Every online business owner asks logical questions: how to get visitors to the site and convert them into buyers? Which of the online promotion channels to choose and which one will be more effective?
SEO (site optimization for search engines)
It can be any search engine: Google, Bing, or even Chinese Baidu. All of them operate on the same principle: after entering a search query, from many sites are shown those that best answer the query in the opinion of the search engine.
Usually, the struggle is for the TOP-10 of the first sites, since the share of transitions to the second page of the search engine is rather modest.
The main tasks during SEO promotion are:
1. Internal optimization:
- content;
- speed site load;
- an extension of landing pages for search queries;
- UX/UI convenience;
- compliance with search engine requirements.
2. External optimization:
- working with snippets;
- behavioral factors;
- backlinks to the site, etc.
The more high-quality sites link to your resource, the more likely it is to get trust from search engines and be higher than competitors.
Usually, this is working with catalogs, media, thematic resources, and blogs. For topics where it is quite difficult to get backlinks, they usually create their own networks of sites to upgrade the main one or work with the released thematic domains and their further restoration.
Pros of SEO:
- low user acquisition cost and long-term ROI;
- after bringing the site to the TOP, it will not require constant costs and you will be able to receive relatively free traffic, since, unlike contextual advertising, you do not need to pay for every click;
- a large number of users switch to organic search more often by scrolling through ad units;
- more trust – according to user reviews, trust in sites from organic search is higher than from advertising;
- you can promote any goods or services, even from “black” topics;
Cons of SEO:
- time to bring the site to the TOP and the costs of implementing technical improvements to the site, writing content, and buying links. Usually, after starting work on a new website, it takes three months or more to get visible results;
- not very suitable for seasonal businesses;
- when using black promotion methods, there is a risk of falling under the filter and losing all traffic from the search engine;
- the periodically updated search algorithm may affect your rankings and traffic;
- strict geographic reference, it is quite difficult to promote a site throughout the country without separately optimized pages for each region or city.
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