Introduction
Search engine optimization or SEO is one of the most important component of online discoverability. In this article we will discuss everything you need to know about SEO as a buyer so that you can make informed decisions for your company.
1. What is SEO and why does it matter?
A business needs to prove itself to its customers to sustain in the long run, but then, how will you prove yourself if you don’t even have the means to reach your customers? That’s where SEO comes in. Imagine appearing on popular search engines to your ideal set of customers when they search for relevant prompts. This is what SEO does to a brand.
1.1 SEO in simple terms
SEO or Search Engine Optimization, is the strategic process of putting your business at the forefront of relevant search terms. An SEO specialist does this by:
• Identifying what customers search for when they want to find a brand like yours. These searches are referred to as search terms.
• Building content around those search terms. This will build your online brand presence and boost topic authority.
• Improving your brand’s credibility by naturally increasing backlinks, building content and optimising each service page for search engines.
SEO is a long and strategic process that needs to be moulded to your customer’s search habits, but it brings compounded returns – more on this in the later sections.
Key benefits of Search Engine Optimization
The list of benefits provided by SEO is unimaginable. It takes time to build a strong online presence, but once you do build it, you reap its benefits for the years to come. Here are a few of the many benefits you get from having a strong SEO strategy:
2. Compounded effects
SEO will not bring you customers overnight. You might not see a whole lot happening in the first week, or the first month, but if you keep at it, you might see a trickle of growth by the sixth month. Then by the next 6 months, you might get double the number of online visitors you had in the first 6 months; the results in the second year might be double what you got in the first, the results in the third year might be better than the last two years combined, etc.
As your credibility increases, your older website pages start to rank higher and you get even more recognition.
SEO’s compounded effects are one of the main reasons why people include it for their online growth.
2.1. Encourages organic discovery
People are far more likely to become a customer when they find a brand organically. This is why organic growth is deemed more effective than traditional marketing methods like advertising.
Search engine optimisation is more focused on building an organic presence – something that cannot be faked. It boosts the brand image by showcasing its authenticity.
2.2. Helps build trust
Continuing from the previous point. When your brand builds content and visibility over time, it creates a trail of long-term presence. This gives customers a reason to trust a brand and its products and services.
2.3. Brings customers from all stages of brand/product/service awareness
SEO is focused on nurturing customers. This is why it can attract customers from different stages of the buyer’s journey. You can nurture every website visitor; this includes those who never knew they needed a product/service like yours, to people who are well aware of what your product/service is capable of and what they should expect from you.
Search engine optimization can help you build a customer journey that has multiple points of entry for your customers.
2.4. Improves user experience
Sometimes when we focus too much on our brand, our product/service we forget what our customers truly want. SEO brings us back to reality. It acts as a bridge between what we provide and what our customers want.
SEO forces us to focus on user experience – a parameter that goes beyond the product or the service. Things like, making sure everything is easy to find information on our website, having a fast-loading website, one that works smoothly on all devices – all come under user experience. When we work on these parameters, customers are likely to have a better experience on the platform, this inadvertently improves the brand’s reputation in the eyes of the customer.
2.5. Improves PPC results
While PPC is a form of advertising, organic growth and ad performance work hand in hand. Research suggests that PPC ads work 80% better for brands that already have an online presence.
SEO also simplifies the keyword research process. For instance, if you are an unknown brand that sells shoes, you might have to target keywords like ‘best running shoes under $XYZ’ or ‘Long distance walking shoes’, however, if your brand becomes more popular after SEO, you can target keywords with your own brand name, in addition to the other keywords mentioned above.
In order to start SEO, you must conduct thorough keyword research; the same research comes handy when you begin PPC ads.
3. How SEO works? – SEO behind the scenes
In simple terms, SEO optimizes your website so that it can rank higher on the search engine results page. Why is it important to rank high on search engines? Can you remember the last time you needed to find out something? Where did you go? You most likely went onto a search engine like Google and found the information you needed.
We don’t realise how often we go online, searching for things we need or are curious about. This often leads us to a purchase. That’s where search engine optimization comes in. There may be more than 10 pages of search results that come up for a search term but we may only click on the first or the second link on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
How do websites come on the first page? Or the first result? Search engines are likely to rank you on the top if it feels you are knowledgeable on the subject. While search engine optimization will not make you more knowledgeable on the topic at hand, it will build a strategy to showcase your subject knowledge, and credibility and ultimately allow you to find more customers from it.
4. The key components of SEO
4.1 On page SEO
On page SEO refers to the efforts that have been put on the website to optimise it. On-page SEO is done through the following parameters:
• Schema markup – Schema markup is the process of telling search engines what each page is about. While schema does not guarantee a rank on search engines, it can help you get indexed faster.
• Optimising images – Make sure all images are optimized through the alt text. The alt text is a small write-up to explain what the image shows. This too helps machines understand the cohesiveness of media within your writeup.
• Indexing – Indexing is the process where search engines crawl and segregate web pages based on the information they have. While schema markup can increase your chances of indexing, it is truly a waiting game. To find out if your pages have been indexed, you can check them out on the Google search console.
4.2 Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO, as the name suggests, refers to all the optimisation efforts that take place outside the website, usually with the intention of encouraging people to visit the website. Here are some aspects of off page SEO:
• Backlink building – When another website links back to your website, it is called backlinking. When we get backlinks from reputable websites, it improves our SEO health over time. Backlinks are segregated into 2 categories – no follow and do follow backlinks. No follow backlinks may add credibility to your website but they do not take the rank and reputation on the website that used your website link and do follow backlinks are the opposite, in the sense that they do bring some ranking benefits from the site that used your website link. Linking your website on social media handles will also count as a backlink however, they are no follow backlinks.
• Social media presence – As mentioned above the link on your social media pages will affect SEO ranks. Additionally, if you are more active on social media, it will encourage more people to visit your website. This too will inadvertently improve website rankings.
• Using local directories – Local directories like the yellow pages, or justdail, even Google maps, showcases local shops or product/service providers who have what you need. If you register on these websites, they will automatically cater to your SEO health. However, to take this a step further, you can look at websites with blogs that rank your products/service (eg: Top 10 dog food in ABC country) and ask to be listed on their article. This will directly improve your SEO health, especially if the website has a high ranking.
• Influencer outreach – Influencers also play a crucial role in backlink health. If you work with an influencer, they may link back to your products/services on their social media handles and their web pages, all of which collectively improve your website rankings.
• Guest posting – Additionally, working with others who complement your brand (eg: a protein brand, working with a fitness blogger), can also improve your SEO health. You can offer to write an article for them with a link that goes back to your website.
• User-generated content – Lastly, this is similar to influencer marketing, except, instead of working with influencers, you ask customers who have already tried and tested your products/services to mention your brand on their social media handles and link back to your website. Although the backlinks coming from here will be a slow trickle, they will collectively work to improve your brand presence.
4.3 Technical SEO
Technical SEO usually requires a web developer’s assistance and insights. It is slightly more complicated than the other things mentioned on this list, but it is worth the effort.
• Having SSL certificates – The first thing we want to do is make sure the website is safe for browsing – especially if you have an e-commerce website. An SSL certificate is granted to a website when you give a certificate authority provider the following information:
o The domain name that the certificate was issued for
o Which person, organization, or device it was issued to
o Which certificate authority issued it
o The certificate authority’s digital signature
o Associated subdomains
o Issue date of the certificate
o The expiration date of the certificate
o The public key (the private key is kept secret)
• Mobile responsiveness – SEO health improves with a good user experience. So, while this stage overlaps with web development, it is a crucial step for SEO.
• URL optimisation – URLs are the unique link for every web page; no two web pages can have the same link. URLs are usually optimized for search engines – this means that if your URL seems relevant to the page topic, search engines are likely to index it.
• Maintaining page speed – Additionally, for the website to be ranked high on search engines, it needs to maintain a strong page speed. The previous benchmark for good website speed was 3 seconds, however now, more websites are breaking the speed record and making their website load in less than 2 seconds. Maintaining a steady page speed will boost technical SEO
4.4 SEO through content
• Optimising for search intent – Understanding your audience’s search intent is very important for SEO. If you know what your audience is looking for you can omit all the unnecessary keywords and focus on what takes you to your audience. SEO research and audience research can help you achieve your results much faster
• Keyword optimization – Through keyword optimization we make sure every page is made around a clear set of keywords and the intent of the content is clear right from the beginning. This makes it easier for search engines to index each page and for the audience to find exactly what they are looking for.
• Internal linking – For a brand to establish themselves as an expert, they must create content clusters around specific topics. Since it is not ideal to put everything on a single page, it is best to create multiple pages of content and then interlinking them in relevant moments. Example, as a sporting equipment manufacturer, it wouldn’t be ideal for you to create a single page with information on all your sporting equipment. Someone interested in football, may not be interested in basketball. So instead, you create pages of content for each and link to the other discipline only when it seems relevant.
• Header tag optimization – When you use header tags (H1, H2, H3 etc), it becomes easier for search engines to understand what your page is about.
• Content building – While many may argue that blogging is out of date, it is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to build brand authenticity. Many back out from this strategy because it is slow, and progress shows after a long wait. However, if you work with an SEO expert you can make informed decisions on which keywords to target first, leading to faster growth.
• External linking – External linking is advisable especially if you have a blog. Adding links to other credible websites, studies, videos, etc that support your content, will not only create a one-stop destination for readers but will also build credibility which will help search engines rank you higher.
• Meta Description – This refers to the small descriptions on a search result that works as a snippet of the actual content. While most search engines can pick a snippet from the content if you don’t provide one, this feature lets you manually optimise the content and increase your chances of ranking higher on search engines.
5. The SEO process
SEO is a very broad concept. As you can see above, so many things come into play in SEO. There’s no one way to do SEO but in this article, we will present to you some basic SEO necessities.
5.1. Audience research
Good SEO must start with audience research. After all search engines cater to the audience. If we want to rank on search engines we must cater to those who search. Audience research is a basic preliminary step where you determine who your audience is and what are the possible reasons why they might want to use your website.
Understanding what your audience expects from every search will lower your SEO costs by a great deal, but we will cover more on this later.
5.2. Building online assets
The very first step of SEO is to build an online asset – in most cases a website. Did you know that around 3 websites are built every second, however, only 17% of existing websites are active? Majority of websites stop being active after 2 years.
So just by keeping your website active and running it for more than 2 years, you have a competitive edge over newcomers.
That being said, while building a website needs to be the primary step, a website made for search engines needs to be fast, have good UI/UX design, and the capacity to handle SEO efforts later on.
5.3. Keyword research
The third step is to conduct thorough keyword research. Keyword research can be done much faster if you have already conducted audience research. The key here is to segregate the keywords based on their importance and difficulty.
Once you have established a keyword hierarchy, you must highlight the 5 most important keywords for your brand. As the business grows you can take more keywords from the list, but as brand that has newly launched itself online your keywords need to be:
• Long tail
• Specific
• Has a low keyword difficulty
• Directly resonates with your products/service
5.4. Search intent
This is a very crucial step if you want to see faster results. Ask yourself what a person is looking for when they search the keywords you have highlighted. Type those keywords yourself and see what comes up. If it shows a list, you need to provide a list-type content to appear on this term, if it shows long blog articles, that’s what you need to show, etc.
Don’t limit yourself to web pages, check forums websites and see what people are asking and talking about within the same topic. What opinions do people have? Do they belong to a specific age group, income group, gender etc. All of this will collectively help you understand your audience’s search intent and if the current search results are fulfilling that intent.
5.5. Optimizing keyword-based content
On page optimization doesn’t take too long. We must make sure the keyword appears on the H1 heading, the first paragraph and a few other times throughout the page. But many people (even marketers) often forget that keyword optimisation is more than that.
While adding keywords can help you get the attention you need from search engine crawlers, search engines will only rank your page if it feels that the page has value. They are now far more evolved hence earlier techniques like keyword stuffing does not work anymore. What works is the value you give your audience. Does your content provide your audience with something of value – value that they may not find elsewhere, or, is it like any other cookie cutter piece of content you will find on the internet?
5.6. Using multiple platforms and media types
Another way to solidify your online presence is to become active on more than one platform. If you have a website where you sell products and an active blog, you can also create video content on YouTube and social media handles covering the same topics. Adding your YouTube videos to your blog goes a step further in establishing brand authenticity.
5.7. Maintaining a strong online presence
Lastly, the reason why SEO takes the cake for visibility and brand authenticity is because it is not something that you can fake. Sure, you can choose keywords, and strategize. The process of building content – genuine content that will benefit your audience – will take a lot of time, months and even years.
Some startups close their business within the first year of starting it because their content simply couldn’t pop up on search engines. It can take more than a year to build brand authenticity especially when it comes to search engines.
6. Search Engines and Algorithms – Explained
Google alone has around 8.5 billion searches in a day and it remains one of the most popular search engines. Why? Because it gives most netizens exactly what they are looking for. How does Google segregate which page should show for a search term? By using SEO algorithms. SEO algorithms are a set of rules search engines follow to audit your content.
These algorithms keep updating as the needs of the public changes and as more people understand how search engines rank websites. Algorithms need to make sure the content they show is authentic and provides value to the readers, and not just have mechanic, keyword stuffed language as an attempt to come on top. Search engine algorithms play a crucial role in making sure you get accurate results.
Google uses multiple algorithms to make sure their search results match the user intent. Here are some of their algorithms:
• Google Penguin – Works to identify broken/manipulative links on web pages.
• Google Panda – It segregates the valuable content from the not so valuable ones.
• Google Hummingbird and Google Bert – These algorithms focus on the search intent than the results. It has been developed to understand the context of the search result and show appropriate results instead of just matching the right keywords with the search results. Google Bert has expertise in longer search terms, while Hummingbird handles the shorter searches.
• Google Page Rank – Just like Google Hummingbird and Google Bert, Page Rank also Interprets queries, but it is more focused on the ambiguous queries, the ones that can mean more than one thing. This system is more focused on understanding the user and their past habits, this allows for better search results.
These are some of the few algorithms among the many that Google has. Google has many algorithms in place to make sure search results are accurate to what people are looking for. This is why black hat optimisation techniques can only take you so far. If you want to rank on SERPs and stay on the top, you can use keyword research methods as a guideline, but your primary focus should be to provide your customers with genuine and authentic value.
7. Types of SEO – Choosing the right method for your business
There’s a reason why it takes time to optimise websites for search engines. It is a vast area of learning and growth, and just like anything that is vast in itself, it needs to be catered to your specific needs. One size does NOT fit all with SEO.
Depending on your business goals, industry, competition, and target audience, different types of SEO strategies may be more effective. Understanding the types of SEO and how they align with your objectives can help you choose the best approach for your business.
Here are some general types of SEO you would notice people using:
7.1. White Hat SEO
White Hat SEO refers to ethical SEO practices that adhere to search engine guidelines, ensuring long-term success and credibility. White hat SEO techniques use a combination of more than one SEO techniques – the identifier here is that all the techniques used here are ethical and approved by Search Engines.
7.1.1. Characteristics of White Hat SEO
• Focus on creating high-quality, relevant, and user-friendly content.
• Use of organic link-building strategies and authentic outreach.
• Compliance with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and algorithm updates.
7.1.2. Best For:
White Hat SEO techniques refer to a series of methods used for consistent, long-term growth. It is ideal for businesses wanting to build a sustainable online brand presence. Additionally, businesses that have some idea of the time and effort it takes to optimize a website, are more likely to invest in white hat SEO techniques.
7.2. Black Hat SEO
Opposite of White Hat SEO techniques are Black Hat SEO techniques. They involve manipulative or unethical practices to achieve quick rankings. These techniques often violate search engine guidelines.
Black Hat SEO techniques are not acceptable under any circumstances. We want to add these in the article to help you stay alert of vendors who offer Black Hat SEO services.
7.2.1. Characteristics of Black Hat SEO
• Keyword stuffing – This is a common rookie mistake. Sometimes, content writers may unintentionally add too many keywords to get recognized by search engines. This is marked as a black hat technique, because writers put less focus on the quality of the content and more focus on rankability. This runs in conflict with search engines because they are trying to rank quality content.
• Keyword cloaking – This is a more intentional black hat technique where developers cloak the actual content and show something else to crawlers so that the page can get ranked on authentic searches. This technique is used by spammy websites and those that don’t have a good intent.
• Use of automated tools for content creation or link building – There are many article spinners in the market, and using them might just penalize your website. Search engines will always rank authentic content, that is written after years of experience.
• Exploiting vulnerabilities in search engine algorithms – This usually happens when a website wrongfully injects a reputed website with false content, often containing malware. Website developers should take the measures to protect authentic brands from these attacks.
Risks of Black Hat Techniques
Although some websites are indeed thriving with black hat techniques, search engines are being improved every day to make them more efficient for netizens. This means that if you use any black hat technique, you are likely to bear some penalties like temporary removal of the website, de-indexing till all the issues are resolved, etc.
7.3. Grey Hat SEO
Grey hat SEO techniques fall somewhere between white and black hat SEO techniques. It involves techniques that might not be illegal but they pose a few ethical concerns.
7.3.1. Characteristics of Grey Hat SEO
• Private blog networks – these are blogs created solely to exchange links with each other. This a slightly manipulative technique because the primary blog does not earn a backlink through merit.
• Creating content primarily for search engines rather than users
• Mass social bookmarking or article spinning – Did you know that the save link/bookmark feature can boost site performance? One can save articles through multiple accounts, manipulating the algorithms and showing that the page has more value than what it really does.
7.3.2. Best For:
Although we don’t recommend Grey Hat SEO techniques, some of these techniques may come handy for competitive industries; especially if you have good content and just need an extra push to increase visibility.
7.4. Local SEO
Local SEO is especially beneficial to those who have a local business and need to get footfalls from people who live nearby. A local business does not need worldwide recognition, rather, they need to make sure they steal the spotlight on local searches.
Local SEO hence works towards optimising a brand for local searches and targeting specific demographics who might be interested in the products/services.
7.4.1. Characteristics of Local SEO
• Optimising for “near me” and location-specific keywords.
• Creating and managing Google My Business (GMB) profiles.
• Building citations on local directories and earning reviews.
7.4.2. Best For:
Local stores and service providers like:
• A clinic
• A car repair shop
• Local tuitions, classes etc
• A salon
7.5. Technical SEO
As mentioned above, Technical SEO aims at improving your overall website structure and performance in order to improve user experience. All websites that want to rank, whether locally, or internationally, need to focus on Technical SEO.
7.5.1. Characteristics of Technical SEO
• Improving site speed, mobile responsiveness, and crawlability.
• Fixing broken links and addressing duplicate content.
• Implementing structured data (schema markup) for rich snippets.
7.5.2. Best For:
While it is good practice to focus on technical SEO, it is mandatory for brands that conduct end-to-end business online (like e-commerce websites). Large and complex websites might require a separate technical SEO team to make sure all processes are smooth on their website.
7.6. Ecommerce SEO
Ecommerce SEO is tailored to online stores, focusing on optimizing product pages and category pages to drive traffic and sales.
7.6.1. Characteristics of Ecommerce SEO:
• Optimizing product descriptions, images, and reviews.
• Implementing faceted navigation and filtering for a better user experience.
• Leveraging content marketing for product guides, FAQs, and blogs.
7.6.2. Best For:
Online retailers and businesses that depend on online sales.
7.7. Enterprise SEO
Enterprise SEO involves large-scale strategies for websites with hundreds or thousands of pages, often used by large corporations. Technical SEO often comes under Enterprise SEO because it is near impossible to maintain a large website without managing website quality and speed.
7.7.1. Characteristics of Ecommerce SEO
• Managing SEO across multiple departments and stakeholders.
• Scalable content strategies and automation.
• Advanced technical SEO and analytics.
7.7.2. Best For:
Large enterprises with extensive web presence and complex requirements.
7.8. Content SEO
Content SEO focuses on creating and optimizing high-quality content to align with user intent and search engine algorithms. Like Technical SEO, Content SEO too might overlap with other types of SEO. For instance, a local business might use content to build its local presence.
7.8.1. Characteristics of Content SEO:
• Creating evergreen content, blog posts, videos, and infographics.
• Conducting thorough keyword research and competitor analysis.
• Updating and repurposing content to stay relevant.
7.8.2. Best For:
Content-driven businesses, bloggers, thought leaders and brands that need an online presence.
7.9. International SEO
International SEO is designed for businesses targeting audiences in multiple countries, demographics and languages.
7.9.1. Characteristics of International SEO:
• Hreflang tags for multilingual content: The last thing an international company would want is a language barrier. Hreflang tags help you notify Google if you have multiple translations on your website and the locations that may need the translation.
• On the contrary, aspects of local SEO come into play in international SEO. A brand that has international presence should build local websites (subdomains) with local content presence. For instance, McDonald creates local content and has a local social media presence in every country they are present in.
• Optimizing for more than one search engine: Although most search engines have similar criteria, they all excel in certain aspects. Indexing in more than one search engine will increase opportunities for greater visibility.
7.9.2. Best For:
Global businesses or companies expanding into international markets.
As you can see above, each type of SEO is designed for a specific type of company and have distinct characteristics. However, you cannot grow a business with just 1 SEO approach. You must look at all aspects of your business and adapt different types of SEO techniques for long term goal. And this is where a tailored SEO approach comes to play.
For instance, an international food joint might use International SEO, Local SEO and Content SEO techniques to boost their online presence. An e-commerce website may use e-commerce SEO, content SEO and white hat SEO techniques etc.
8. Essential SEO tools and how you can use them
Thankfully, we do have some handy tools to help us understand user input and search intent. We will look at some of the good tools and how you can use them to your advantage:
8.1. Determining search intent and finding high-intent keywords
As mentioned above, search intent refers to what netizens are looking for every time they search online. For instance, if someone searches for the ‘best sports shoes online’ they might be looking for a comparison article, and someone searching ‘buy running shoes under $100’ is probably looking for a product catalogue.
High-intent keywords, on the other hand, are search terms people use right before buying a product (eg: running shoes for men vs buy running shoes under $100). If you are new online, you might not rank high on high-intent keywords. This is why a combination of search intent and high-intent keywords is crucial for your online marketing strategy.
8.2. Keyword research tools
These tools help you find keywords with a high search volume, low keyword difficulty and keywords that are best suited for your brand. Examples of good keyword search tools include:
• Google Keyword Planner – Free tools for discovering keyword ideas based on search volume and competition.
• Ahrefs Keywords Explorer – Offers keyword difficulty scores, search intent categorization, and parent topic suggestions.
• SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool – Extensive database with filters for questions, phrases, and long-tail keywords.
• Ubersuggest – Provides keyword ideas, search volume, and competitor keyword analysis.
• KeywordTool.io – Generates key
8.3. Analytics and reporting tools
These tools are more focused on showing you your progress online, traffic, conversions and ROI. They include:
• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – Tracks user behavior, traffic sources, and goal completions with advanced segmentation.
• Google Search Console – Provides insights into search performance, crawl errors, and keyword rankings.
• SEMRush SEO Dashboard – Tracks keyword rankings, backlinks, and site visibility in real-time.
• Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) – Integrates multiple data sources for customized SEO reporting and visualization.
• Ahrefs Site Explorer – Reports on traffic estimates, backlink growth, and keyword performance.
8.4. Technical SEO Tools
Technical tools help work on the technical aspects of SEO like speed, performance, accessibility etc. Technical tools include:
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider – A website crawler that finds broken links, duplicate content, and metadata issues.
• DeepCrawl – Detects technical issues like redirect chains, crawl depth, and orphan pages.
• Google PageSpeed Insights – Analyzes page speed and provides recommendations to improve Core Web Vitals.
• GTmetrix – Offers in-depth page speed and performance metrics with waterfall charts.
• Sitebulb – Visualizes website structure and highlights crawlability, indexability, and other technical SEO issues.
8.5. Tools for Competitor Analysis
Who are your competitors? Competitor analysis keyword tools can help you find out. They will show you where you stand against your competitors and how you can dominate SERPs. Examples of competitor analysis tools are:
• Ahrefs – Uncovers competitors’ top-performing pages, backlinks, and organic keywords.
• SEMrush Competitor Research Toolkit – Tracks competitor traffic, PPC campaigns, and keyword rankings.
• SpyFu – Monitors competitors paid and organic keywords and ad performance.
• SimilarWeb – Provides traffic analysis, audience demographics, and referral sources of competitors.
• MOZ Link Explorer – Examines competitor backlink profiles, anchor texts, and domain authority.
All these keyword tools have features that overlap each other. For instance, you can use Ahrefs for both competitor analysis and keyword research. Free tools usually provide lesser information but are absolutely crucial for page insights. Ideally you should use a combination of tools to get a rounded understanding of where you stand, who your competitors are and what the next steps are to get recognized by indexers.
9. What to look for in an SEO provider?
Since SEO is a long-term process, you would be working with your SEO provider for a very long time. This is why you need to make sure you are working with someone who knows what they are talking about, has experience in different types of SEO – especially the ones you require and maintains transparency throughout your business relationship.
Here are some things you should look into when you hire an SEO professional:
9.1. Credentials and experience
Some SEO experts know what they are talking about while others are still finding their footing. Additionally, some SEO experts may understand optimization as a whole, but may have little experience in what you are looking for. How do you find out if an SEO service provider is right for you? Here are some characteristics of a good SEO provider:
9.1.1. They set realistic expectations
No matter how good you are at SEO, you cannot bring a website under the spotlight overnight; especially if a website is brand new. A good SEO provider must provide you with realistic and long-term goals and expectations.
An experienced SEO professional should provide a catered strategy and what you can expect from the strategy. If a service provider guarantees quick results, they are either inexperienced with your requirements or are using black hat techniques that might get you in trouble with search engines later on. This brings us to the next pointer:
9.1.2. They steer clear from black hat SEO techniques
Black hat techniques might bring quick results, but they are penalizable offences by search engines so it is only a matter of time till search engines find your page and de-index it. Getting a page indexed is hard as it is but getting it re-indexed once removed is even more difficult.
9.1.3. They are aware of the latest changes in the SEO world
SEO is constantly changing because the needs of the general public keep changing. Here’s an example; between 2015 – 2020 a greater preference was given to longer content. So, most brands that wanted to appear on search engines would write longer, more in depth content so that they can rank higher on search engines. And it worked – well, at least for the companies that spread genuine, well – researched content for their users.
However, as the needs of the audience changed, search engines started paying attention to the content’s skimability. This means, it is no longer enough to post long form of content. Search engines will prefer shorter articles that explain concepts just as well as the longer ones. Additionally, it pays attention to user experience, hence articles with a table of content, and the usage of relevant imagery usually gets precedence over an article that is mindlessly long.
An SEO expert needs to know of these latest changes and quickly address them on your website.
9.1.4. Transparency
An SEO expert must be transparent with everything from the timeline and pricing. Good SEO demands for everything to be discussed freely with the client and the service provider. Hence the SEO expert should show you, the client, periodic reports that they derive from popular SEO tools mentioned above.
Good SEO providers should ask for access to platforms like Google analytics and Search console and, in case of a new website, should set up these tools themselves. This is usually the first indicator of a good SEO service provider.
10. Services an SEO provider should offer
Usually, if an SEO service provider works independently, it may be difficult for them to provide all SEO sub-services. This is because, while it all comes under Search Engine Optimization, some of the sub-services are too vast and requires a different set of experiences.
You might come across the following types of SEO service providers:
10.1. Specialised SEO provider
A specialised SEO provider usually provides some, but not all SEO services. Technical SEO and Content SEO, although belonging to the same disciplines require different set of skills and expertise.
Specialised SEO providers may provide two different types of SEO services. Common clusters of SEO services involve:
Cluster 1
• Blog writing
• Page Content SEO
• Guest posting
• Meta tags and descriptions
Cluster 2
• Backlink generation
• Registration on local directories
• Google My Business page optimization
Cluster 3
• Page speed optimisation
• Improving website design for UX
• Backlink generation
Cluster 4
• Social media outreach
• Active participation on forums
• Guest posting
• Blog writing
As you can see, the services may often overlap one other and service providers may provide more than what is outlined on the clusters. Specialised SEO is beneficial to hyper niches – or brands that are looking for visibility amongst a small audience. Usually, the client comes to specialized service providers with a clear idea of what they want and a specialized service provider helps them with the execution process.
However, if you aren’t sure how to use SEO to your advantage, you should consider hiring a \full-service SEO provider.
10.2. Full-service SEO provider
Full-service SEO providers on the other hand provide end to end SEO services, everything from the research, forming a catered plan and the execution. Since full-service SEO requires experts from different fields of knowledge, it is rarely provided by an individual. Webzenia is a full-service SEO provider. We provide everything from technical SEO to content SEO and we make sure all our methods are white hat techniques approved by popular search engines.
The best thing about full-service SEO is:
• All SEO requirements are moulded to your specific needs.
• Ideal for clients who cater to a larger audience, or are unsure where to start
11. Questions to ask potential SEO providers?
Every SEO expert has their own strategy and insights to learn from. While speaking to them, make sure you cover the parameters mentioned below.
11.1. What is their approach and philosophy?
Every service provider has their approach and philosophy and if their focus is to bring you maximum visibility, it is a viable philosophy – considering they stay away from black hat techniques.
In our experience, we have noticed, SEO experts who truly succeed in this field are the ones who play the audience’s advocate. When we focus on building a brand, we tend to forget what the customer needs and focus on what we think the customers need. A good SEO provider should bring the customer back in the conversation, explaining exactly how they will perform audience research, determine pain points and keep the audience in the centre.
11.2. How do they measure success?
Success is variable and heavily dependent on the desired outcomes. If your aim is to increase brand visibility, your SEO service provider should assess audience growth.
In most cases, success is determined by more than one parameter. For instance, a brand with no online presence wants online conversions. Chances of that happening in the first month is rare. So, your SEO service provider should discuss what you can expect in the first month, which in this case might be higher audience reach from the first month to the next month, followed by product page clicks and ultimately online conversions.
A good SEO service provider should give you the access to all the tools they are using especially the free tools and generate periodic reports.
11.3. Communication and reporting standards
Since SEO is a long-term process, maintaining good communication with your expert is absolutely important. Ask your service provider how often will they talk to you on their progress, which tools they will use. You can also ask for a sample report for their past project so that you know how they maintain reports and handle the next course of action.
11.4. What are the expected timelines and deliverables
SEO outcomes can take anywhere from months to years. Hence, there needs to be a timeline for micro deliverables. For instance, if you are focusing on content SEO, it may be difficult to estimate the exact time you will start to see results. The micro deliverables in this case would be the blogs or page content.
Make sure you establish a timeline before you start working on the project so that the process starts with transparency.
Lastly you must discuss pricing, payment milestones and processes. Since SEO is very vast, we are not adding exact pricings in this article. Do make sure that you know the exact rates for each milestone as well as if the service is pre-paid or post-paid. Transparency in the payment structures would ensure that you are on the same page as your service provider.
12. The true value of SEO – ROI explained
Unlike advertisements, search engine optimization requires a lot of initial effort and brings slow results. This is probably why SEO gets the smallest share of marketing budget. Since the budget for SEO is less, you can appoint fewer people to work on content, which usually increases the delivery timeline. When the delivery timeline is longer, there’s a longer wait for publications and an even longer wait for results. Lastly, when the results don’t come, your judgement towards SEO is proved affirmative and you stop putting efforts on it altogether.
As you can see, this is all just one big downwards spiral especially if budgeted by an unexperienced marketer. So, in this section we will tell you exactly how SEO works in terms of investments and what you can expect out of it.
12.1. Long term benefits vs short term costs
SEO may require repetitive monthly costs before you start seeing any changes to your growth, but once you start building credibility, you start to notice some long-term results; some of which include:
12.1.1. Building brand credibility
It is difficult to demote your brand from a top result on an SERP page, especially if you have used all the right techniques. Long consistent efforts build credibility and search engines will always prefer a credible website on their results page, as opposed to a new page.
12.1.2. Better user experience
Although this is not a direct after math of SEO, but brands that value optimisation, is likely to focus on user experience. If a website has better user experience, the audience is going to prefer it over the competitors.
12.1.3. Increased organic traffic
Once your pages start to rank, and search engines deem your website as valuable and authentic, get more organic traffic. It may start off as little, which later catapults to larger numbers.
12.1.4. Lower costs over time
Initially you may have to invest more and get little to no results, however over time you will get inquiries without having to constantly upload new pieces of content. When search engines rank a brand higher, they start to re-asses older pieces of content and rank them higher on search engines (if they find it valuable).
12.1.5. Competitive advantage
A brand that has been running for years and has been optimized for search engines, will have a competitive advantage against newcomers in the industry.
12.1.6. Better conversion rates
As you improve user experience and build a lasting impression on your audience, your content will start to have greater presence online. With greater presence and good user experience, you will notice better conversion rates.
12.1.7. Long lasting results
It’s really difficult to undo the effects of SEO, especially if you use white hat SEO techniques. If you are in business and are constantly providing your users with valuable content, you are likely to see long lasting results.
12.1.8. Adaptability to market changes
The criteria for search engines keep changing, however, if there is a major change, search engines will still prioritize older pieces of content that provide value. Value has always been the key with search engines, so if you provide value to your target audience you will always be given preference, despite the latest ranking criteria.
12.2. Understanding SEO ROI
How do you calculate ROI? By using this simple formula:
ROI = Revenue from SEO – Cost of SEO / Cost of SEO
So, let’s say that SEO costs your business 50$ your ROI is $190, your revenue from SEO will be $1000.
This formula does pose few challenges like tracking organic revenue vs revenue from ads. Sure, people who purchase through an ad, come under ‘ad revenue’ however sometimes:
• People click on an ad because they learned about a brand from their other searches.
• People organically purchase a product/service from a brand when they’ve seen their ad
Tools like Lucky Orange and Ad Performance trackers can help us find an estimate cost of revenue, but since human behaviour is always unique, it is difficult to find the exact numbers.
Secondly, when you start SEO, you would notice that your revenue from SEO will be $0. Depending on the product/service costs and the competition within your industry, generating revenue can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.
13. Separating SEO facts from fiction
The term SEO has been flying around marketing rooms, even amongst businesses that don’t specialize in it. As a result, the number of Search engine optimization myths have increased, affecting the way people asses its importance.
In this section we will discuss some of the most common myths of SEO:
13.1. SEO is Dead
While it is not as easy to rank on search engines as it was a decade ago, SEO is not dead. It is far from being dead. Studies performed on SEO has derived the below results:
• 98% netizens read reviews on local businesses before making a purchase decision. Hence you can increase your chances of getting a new business simply by having a Google my business page.
• 65% users click on organic results. You don’t have to be an expert to know that if a link organically appears on top of search engines, it is because search engines deemed the site as important. This is usually why people trust organic results a little bit more than paid ones.
• SEO has a 14.6% close rate. What does this mean? If a potential buyer finds you online through their own searches, they are 14.6% more likely to choose you.
• SEO drives 1000%+ more business than social media. While social media can work well for some brands, it requires a little more effort, because your potential audience should not only find you, but follow you for you to have an impact on them. SEO, on the other hand, offers assistance even before there is an actual purchase. When you have a doubt, you check it online and find answers. Since you directly have a positive interaction with the brand that gave you answers, you become more inclined towards it.
• 48.% netizens say they would research a product online before buying. This gives brands the perfect opportunity to create buyer journeys and understand online behaviours.
13.2. Ranking #1 is the only goal
While ranking number 1 can boost your online traffic, it is not the only factor that determines high visibility. In fact, we encourage you to do a quick search online and see what all comes up.
You would ideally have an AI generated answer, a rank 0 snippet, organic articles followed by the people also ask section. Additionally, you have the news section, images and so much more. This is why, while being number 1 is aspirational, it is not the only way to get traffic.
Companies that have started their online journey via SEO a competitive advantage over the people who come after them. This is why we need to look beyond rank 1 and start looking at other ways to rank our website – like the FAQs, images, news etc.
13.3. SEO Results are immediate
SEO has never been immediate because it runs predominantly on credibility and it takes time to build credibility. While some SEO efforts come about faster, and you may have a chance to rank higher on local searches, optimization is a long-term process with a few short-term micro goals.
This myth is the sole reason why many discontinue SEO services within a few months.
13.4. SEO is only about keywords
Keywords are an integral part of search engine optimization, it is however, not the only component of SEO. Content development, UI UX design and page speed development are all essential parts of SEO.
In fact, having a social media presence also affects SEO in small ways – it increases the chances of appearing on search engines and it adds backlinks.
Since there are so many elements to SEO, having a clear plan to start the project is essential. This leads us to the next topic.
14. Building a sustainable SEO plan for your business
A good SEO plan stays within the budget and brings results at the same time. Since everyone has different timelines and financial restraints, SEO plans are required to be elaborate and flexible. Here are some essential SEO considerations:
14.1. Setting realistic goals
The first mistake people make with their SEO is setting unrealistic goals. Always remember that it takes time to build a long-term presence. It takes even more time if you can allot a smaller budget to SEO. You must set goals based on the following parameters:
General Parameters:
• How long has it been since you launched your website?
• Your current daily traffic and how long it took you to reach these numbers
• Who is viewing your content? Are they your target audience?
• What is the website bounce rate?
• The number of pages on your website
• The number of indexed pages
For local business:
• Does it have a GMB page?
• Do you have reviews
Having an answer to the above parameters will give you some idea on where you stand and what the next steps can be.
14.2. Setting realistic goals
Unless you are already famous offline, everyone has a level playing field in the online world. This is why it takes as long as it takes in the online world. Here’s are some examples of realistic goal setting:
14.2.1. Example 1:
You:
• Have just launched your website.
• Currently have a homepage and the necessary product/service pages on your website.
• Have 0 offline and online presence.
• Your social media following is close to nil.
Goal
If you start building content consistently on your website, you can take anywhere from 6 months to a year to get 100 daily visitors. This of course depends on the nature, competitive advantage (or disadvantage) and location of your business. New commers in highly competitive industries can take longer than a year to get their first 100 footfalls, whereas small to medium sized businesses in less competitive firms can get their first 100 footfalls within a few months.
14.2.2. Example 2:
You have:
• Some offline recognition.
• Little social media presence with regular social media interaction.
• A brand new website with a homepage and multiple product pages.
Goal:
It can take anywhere from 2 to 6 months to rank your website on search engines given that you use white hat SEO marketing techniques. You can expect to get your first 100 daily visits much faster than the first company even if the two of you belong to the same industry and have a similar target audience.
You can set your SEO goals based on the following parameters:
• Traffic – How much traffic can you expect in a set period of time?
• Leads – How many leads can you realistically expect in a month?
• Brand Awareness – How many people are reaching out to you on a monthly basis?
• Conversions – How many leads can you expect to convert?
14.3. Monitoring and adjusting your strategies
These goals require active research, KPIs and past performance records. And SEO expert will always ask to see past records and keep track of current performances as they optimize your online assets for search engines.
You can monitor your progress by some of the KPIs mentioned below:
Website traffic:
• How long it took you to reach your first 100 monthly visitors?
• How long it took you to reach 100 monthly visitors consistently every month?
• How long it took you to reach your first 200 monthly visitors. Ideally, if a website is growing, the time taken to reach your first 200 should be lesser than the time taken to reach your first 100.
• Compare the time taken between your first 100 with your second 100 (continue this every time you hit a new milestone of monthly visitors
• Which content is bringing maximum traffic? What does that content have that others are missing?
Website conversions (for e-commerce websites):
• Set a purchase milestone based on your product/service price and demand (eg: first 50 purchases, first 10 purchases etc). Monitor the time it takes to reach the milestone.
• How long did it take you to reach your milestone the second time? Compare the time taken between the two. Ideally, if a website is growing, the time taken to reach your purchase milestone for the first time should be more than the time taken to reach your purchase milestone for the second time.
• Check which service/product is getting maximum conversions and which page/product is getting the least conversions.
• Ask yourself if you can optimize your products or services either by providing what your customers want the most, or by re-marketing the lesser popular products.
Demographics and consumer behaviour:
• Who is your ideal audience? Outline your demographic in terms of age, location, income group, parental status, interests, lifestyle etc. Try to be as detailed as possible.
• Check your current online traffic. Does it match your ideal audience?
• Use extensions like Lucky Orange to better understand customer behaviour – pages customers are spending maximum time and places that make customers leave the website.
Knowing these parameters can help us strategize and build a brand that’s easy to find and resonates with customers.
14.4. Why consistency matters in SEO?
The Google E E-A-T’s outlines that a website must have:
E – Experience
E – Expertise
A – Authoritativeness
T – Trust
Google crawlers tend to assess websites based on the above parameters. It is impossible to show experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust through a small number of pages. This is why consistency is really important with SEO.
Search engines are likely to rank websites that have many pages interlinked with one another, each providing their knowledge on the subject.
Unlike social media marketing, it is not compulsory to set a date and time to post a new blog or web page. Once you post new content, it will take some time for crawlers to assess the content and determine if it can be indexed. As search engines start trusting your website, it becomes easier for the other pages to get ranked.
Interesting thing about SEO is that the effects are always gradual. This means that if your website gains credibility and you suddenly stop uploading new content, it will not stop appearing on search engines. It will remain on the top as long as the content provides value.
Although it is never a good idea to stop SEO, to avoid issues of broken links, outdated design and plugins, if you suddenly stop posting content on your website, it will not undo the good effects of SEO. Seo makes it easier to maintain the top rank than scoring it.
15. When to expect results – SEO timelines and milestones
No two companies are the same and this is why different companies achieve results under different timelines. However, there needs to be a system in place to study the progress done via SEO. We will use this section as a guideline to understand SEO timelines and milestones.
Below we have a list of month-by-month tasks for brands that have just launched their website and don’t have any online presence or brand presence:
15.1. Month 1:
This time should go into research. The main purpose of this research is to understand which keywords are most important in your industry. Here are some questions you should try to answer during the process of the research:
• Which keywords are the most important for your industry?
• Which keywords are easy to rank in and which ones are dominated by bigger competitors in the industry?
• What are customers expecting from each keyword search?
• What are the high intent keywords in your industry?
• Who are your biggest competitors?
• Which keywords are they (competitors) ranking in?
Try to be as detailed as possible with the research as this can save time in the future.
When you have a list of all the keywords, start segregating them based on their difficulty to rank. Since competitors who have been around for longer, have a competitive advantage for high intent keywords, you would need to target easier to rank, but low intent keywords, in the initial phases of your SEO journey.
By segregating the keywords based on their importance and keyword difficulty gives us an outline for the months to come.
15.2. Month 2:
During this month we should use the research we have gathered in month 1 and start building content. Start by adding the best suited keywords on your product, service and homepage. The keyword difficulty should not matter here, rather focus on adding the best suited keywords in relevant places. Novice SEO marketers tend to make a mistake of keyword stuffing at this stage – they add too many keywords on a single page or a paragraph and this causes the website to lose its credibility.
After adding the keywords on the page, we can start with the next stage of marketing – content building. This is where the keyword research done in the previous month comes in handy. The goal here is to build low tier content – or content for keywords that have a low keyword difficulty and a low search intent.
Search each keyword online and see what comes up. If the results are directories, and if your website is not a directory, you will have a lower chance of ranking on them. If the results show lists, you have a higher chance of ranking if you write a list.
Although this will not drive customers towards you, this will give your brand a solid base for future growth, forming the first steps to building brand credibility.
Local businesses should consider setting up a Google my business page during this stage.
15.3. Months 3 – 6
The aim for these months should be to create content clusters for keywords with low difficulty and low intent. Although the keyword determines the content topic, it should not compromise the quality of the content.
Depending on your industry and the availability of content in your industry, this can exceed 6 months. I would suggest creating a clear timeline for the phase 1 content to make sure this phase doesn’t exceed beyond its requirement.
Always optimize images and all other forms of visual media on your web page, along with the written content. This will increase your chances of appearing on other searches like image searches, video searches etc.
15.4. Month 7
Now that you have created a solid base, you can target mid-level keywords in your industry – this includes keywords with mid-level difficulty. Usually, these keywords still have a low search intent but targeting these keywords further improves your brand credibility.
If you are a local brand, this would be a good time to start targeting local keywords. Your local content pages don’t have to be linked on the homepage, as long as you index them on search engines.
15.5. Month 8 to 11
Continue from month 7 and build content with mid-level keyword difficulty. Remember that the focus must always be on providing value to your customers.
Continue to create local SEO content if you are a local business. Build links and add meta tags and descriptions to your articles and alt text to your images.
Again, depending on your industry, potential for content within it, and the number of people building your content, this period can exceed beyond 11 months.
This is a good time to start focusing on backlinks. You can build backlinks through guest posting and link submissions.
15.6. Month 12 – 15
If you consistently build content for a year, and focus on the mid to low tier keywords, you tend to see results by this time. This is usually a good time to start targeting keywords with a high keyword difficulty.
Check which competitors are ranked in these high difficulty keywords and outline what is unique about their keywords. Also study search engine results, noting if there has been a shift in top result positions for these keywords. It is ideal to target keywords that see frequent changes in the top 3 – 5 results.
Usually, keywords with high difficulty also have a high search intent. So, ranking on them might take a while, but will bring a healthy traffic to the website, once it does get ranked.
15.7. Month 16 Onwards
The key component of SEO is flexibility. You must audit, study the progress and make the necessary changes to your SEO plans to have long term and steady success. By month 16, you should continue to target keywords with a high keyword difficulty. Do research on your list of keywords again and find a list of low and mid-level keywords, best suited for your business.
It is important to target new low to mid-level keywords, from time to time, if they seem relevant to your brand.
Additionally, this may be a good time to start repurposing your content in different forms of media. You can turn your most popular blogs into video content and interlink back to your blog. If you create a solid content base for your brand, it will be easier to rank your videos on search engines.
Lastly, there is no one way to do SEO. Some people prefer to go the other way around (meaning they will target keywords with a high difficulty first and later go on to developing content for mid to low level difficulty keywords). In our experience, we found this technique to be the most effective as it allows you to carry out a thorough keyword research and assign each keyword a difficulty level. This way you make sure you address each keyword essential to your brand.
15.8. Short term vs long term SEO goals.
SEO itself is a long-term goal where you focus on building a consistent brand presence online. However, if you add a few short-term goals, that may bring small but quick gains.
15.8.1. Long term goals
The above month by month plan is a long-term goal where we build the brand from the ground up. It allows us to create a solid brand presence that is not affected by day-to-day fluctuations. This means that if you stop publishing content on your website, it will not undo the effects of good SEO.
15.8.2. Short term goals
Short term goals are more of an immediate nature. Just like social media handles, they focus more on virality.
Here are some examples of short-term goals:
• Writing time sensitive news articles that have short term appeal.
• Collaborating with another industry expert – there may be a spike in traffic during the collaboration phase, followed by a sudden drop.
• Ad campaigns – Interestingly ad campaigns also contribute to SEO. If your ad is targeted towards brand awareness, it will lead to a sudden increase in organic searches.
• Contests and Giveaways – Depending on your social media following, contests and giveaways can lead to a sudden increase in traffic on your website.
Ideally both long term and short-term goals boost SEO. While long term SEO aims towards improving brand presence, short term goals maintain relevancy on topical issues.
15.9. Key Milestones – Here’s what you can expect:
If you have a dedicated team for SEO who routinely builds website content in the manner suggested above, this is what you can expect every 3 months:
15.9.1. Month 3:
Although you will not see major traffic and growth at this stage, you should notice your brand name popping up when you search for it (without adding a .com). It is important to link your website with Google search console to monitor the indexed pages.
15.9.2. Month 6
While you may see a change in the number of articles that get indexed by search engines, you may still not see any real traffic at this stage. There may be a trickle of monthly traffic that is far from being consistent.
15.9.3. Month 9
As you start focusing on backlinks and mid-level keywords, you will notice consistent monthly traffic. This is usually the start of brand awareness – where people may not buy from you but they will know who you are and what you do.
15.9.4. Month 12
Now you may see some results from your previous content. Some pages will rank higher on search engines, some of them even coming on the first page! Although you may not gain monopoly at this point, you will notice consistent website traffic and some brand loyalty. You might even have a few organic conversions by this time.
15.9.5. Month 15
If you stay consistent with backlink generation and on page content, you will start to see better brand response. If you have started a YouTube channel or any other social media channel, it may see faster growth as opposed to what your website saw when you had just created it.
Disclaimer: Every brand will not grow in the same way. Your industry, competition, saturation of content and the number of individuals executing your SEO content will impact the speed in which you grow.
16. What sets us apart as a SEO partner?
Webzenia has been providing SEO solutions for the last 6 years, and aren’t afraid to share our secret formula. Here’s what sets Webzenia apart:
16.1. Personalized solutions
We understand that SEO is different for everyone, it needs to work with your industry requirements and your budget. Webzenia moulds SEO assignments to suit your needs. This is why we have added a disclaimer for all the above timelines.
16.2. Proven track record
We have ranked our previous and existing customers on the top of search results. Some have taken longer than others, but with consistency all our SEO clients have seen remarkable growth.
16.3. Transparent reporting and communication
It’s hard to track success without frequent reporting. We provide monthly reports to not only maintain transparency but to monitor client’s success and make tweaks in the SEO plan if required.
16.4. Commitment to your success
Success is never overnight; it is a long-term success and we are here for the gains and the falls. Our SEO plans are always long term and intended for long term growth and success.
17. Common questions about SEO services
Here are some of the most common questions people have about SEO:
17.1. What happens if I don’t do SEO?
The outcomes from the lack of optimization are affected by certain scenarios. Here’s what will happen in each scenario:
Scenario 1: Your website only has a homepage, product/service pages and you don’t have any social media handles (or social media handles with no presence).
Your chances of online discovery will be close to 0. Most of your businesses will come through offline practices and word of mouth.
Scenario 2: Your website has the necessary product and service pages with no SEO work, but you have some social media presence
Since you have social media presence you might occasionally have organic searches that lead people to your website. You may even have conversions, however, with a lack of SEO efforts, potential customers might be deterred by the lack of attention given to your customers on your website (eg: poor UI UX design or a slow loading website).
Scenario 3: You have a website and some blogs but you haven’t targeted them based on SEO research. You also don’t have any social media presence.
Since you haven’t actively performed SEO research, the chances of your articles ranking on search engines is close to 0. Usually, the pages like this are sudden and rare; definitely not enough to bring consistent results.
17.2. How does SEO differ from PPC?
SEO focuses more on the organic aspect of digital marketing while PPC is catered towards paid advertising. This means that traffic generated from PPC lasts while the ad is running and drops when it is not, whereas SEO leads to long term growth and recognition.
17.3. Can SEO guarantee top ranking on Google?
Ranking depends heavily on human behaviour and human behaviour is very unpredictable. So, nothing can guarantee ranking. That being said, SEO can definitely increase your chances of ranking on search engines.
17.4. How often should SEO be updated?
For SEO to work well, you need to review your strategy every 3 – 6 months. Make exceptions for an audit any time there is a sudden spark or fall in your online traffic.
We hope these answers threw some light on your SEO queries. Feel free to get in touch with us personally if your question has not been answered above.
18. Conclusion
Now here’s everything you need to know about SEO in 2025. We hope you weren’t deterred by the length of the article – there’s simply too much to write about this topic. We tried to cover all the aspects of SEO in great detail so that you can find a supplier who best fits your brand requirement.
All the best and may discoverability win!
