What is SEO ? Basic Overview of SEO

What is SEO ?

Search Engine Optimization, SEO, is the activepractice of optimizing a website, by improvinginternal and external aspects, in order to increasethe traffic from search engines.

Ø Organizations of all kinds (businesses and charities), as wellas individuals, need to have a presence on the Web and theyneed the search engines to bring them traffic.

Ø As our society moves ever closer to a professional Consumereconomy, the ways in which people create, publish,distribute, and ultimately find information and resources onthe Internet will continue to be of great importance

Ø With more than 12 billion searches being performedeach month.

Ø Approximately 400 million web searches are performedevery day.

Ø This means that on average more than 4,500 searchesare performed every single second of every day.

Ø Therefore search engine optimization, is at the center ofthe Web and is your key to success in the new webeconomy.

The Misson Of Search Engine

Ø As a result, search engines invest a tremendous amountof time, energy, and capital in improving theirrelevance. This includes performing extensive studies of

Ø user responses to their search results, comparing theirresults against those of other search engines.

Ø Because the search engines‘ success depends so greatlyon the relevance of their search results, manipulationsof search engine rankings that result in non-relevantresults (generally referred to as spam) are dealt withvery seriously.
Ø Each major search engine employs a team of peoplewho focus solely on finding and eliminating spam fromtheir search results. This matters to SEO practitionersbecause they need to be careful that the policeytheyemploy will not be seen as spam by the search enginesand carry the risk of resulting in penalties for thewebsites they work on.

U.S Market Share Of Search Engines

The Humman Goals Of Searching

Ø The basic goal of a human searcher is to obtaininformation relevant to her inquiry.

Ø However, searcher inquiries can take manydifferent forms.

Ø One of the most important elements to building anonline marketing strategy for a website around SEOand search rankings is understanding of thepsychology of your target audience.

Ø Once you understand how the average searcher,and more specifically, your target market, usessearch engines, you can more effectively reach andkeep those users.

Steps for Search Processes

1. Experience the need for an answer, solution, or piece ofinformation. For example, the user may be looking for awebsite (navigational query) to buy something (transactionalquery) or to learn something (informational query).

2. Formulate that need in a string of words and phrases (thequery). Most people formulate their queries in one to threewords.

3. Execute the query, check the results, see whether you got whatyou wanted, and if not, try a refined query.When this process results in the satisfactory
completion of a task, a positive experience is created for theuser, the search engine, and the site providing the information orresult.

Search By Query Length

Who Search and What Do Thay Search For ?

ComScore data shows that just under 79 million people in theUnited States were using a search engine on a given day inJanuary 2009.Ø Search engine users were slightly more likely to be womenthan men (50.4% versus 49.6%).

Ø Internet usage increases with household income

Ø All of this research data leads us to some important conclusionsabout web search and marketing through search engines.

Ø For example:

1. Search is very, very popular. It reaches nearly every onlineAmerican and billions of people around the world.

2. Google is the dominant player in most world markets

3. Users tend to use short search phrases, but these aregradually getting longer

4. Search covers all types of markets.Search is undoubtedly one of the best and most important waysto reach consumers and build a business, no matter the size,reach, or focus.

Determining Search Intent: A Challenge For Both Marketrs and Search engines

Ø Smart SEO practitioners and the search engines have a common goalof providing searchers with results that are relevant to their queries.

Ø Therefore, a crucial element to building an online marketing strategyaround SEO and search rankings is to understand your audience.Once you grasp how your target market searches for your service,product, or resource, you can more effectively reach and keep thoseusers.

Ø Search engine marketers need to be aware that search engines aredepend upon intent.

Ø Using the search box is fundamentally different from entering aURL into the address bar, clicking on a bookmark, or picking alink on your start page to go to a website.

Ø It is unique from a click on the button in your toolbar or a visitto your favorite blog.

Ø Searches are performed with intent; the user wants to findsomething in particular, rather than just land on it by chance.

Ø First decide different types of queries, their categories,characteristics, and processes.

v Types of queries

Ø Navigational Queries

Ø Informational Queries

Ø Transactional Queries

Navigational Queries

Ø Navigational searches are performed with the intent of surfing directly toa specific website.

Ø In some cases, the user may not know the exact URL, and the searchengine serves as the ―WhitePages

For example :Ø Searching for the detail of Indian airlines
Ø OR searching for a particular college like Sunshine college

Ø Opportunities:

Ø Pull searcher away from destination; get additional or investigatory traffic

Ø Average value:

Ø Generally low, with the exception of navigational searches on thepublisher‘s own brand, where the value is very high as these types ofsearches tend to lead to very high conversion rates.

Informational Queries

Ø Informational searches involve a huge range of queries

Ø For example local weather, maps and directions, detailson the latest Hollywood awards ceremony etc.

Ø Informational searches are primarily non-transactionorientedthe information itself is the goal and nointeraction beyond clicking and reading is required.

Ø Users are interested in finding as much information aspossible with informational queries. For example, ―Whatis a prime factor?‖ or ‗prime factor‘ is an informationalquery. Its goal is finding the meaning of‗prime factor

Opportunities:

Ø Brand searchers with positive impressions of your site,information, company, and so on; attract inbound links;receive attention from journalists/researchers; potentiallyconvert to sign up or purchas.

Average value:

Ø Middling. Note, though, that informational queries that arefocused on researching commercial products or services canhave high value.

Transactional Queries

Ø Transactional searches don‘t necessarily involve a credit card or wiretransfer. Creating a Gmail account, paying a parking ticket, orfinding the best local restaurant for dinner tonight are alltransactional queries.

Ø Users are interested in finding a document that offers the service

Ø described in a transactional query.

Ø 80% of searches are informational in nature and only about10% of searches are navigational or transactional.

Ø The researchers developed an algorithm to automaticallyclassify searches by query type. When they tested thealgorithm, they found that it was able to correctly classifyqueries 74% of the time.

Ø The difficulty in classifying the remaining queries that is, thequery could have multiple meanings cant decide the intent ofthe search queries

Ø Although informational queries are less likely to immediatelyconvert into sales, this does not necessarily mean you shouldforegot rankings on such queries. If you are able to build arelationship with users who find your site after aninformational query, they may be more likely to come to youto make the related purchase at a later date.

Ø One problem is that when most searchers frame their searchquery they provide very limited data to the search engine,usually in just one to three words. Since most people don‘thave a keen understanding of how search engines work, theycan often provide a query that is too general or in a way thatdoes not provide the search engine (or the marketer) withwhat it needs to determine their intent.

Ø For this reason, general queries are important to mostbusinesses because they often get the brand and site on thesearcher‘s, and this initiates the process of building trust withthe user. Over time, the user will move on to more specificsearches that are more transactional or navigational in nature.

Ø If, for instance, companies buying pay-per-click (PPC) searchads bought only the high converting navigational andtransactional terms and left the informational ones tocompetitors, they would lose market share to thosecompetitors.

Ø Based on this later study, more than 20% of users did not findwhat they were looking for.

How Peple Search

Ø Search engines invest significant resources intounderstanding how people use search, enabling them toproduce better (i.e., faster, fresher, and more relevant) searchengine results. For website publishers, the information regarding how people use search can be used to help improvethe usability of the site as well as search engine compatibility.

How Search Engines Drive Commerce On The web

Ø People make use of search engines for a wide variety ofpurposes, with some of the most popular being to research,locate, and buy products.

Ø There is also a significant amount of interaction betweensearch and local offline commerce.

Ø 74% of respondents used search engines to find localbusiness information versus 50% who used Internet YellowPages, and 44% who used traditional newspapers.

Ø 86% surveyed said they have used the Internet to find alocal business, a rise from the 70% figure reported the yearbefore.

Ø 80% reported researching a product or service online, thenmaking that purchase offline from a local business.

Ø Local search is an increasingly important component of SEO

Eye Tracking

Ø Research firms Enquiro, Eyetools, and Diditconducted heat-map testing with search engine usersthat produced results about what users see and focuson when engaged in search activity.

Ø Figure below depicts a heat map showing a testperformed on Google. The graphic indicates thatusers spent the most amount of time focusing theireyes in the top-left area where shading is thedarkest.

Ø This particular study perfectly illustrates how littleattention is paid to results lower on the page versusthose higher up, and how users‘ eyes are drawn tobold keywords, titles, and descriptions in the naturalresults versus the paid search which receivecomparatively little attention.

Ø This research study also showed that different physicalpositioning of on-screen search results resulted in differentuser eye-tracking patterns.

Ø When viewing a standard Google results page, users tendedto create an ―F-shaped‖ pattern with their eye movements,focusing first and longest on the upper-left hand corner ofthe screen; moving down vertically through the first two orthree results; moving across the page to the first paid pageresult; moving down another few vertical results; and thenmoving across again to the second paid result.

Ø In May 2008, Google introduced the notion ofUniversal Search. This was a move from simplyshowing the 10 most relevant web pages (nowreferred to as ―10 blue links‖) to showing other typesof media, such as videos, images, news results, andso on, as part of the results in the base searchengine.

Ø Industry now refers to this general concept asBlended Search.

Ø Blended Search, however, creates more of a chunkingeffect, where the chunks are around the various richmedia objects, such as images or video.Understandably, users focus on the image first. Thenthey look at the text beside it to see whether itcorresponds to the image or video.

Ø Users‘ eyes then tend to move in shorter paths to the side,with the image rather than the upper-left-corner text as theiranchor. Note, however, that this is the case only when theimage is placed above the fold, so that the user can see itwithout having to scroll down on the page.

Ø Images below the fold do not influence initial searchbehavior until the searcher scrolls down. This study is a vividreminder of how important search engine results pages(SERPs) really are. And as the eye-tracking researchdemonstrates, ―rich‖ or ―personalized‖ search, as it evolves,will alter users‘ search patterns even more: there will be moreitems on the page for them to focus on, and more ways forthem to remember and access the search listings. Searchmarketers need to be prepared for this as well.

Click Tracking

Ø How Users Click on Results, Natural Versus Paid

Ø We always want to be on the top of the search engine resultspages( SERPs). It never hurts to be #1 in the natural searchresults.

Ø In a bit of contrast to that, data shows that you may not wantto be #1 in the paid search results, because the resulting costto gain the #1 position can reduce the total net margin onyour campaign.

Ø A study released by AdGooroo in June 2008 found that:

Ø Bidding for top positions usually makes financial sense onlyfor high-budget, brand-name advertisers. Most otheradvertisers will find the optimal position for the majority oftheir keywords to lie between positions 5–7.

Ø Of course, many advertisers may seek the #1 position in paidsearch results for a number of reasons. For example, if theyhave a really solid backend on their website and are able tomake money when they are in the #1 position, they may wellchoose to pursue it. Nonetheless, the data from the surveysuggests that there are many organizations for which being#1 in paid search does not make sense.

Ø Even if your natural ranking is #1, you can still increase theranking page‘s click rate by having a sponsored ad above it orin the right column. The AdGooroo survey showed that aprominent paid ad on the same search results page makesyour #1 natural ranking receive 20% more clicks.

Ø This example from Google shows how thepaid results appear above and to the right ofthe natural search results.

Ø Note that Google often does not show paidresults above the natural resuts, in whichcase the paid results show up only on theright.

Ø Your position in the results has a huge impact on the trafficyou will receive. Here is some data about that:

Ø 62% of search engine users click on a search result within thefirst page of results, and 90% within the first three pages.

Ø 41% of search engine users who continue their search whennot finding what they seek ,change their search term and/orsearch engine if they do not find what they‘re looking for onthe first page of results; 88% report doing so after threepages.

Ø 36% of users agree that ―seeing a company listed among thetop results on a search engine makes me think that thecompany is a top one within its field.

Ø In addition, the first 10 results received 89.71% of all clickthroughtraffic; the next 10 results (normally listed on thesecond page of results) received 4.37%; the third page 2.42%;and the fifth page 1.07%. All other pages of results receivedless than 1% of total search traffic clicks.

Ø According to the study, 72% of searchers click on the first linkof interest, whereas 25.5% read all listings first and thendecide which one to click. Both effects (most likely play a rolein searcher behavior.

Different intents and Effects of Listings IN Paid Versus Natural Results

Ø Notice how the visibility of a listing in the natural results isdouble or more (up to six times) of the visibility of the sameposition in the paid results.

Ø For example,

Ø In position 5 only 60% of users ever even notice the naturalsearch result. But the paid search results fare even worse, withonly 10% of users noticing the result in the fifth position.

Ø 85% of searchers click on natural resultsThe top four sponsored slots are equivalent in views to beingranked at 7–10 in natural search in terms of visibility and clickthrough.

Ø This means if you need to make a business case for naturalsearch, then (assuming you can attain at least the #3 rank innatural search for the same keywords you bid on) natural searchcould be worth two to three times your PPC results.

Ø It is interesting to note that in spite of this data, companiesare much more likely to spend money on PPC than SEO

Ø Because, the PPC model is easier for companies to understandbecause it is more similar to traditional direct marketingmethods than SEO is. The ROI of PPC can be tracked anddemonstrated more reliably than SEO;

Ø Thus, to date it has been considered more accountable as amarketing channel.

Ø However, as budgets are tightening and the focus is shiftingto the highest ROI search investments, the focus isincreasingly on SEO.

Interaction Between Natural and Paid Search

Crossing published a report that showed a strong interactionbetween natural and paid search. The study shows whathappens when you incorporate natural search into an existingpaid search compare its performance to the performance ofthe sole paid search. Figure below summarizes the improvement in the results.

Our empirical findings suggest that click-throughs on organic listings have a positive interdependence with click-throughson paid listings, and vice-versa.

we show that on an average this positive interdependenceleads to an increase in expected profits for the firm rangingfrom 4.2 % to 6.15 % when compared to profits in the absenceof this interdependence.

The total click-through rates, conversions rates and revenuesin the presence of both paid and organic search listings aresignificantly higher than those in the absence of paid searchadvertisements.