Search Engine Optimisation For IT And Engineering

Conceptualising the SEO and SEO firm

Discuss about the Search Engine Optimisation for IT and Engineering.

This paper is purposefully based on conceptualizing the SEO to a firm which has few decision-makers not being able to understand the term. The case organization has plans to employ an SEO firm; however, they first want to review the process as they are not sure of the key challenges associated with its application and the post-implementation process. The learner has been assigned to the mentioned task.

The plan to employ an SEO firm is indeed important in regards to increasing the official website visibility to the target audience. Google, Bing and Yahoo are the three most popular platforms which are used for the search engine optimization. It is related to certain keywords which the target audience generally search for. The moment they enter those certain keywords they get able to view a list of other suggestions also arranged in order based on the website rankings. This means the search was for a different keyword; however, the list of suggestions may also encourage users to other keywords. However, the suggested keywords might encourage visiting the pages which may be either useful or engaging for the target audience (Baye, De los Santos and Wildenbeest 2016; pp.6-31).

The review process on the SEO is being done in this paper by first looking on the advantages that an SEO platform provides. In addition, it also enquires the key problems associated with the SEO and recommends a way to get rid of that. 

A website may lack the content which is required to increase its engaging capability. Nowadays, a website is not just limited to providing the basic information of the website owner. It is actually now seen as one of the platforms to advertise the product or the service, engaging customers with its content and converting maximum turns into sales. Optimising a website may include making changes to its content to make it look attractive & engaging, facilitating HTML & associated coding to make it more relevant with most typed keywords and eliminating barriers to effective indexing activities of search engine platforms (Egri and Bayrak 2014).

Those that are recognized specialist in delivering SEO services are commonly known as SEO firms. Business organizations approach that SEOseeking solutions on their website. Solutions include making required amendments to the contents to make it much competitive and highly interactive.

There are the ample of advantages of using an SEO service that is as listed below (Arlitsch and OBrien 2015; pp.950-952):

Advantages of using SEO

Increases Traffic:People may be searching for products or serviceswhich are relevant to the products or services of many companies. However, not all the companies have the chance to get caught in the sight of customers. SEO indeed helps to stock keywords in the index which are relevant to what audience looks for. Hence, companies that are not predominantly searched on the search engines can also find the new audience.

The number of clicks improves the ranking. Website with highest ranks is searched more than any other websites. SEO may help to increase the traffic and thereby the ranking. An increased traffic is indeed necessary for an improved performance of the website. SEO helps to identify the relevant keywords which target audience generally type. SEO works on Meta descriptions and the title tags which also contribute in drawing the attention of audience. A website link optimised that way conveys useful information giving a snapshot of the actual website page. Hence, this also helps to increase the “click though rates”.

ROI: SEO does not only increase the clicks, it also communicates the path which the users have followed. This is beneficial for both e-commerce and non-e-commerce sites. E-commerce sites may also know the path which the users have followed to complete a sale. SEO may help to improve the rankings, traffic and the conversions. ‘Rankings’is important for appearing on the top of the list of the drop down. ‘Traffic' is directly proportional to click through rate. An increased traffic means an enhanced click through rates. SEO created traffic are more likely to get converted into customers. It is better than any other way of traffic conversion. This is indeed an effective way to promote the business.

Cost-effectiveness: SEO is an essential marketing strategy and is effectively more than any other marketing strategies like cold-calling.SEO targets only those audiences who are searching for the similar kind of product or service which the concerned company has. Moreover, it is a kind of incoming customers. On the other hand, cold-calling is an outgoing process. Cold-calling may still be effective in generating the leads, however, the SEO moves ahead in terms of producing quality leads. Hence, SEO is indeed a cost-effective and extremely beneficial method which may ensure a success.

Improved site usability: This is another advantage of approaching the SEO service. SEO firms can effectively help to improve the website architecture to improve its user interface. The website can have an enhanced navigable capability. Therefore, users might feel it easier to navigate through the website pages. This also means that SEO does not only help to increase the possibility of being viewed by the audience but, also means an easy navigable between pages.

Key issues of SEO

Brand responsiveness: SEO, as discussed earlier, helps to improve the ‘rankings’ through its incoming strategies. The incoming strategies mean making changes to the website architecture, making the keywords relevant by stocking more words to the index and improving the page navigation. This way SEO helps to fetch leadswhich are high in quality. The rankings get improved and hence, make the website visible on the first page. It may leave a good impression on customers because companies being listed on the first page are viewed as more trustworthy.

Freedom from the paid advertisement:The website traffic can be increased without ever paying for the single click. SEO helps to increase the website clicks and thereby, helps to save on the investments. The saved money can be used in more important areas.

There are some serious issues which need to be taken care with the utmost protection. The role-play of the case company will be selecting SEO firms with high ratings in quality service. This may ensure prevention of issues which are discussed as follows:

Duplicate content: In approximately around 50% cases, the duplicity of contents is a reported problem (Chojar, Chauhan and Singh 2014; pp.495-499). In such scenario, Google or other search engines may not be able to rank the websites. Feed is done in such a way that search engines make a differentiation based on the content originality. It means that contest should not match. The duplicity of contents may not fetch positive response from Google and hence, CTR (click through rates) will get hampered. A reduced CTR will result in lessened traffic. Therefore, the purpose to hire the SEO firm will not be served (Choudhari and Bhalla 2015; pp.692-694).

Title tags: Title tag appears at the top of search listings. The tag needs to be attractive and concise as well, so that, the audience is able to build up a perception regarding the website. There are commonly few issues which SEO firms are practicing. Those few issues are copied title tags, long title tags, smaller or meaningless title tags and missing tags. Copied title tags may reduce the chances of the website appearing on the first page of the search engine (Pitale and Verma 2015; pp.2-3). An effective title tag abiding by the rules & policies of search engines such as of Google may help to get CTR (click through rates). On the other hand, an overly stated or meaningless tag may result in the otherwise consequences. Google, in particular, is intended to give unique contents to users (Jerath, Ma and Park 2014; pp.483-486). This means if title tags are not original or they are invaluable, Google may certainly reject those websites from appearing in the list. Overly long tags are not also good for the company. Google, in particular, has the certain range of characters which can be displayed to customers. Google may only show up to 71 characters. Missing title tags is itself an issue as the search engine may not identify the contents and hence, traffic may get hampered. Title tags should also not be too smaller that it does not make any sense. It needs to be to the extent it conveys any meaning to the target audience. Moreover, in that way, the search engine like Google will also be able to identify the values of the content (Chojar, Chauhan and Singh 2014; pp.494-498).

Meta descriptions: ‘Meta descriptions’ do help to attract customers towards a particular website. It may not have a direct influence; however, it really helps to increase the CTR (click through rates) (Yang, Shi and Wang 2015; pp.1108-1112). If that happens customer may feel like visiting the web page. Hence, the web traffic will then improve. This will also impact the conversion rate if the website has impactful contents and are appropriately distributed on each page. This should not be the case that one or few pages have very less amount of words in it. Some SEO firms do copy the Meta descriptions. Therefore, the page listing will be lessened (Vermaet al. 2015; pp.45-51).

Invaluable word-count: Some SEO firms do not concentrate on the word-count. They either construct low word count which does not convey any significant meaning or the contents are copied and hence, less attractive.Sometimes they have sufficient word count on the website page; however, due to being copied from similar other sites it fails to deliver (Jindal and Kharb 2014; pp.2-4). There are certain guidelines set by the different search engines such as Google in regards to the word-count limit on the website page. Google in particular values much in-depth and insightful content. Website meeting those criteria will also find their ranks as improving. An improved rank will result in increased web traffic and hence, the conversion rates (Yang, Shi and Wang 2015; pp.1106-1109).

Avoiding duplicity of content:The company must ensure that they are at the right hand. The assurance is needed on the content. They must not afford to hire someone who used to follow duplicity of content.

Use of effective Title tags: The case company must really focus on hiring SEO firms with good ratings. Hence, it is necessary for the organization it gets the reputed SEO firm that has good market values. Such firms will ensure that title tags are shorter and within the guidelines set by search engines but, still, conveying potential insights to customers.

Useof attractive Meta descriptions: It is important to hire SEO firms with good market values, so that, they pay utmost attention while constructing the Meta descriptions. Meta descriptions should be precise but, must be conveying a good insight of the website.

Valuable word-count:This is necessary that the website has the appropriate word-count distributed to the different pages. A reputed SEO firm makes it sure that they change the website architecture and fill this with necessary contents in a way that it looks much better and meaningful as well.

Conclusion:

Therefore, the case study company needs to pay a high attention to the benefits and the challenges of hiring the SEO firm. The selection of SEO firm needs to be done after ensuring that the selected firm has the good market values. This is very important to avoid any challenges which are all being highlighted in this study. Duplicate content, title tags, Meta descriptions and invaluable word-count are the few issues which need to be taken care of while in business with the SEO firm. The primary action will be to shortlist the number of SEO firms that are available in the market. The different SEO firms must be analyzed based on their market values. In addition, the number of successful projects that they have conducted, so far, should also be checked to understand whether they are dealing with the right SEO firm.

References:

Arlitsch, K. and OBrien, P., 2015. Introducing the" Getting Found" Web Analytics Cookbook for Monitoring Search Engine Optimization of Digital Repositories. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML), 4, pp.947-953.

Baye, M.R., De los Santos, B. and Wildenbeest, M.R., 2016. Search engine optimization: what drives organic traffic to retail sites?. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 25(1), pp.6-31.

Chojar, B., Chauhan, A. and Singh, A.V., 2014. Search engine optimization: A review. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering, 4(1), pp.493-499.

Choudhari, K. and Bhalla, V.K., 2015. Video search engine optimization using keyword and feature analysis. Procedia Computer Science, 58, pp.691-697.

Egri, G. and Bayrak, C., 2014. The role of search engine optimization on keeping the user on the site. Procedia Computer Science, 36, pp.335-342.

Jerath, K., Ma, L. and Park, Y.H., 2014. Consumer click behavior at a search engine: The role of keyword popularity. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(4), pp.480-486.

Jindal, M. and Kharb, N., 2014. Data Mining in Web Search Engine Optimization and User Assisted Rank Results. International Journal of Computer Applications, 95(8), pp.19-39.

Pitale, P. and Verma, A.U., 2015. Survey Paper based on Search Engine Optimization, Web Crawler and Web Mining. International Journal of Computer Applications (0975–8887) Applications of Computers and Electronics for the Welfare of Rural Masses (ACEWRM), 2015, pp.1-3.

Verma, N., Malhotra, D., Malhotra, M. and Singh, J., 2015. E-commerce website ranking using semantic web mining and neural computing. Procedia Computer Science, 45, pp.42-51.

Yang, Z., Shi, Y. and Wang, B., 2015. Search engine marketing, financing ability and firm performance in E-commerce. Procedia Computer Science, 55, pp.1106-1112.