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CHAPTER 6
SEO VS GOOGLE ADWORDS Adwords and Search Engine Optimisation are the primary components of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and these tools are some of the most valuable tactics when it comes to running a successful digital marketing campaign. Both of these tactics have differences as well as similarities, and some situations require one or the other, while some situations may require both. It all depends on your strategy, business and your overall marketing goals.
What is Google AdWords? Google AdWords, also known as Google Ads, is an advertising platform owned by Google. Marketers use this platform to help position brands and businesses in the Google Search Results Pages, Google product pages (Gmail, YouTube, etc) and to a myriad of other sites that participate in this program. As a marketer, you can choose to pay when someone clicks on your advert, this is known as Cost Per Click, or you can choose to pay when people view your advert, this is known as Cost per Thousand Impressions. Essentially, the AdWords system functions like an auction, where marketers compete for available advertising space.
SEO vs AdWords: AdWords only applies to Google and websites that make use of Google AdSense. SEO applies to all search engines, from Google to Yahoo. SEO directs traffic to your site for free, while AdWords traffic is paid for as mentioned above. By implementing an AdWords campaign, your ad will appear at the top of the Google search results. In order to rank organically at the top of the search results using SEO, you will have to put in a lot more strategic effort and work.
AdWords provides an immediate solution as you can create your campaigns quickly and instantly begin directing traffic to your site. SEO takes more time, particularly when it comes to new websites. However, SEO is a long-term solution that can save your business thousands of dollars, while AdWords is designed for the short-term. As soon as you stop your AdWords campaign, the traffic to your site will slow down or stop completely. However, as SEO is an organic process, your traffic will continue to increase as your SEO strategy develops and you begin to rise higher in the search results. AdWords allows you to market your business on other websites that make use of Google Adsense, however the results you get from SEO will only come from the search results pages.
In Conclusion As AdWords will get websites to appear at the top of the search engine results quickly, it is always a good idea for a new website or new business to begin by using this marketing tactic to get the ball rolling regarding traffic and brand awareness. AdWords can generate results faster than SEO, it is the best solution for the short-term however, you will have to pay for each visit you receive from your AdWords campaign, so this may be something new businesses would be weary about. AdWords is great for startups and new businesses that want to get targeted and high quality traffic to their website as soon as possible, for the purpose of finding new clients and making sales. This is only true if you use AdWords strategically and carefully, and it is vital you monitor your campaign and control tools to ensure you generate a profit. While AdWords is faster and provides a sense of immediate gratification, SEO is vital for long term ranking and business success and will save you considerable sums in marketing investment. Refer to the Search Engine Ownership section.
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CHAPTER 7
SEO VS SOCIAL MEDIA The monetary value of Search Engine Ownership speaks for itself as outlined above, but SEO does take time and hard work to get to that point, so is it worth it when there are avenues like Social Media marketing available?
Individuals with an intent to buy will turn to search engines: Just about everyone has a social media account, but social media users are on the platform to be entertained,and distracted. This is where SEO has the one up on social media, because people using a search engine are usually searching with the intent to buy or the intent to research a product or service. In fact, 81% of buyers perform an online search when making a purchase. If you want to spend money on a product, you will more than likely scroll through a website for a product rather than through a social media site.
As we live in the era of social media and online communication, it is no surprise that many marketers working with a limited budget, would focus their efforts on social media marketing. Social media is an important marketing tactic, and it helps new businesses establish their brand to their target market - but there is a catch when it comes to social media. How do marketers capture their social media audience beyond their network and transform them into paying clients? When you are actively searching to purchase a product or service online, would you turn to Facebook or Google? The answer is usually Google this is because Google is about intent whereas social media is about socialising and distraction - and you make sales based on intent, not distraction.
What makes SEO a better investment than Social Media marketing? Search engines generate more traffic than social media sites: In 2019 Google received 162 billion searches while Facebook received a mere 70 billion - so where would you prefer your business is present? With the above stats in mind, search engines generate more traffic than social media sites. Another important statistic to look at is a Traffic Report conducted by The Shareaholic, in which it was stated that search will continue to be the most efficient and largest traffic driver because there are fewer search engine sites than there are social media sites. Taking this into consideration, investment on search efforts is more efficient as you only need to focus on one or two platforms.
Social media advertising has a short lifespan: SEO become stronger over time as search engines crawl your content daily. In stark contrast, social media efforts tend to fade because what you share to your page today may no longer appear on your target markets newsfeed tomorrow.
In Conclusion: It is important to have a social media presence and engage with your audience on these platforms, however, if you want long term value and if you want to see your bottom line improve continuously over time, than Search Engine Ownership is the best digital marketing tool for your business. To sum it up, small and big businesses need to understand the role of SEO and social media, and plan the allocation of their marketing budget to ensure they get the maximum return on investment. .
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CHAPTER 8
IS SEO A BUSINESS ASSET? Being visible in search results is a powerful way to increase the quality of traffic to your website, and convert potential leads into paying clients. Essentially, being seen online is valuable and will help your business grow and thrive. Ranking well online is not only about gaining more clients, it also helps gain brand awareness and has the ability to nurture relationships with your prospective clients, positioning your business as authoritative and trustworthy in your field. In today’s competitive digital market, you need to be seen online and you need to rank higher than your competitors in order to keep your business booming. And with that in mind, SEO is more vital than ever and is a valuable asset to any business.
The Benefits of Ranking Well in the Search Engine Results Pages: Organic Search is the primary source of website traffic: Organic search refers to when a user types in specific keywords or search terms into a search engine. Organic search results will then appear as a list, and are based on relevance to the search terms, this excludes advertisements. Organic search is a massive part of any business’s website success, and is a vital component of the buyer funnel. The majority of search engine users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions that appear in the results pages. And this is why it is important your business is present. By ranking well, you will gain more visitors to your website and you can convert those visitors into leads, and ultimately paying customers.
Trust and Brand Awareness: The goal of any experienced Search Engine Optimisation specialist is to establish a technically strong foundation for a website. This is made up of good user experience, back-linking, quality content and easy to use navigation. Building a website on these foundational elements will make your website easy to discover online as it makes your website trustworthy. Many tactics go into establishing authority on search engines, and this authority is created over time as a result of elements such as: Quality back-link profiles Positive user behaviour Optimised on page elements Optimised content Machine learning signals However, you cannot build authority over night, it is earned and built over a period of time. It will take patience, commitment, and effort but it offers long-term value. Once your website begins to rank, and more traffic comes on to your site, the more leads you will gain, and the more sales you will make - over and above your competitors who rank below you. SEO Impacts the Buying Cycle: Customers will always do their research and this is one of the greatest advantages of the internet and search engines from a buyers point of view. By ranking well in the search results, you put your business front of mind when a potential consumer is searching for your business offerings. This will also undoubtedly impact the buying cycle positively. Your business needs to be visible when people are looking to make a connection with a business that offers your services. SEO will enhance your visibility and direct potential clients to your website when they are actively in the process of searching for what it is you offer. Essentially, by being visible, you make the buying decision that much easier for the client.
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CHAPTER 8 - CONTINUED
IS SEO A BUSINESS ASSET? Search Visibility is Valuable: Yes, Search Engine Optimisation costs money, but all the best things do. However, SEO is cost-effective in the grand scheme of things as its payoff is considerable and benefits your bottom line. If you rank well on the search results, you are not simply implementing a marketing tactic, you are making a strategic business investment, one that will reap rewards for years to come. But it is important that we help you understand how much search visibility is actually worth. As outlined previously, Nexa has achieved a high visibility score, and our search visibility ensures that we have a larger share of traffic than our competitor by at least 3x. In real business terms, this allows us to invest marketing budget in areas other than Google AdWords, unlike any of our competitors - and this is what all businesses should be striving for.
PRO TIP: Ranking well on search engines is a valuable investment for any business. When considering SEO for your organisation, you need to ask yourself whether you want your website to be optimised for search engines, or if you want to own the search engine results relevant to your business.
It is time to start looking at SEO differently....
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CHAPTER 9
IT'S TIME TO LOOK AT SEO DIFFERENTLY We all know that trends come and go, and marketing tactics that were previously popular can quickly sink into oblivion. This is particularly true when it comes to digital marketing, as the online world continues to evolve and shift every single day. Search Engine Optimisation has dramatically altered since it first became a part of the marketing world in 1997. In the beginning, to get your website to rank online, you would simply focus all of your SEO efforts on keywords, getting your pages to rank higher than your competitors solely based on keywords. Today, we focus on keyword intent, the user's needs, helpful and useful content, and above all else, conversion rate and performance metrics. The history of SEO is full of exciting twists and turns, with the birth of new search engines, new SERP features, algorithms and consistent updates, as well as the emergence of SEO experts and advanced SEO tools. While search engines have evolved enormously over the years, one thing will always remain - as long as we are searching for information online, SEO is vital.
In Conclusion As it stands today, SEO has evolved once more, and it is time to look at Search Engine Optimisation differently if you want your business to gain long-term benefits.
Businesses should no longer simply want their website optimised for the search engines, they should put a strategy in place that helps them OWN the search engine results.
ABOUT US About the Author Amit Vyas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nexa, a digital marketing agency that was launched in Dubai in 2005. With close to a decade of experience within Digital Marketing, Amit has seen first hand, the dynamic environment with which businesses now have to operate in order to achieve growth and to succeed. Amit has worked with hundreds of businesses in the Middle East from startups to large multinational clients during his time at Nexa and previously, in the UK. He can be found at international conferences and has spoken at marketing events in the USA (SXSW and Content Marketing Conference), Australia (ANZMAC), India (Content Marketing Summit at the world Marketing Congress) as well as countless others in Europe and the UAE.
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About Nexa As one of the largest fully-independent Digital Marketing Agencies in the UAE, Nexa has provided a vast array of services to over 1,000 clients in the region since 2005. Nexa is HubSpot's only Diamond Partner Agency for the GCC region. Services Include: Growth Marketing Consultancy Performance Marketing, Lead Generation & CRM Digital Strategy Social Media Strategy & Management Inbound and Content Marketing Website Design & Development Content Creation including high-quality Video and Audio Production Workshops: Sales Enablement & Inbound Marketing
We can help As a fully independent growth marketing agency, we continuously challenge traditional ‘marketing norms’ by offering digital marketing and technology to our clients that helps them to achieve improved business results and performance. Our independent status allows us to proactively work with our clients as a trusted partner without the need or objectives to pitch products and services based on internal KPIs or other non-clientfriendly metrics. This also allows us to dynamically craft cutting edge strategies tailor-made for each client based on their overall business goals and objectives integrating a range of digital marketing tools and channels, which is proven to deliver the best results for a client. The quality of our work and the results generated has also resulted in us gaining important industry recognition by winning the 'Best Integrated Campaign' award at the 2017, 2018 & 2019 MENA Search Awards - the highest profile search marketing awards. Our ability to drive growth for clients in multiple industry sectors using integrated digital marketing channels is unmatched with a track record spanning over a decade. Nexa’s offices in Dubai, New York and Manchester (England) and our in-house team of experts provide a comprehensive portfolio of services focused on Growth Marketing and Digital Transformation including Inbound Marketing and Lead Generation, Sales Enablement and Service Measurement.
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