It is a well-known fact that the Digital Marketing field is one of the most dynamic fields today.
As internet use is becoming more and more popular, business entities are turning to digital with their business. In such a scenario, SEO has taken the front seat in the Digital Marketing era. In 1990s corporate organizations started hiring SEO specialist. By 2004, businesses big and small were constantly in search of SEO experts to help them with their business goals. What is SEO and why has it garnered so much attention and importance in the past few years?
In this article we shall know what SEO is and what role does it play in Digital Marketing World?
What is SEO?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. In other words, “A technique/way by which quality traffic is directed to your website”.In Layman terms SEO is said to be a set of rules which are followed by website owners to optimize their web search, thereby improving the visibility of their website on search engines.
Why is SEO important?
Many studies have reported that an average consumer spends twice as much time online today as they would few years back. This has led to all the business organizations in optimizing their website for search engines. This will help the potential customers in connecting with the brand/products or services online. Ultimately, this will result in sale and thus generate profit.
What role does SEO Play in organizations Digital Marketing Strategy?
Imagine a brand/Product without any name, image or anything specific about it? How would potential consumers know about the product or service? There may be a few enquiries out of mere curiosity or about the wrong product altogether. A name and image to the product or outlet creates awareness about it in the minds of potential consumers. This is the case with website non-optimization and optimization respectively.
The following reasons make SEO important in Digital Marketing:
- SEO enables Brand Promotion– When you optimize your website, it creates awareness among the consumers, as your website shows up in the top suggestions that turn up on search engines and thus increases chances of generating sales. When the consumer is aware about a product/service, he will be driven to enquire more and try out the product/service. Some of the ways in which promotion can be done is via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and such renowned social platforms.
- Ranking is essential for a successful Marketing Strategy– The growth and success of a website depend on its ranking. Better the ranking, better the quality traffic. It is a known character of consumers to visit the first page while searching for anything. Very few or nobody goes on to the second page. Thus, having your website at the first page is the key to success. This is possible only with the help of the most appropriate keywords.
Those looking for a career in Digital Marketing must achieve SEO training and certification, as the demand for skilled SEO professionals is like a hot selling cake in the industry. The following aspects of SEO training are very crucial for any business organization and hence, they are important for a great marketing career.
- Targeting the relevant keywords: SEO is all about using the most relevant keywords. You can take suggestions from online tools like the Google Keyword Planner that will help you to know the most beneficial keyword at a particular point of time. SEO training will help the candidates in learning about all the important aspects of keyword research and targeting.
- Optimizing the website to rank better: The Google search engine presents the users with the best and answers for their queries/search. Sites that are error free and take less time to load are the ones that google prefers. Also useful and relevant content websites are at the top preference of Google. SEO Certification helps you in understanding the key points in making a website error free and loaded with relevant content for the consumers. You can learn how to optimize your website and make it user-friendly and easy to understand.
- Building Quality Backlinks– Building relevant and quality backlinks is important for websites to be able to rank for search engines queries. By commenting and guest posting on prestigious websites, it is easier to build these links.
- Social Media-SEO and Social Media go hand-in-hand. If you want to reap the full benefits of SEO then your social media program must be in compliance with your SEO strategy. Users who visit your website are likely to recommend it on social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram etc. Training programs will teach you how to build a SEO strategy that will compliment Social Media.
- Stay ahead in Competition: If there are various websites that sell the same product/service, the one that is optimized is likely to have more quality traffic than the one that is not optimized for search engines. An efficient SEO professional will keep the organization ahead of its competitors, by appropriate optimization of the website.
- Content is King- In order to draw traffic to your website it is important to rank for the search queries. For this you have to understand the most used terms or phrases that a potential consumer is most likely to use while searching for your product/service. Learning to develop long-term, SEO-driven content strategy will help you in showcasing your/client’s business at the top in the industry.
As more and more business entities are focusing on SEO, there is an increased demand for trained SEO candidates. An certification program will help you in achieving competitive edge over the others. The program helps you to get out of the bubble and think out of the box to come up with new and innovative strategies that will help the organization associated with you to soar at greater heights of success. Hence, a certification and training in SEO is important for your digital marketing career.