E-commerce truly revolutionized our behavior. How we consume online content, whether it be useful information or some random memes of a cat tearing up, the things the internet returns to our searches are based on science. They are not as random as our search history in Google or other search engines. They are based on a numeric ranking of piles and piles of data that also follow a web of processes depending on the keywords we are using for searching. What is all this technical stuff we are talking about? It’s called SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.
Now, we’ll try to explain to you the basics of SEO without going too technical. This article will help you understand why SEO is necessary if you are building an online presence or reputation. To start off, it is best to learn SEO through the concept of customer journey. Imagine you are having a fine day sipping on a cup of coffee while sitting on your front porch, and a thought pops into your head. You thought about purchasing a coffee maker to elevate your coffee experience. Normally, when thinking of purchasing something, we often wonder where we’ll get it. So in this case, you are looking to purchase a coffee maker. If it were in the olden days, we would have to rely on word of mouth, TV and radio ads, or go straight to a department store. Today, we can find all the information we need in just a few clicks.
The power of keywords in SEO
You tap on your phone, press the search engine you normally use, and type in the keywords, “best coffee makers”. A-ha! Keywords! The very foundation of Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Keywords are the basis of search engines like Google to determine what results are relevant to your query. Imagine SEO as a library, only instead of books, it stores hundreds of thousands of pages. How does Google return to you with results? Through Crawlers, or what we call “spiders”, because, well, they literally crawl through the web of search indexes to find matches based on your keywords.
Now, since you already typed in “best coffee makers”, Google will return to you with a list of results, and those page results are ranked based on many things like content type, format, angle, and most importantly, backlinks from reputable or prominent pages. But let’s just focus on backlinks, for now. A page will rank higher in Google searches if it is backed by other pages that have already established a good reputation. Needless to say, these are pages that have a high trust meter. So, the ones you see on top of your search result, other than being the closest and most relevant to your query, are likely the ones backed by these reputable backlinks. If you think about it, backlinks are like votes. The more prominent and reputable pages vouch for a page, the higher their rankings will be, and will likely get to the top of the search engine result page.
Still doesn’t answer why I’d need SEO if I were to build an online presence.
Not all internet users are aware of how SEO works. We usually just click the pages or links on top of a search engine results page (SERP). So, if you are looking to buy the best coffee maker, you are likely to click the page on the top search results.
The simplest way to put it is this way, imagine you are a seller in a wet market. There will be other stores selling the same products you are offering. How do you stand out? Signage. Banners. The bigger, the bolder, and the clearer your signage, the more it will be visible to consumers. You could put up a blinking electronic signage that says “ON SALE”, or other antics or promos you have. In the digital world, that’s how SEO works. The keywords you use to market your business or your products are the blinking signages that match people’s search intent. And in any market, consumers would often look for the ones that are on sale. That puts you right on top of their shopping destination.
In the example above, if a user is planning to purchase a coffee maker by searching for the “best coffee makers”, your page will only appear on the search engine result page (SERP), or rank higher if it can fulfill the search engine’s goal of delivering relevant results to the user. Think of SEO as a concierge in a mall. If a consumer asks for a specific store that sells plus-sized clothing, the concierge will scan through the mall’s database and determine stores that offer or may offer exactly what you are looking for. Pro tip? Keywords.
Get found. Free of charge.
Now, let’s get to the good part. With the rise of various social media platforms, businesses would automatically think that it is the best place to market their business. While that is true, for a business page to reach more people, they would have to pay for ads. This is where SEO trumps social media ads. Why? SEO is free. You don’t pay anything to determine what keywords to use to put out there. Just a little bit of analysis and research on search demands and determining keyword ideas that are worth going for are all you need to boost your online presence, whether it be for a personal professional page or a business.
Additionally, social media marketing is often plagued with traffic spikes because it is designed to surface fresh content. Every time a user refreshes their page, they see new content materials. As opposed to SEO, using keywords that have high search demand, traffic, and business potential, which could also match users’ search intent is organic since these are information that users actively search for. But of course, if you are still willing to pay to get ahead of the game, there are SEO tools like Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Clearscope, Semrush, and many more, that could offer a 360 experience in digital marketing.
There are many things to learn about SEO and this article should give you a jumpstart in knowing more about it, how it works, and why you should use it to effectively establish a reputable presence in the online world. Go out there and learn more! Happy searching!
