Businesses are becoming increasingly digital to be more agile. The online presence of a business is critical irrespective of whether the transaction is conducted online or not. Be it a website, social media pages, e-commerce platform or a combination of all three, getting your company online is one of the best ways to increase the customer base and improve conversion rates.

 

Here are just a few of the many reasons why your business, every product developed and service provided needs to establish its online presence:

1. Visibility to potential customers
2. A showcase of products and services at a faster speed and economical rate
3. Building relationships with links
4. Creation of brand awareness

How are Google Search results displayed?

Google’s powerful search engine tool makes it easy for the viewers to locate what they are looking for quickly. It is designed to improve the search experience for the user by providing the most relevant information for the search query. This is done using advanced AI algorithms applying machine learning techniques.

Google has a large index of keywords and their locations generated using the automated program called spiders or crawlers. Google’s USP is its ability to rank the search results, which has an impact on the order in which the results are displayed on its Search Engine Results Page (SERP). PageRank assigns a relevancy score to each website.

The ranking depends on the keywords, the number of times it appears in the body of the page, how long the page has been in existence and the number of links in it.

 

What is SERP?

Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) are the pages displayed by the search engines in response to a specific word or query by a searcher. There are three types of results.

1. Pages that the search engine (spider) has crawled and then indexed
2. Pages that have been added to the search engine’s directory manually
3. Pages that appear because of paid inclusion.

The highest ranking hits are generally linked to the most applicable information. These links grow less relevant as you move further down the list.

 

What is SERP Analysis?

SERP Analysis is the process of studying the top web pages that have ranked for a unique keyword or specific topic. Certified SEO and marketing professionals utilise this data to understand the level of ranking for a Google search. Apart from the ranking difficulty, experts can also analyse how competitors have achieved their ranks. This provides you with invaluable insights on how to push your page up the rankings.

 

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO is vital to stay up-to-date with the reducing attention span of the users. This includes optimising Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), use of Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), and optimising the performance of the site. Google has updated its site speed insight tool in order to concentrate on the steps that the search engine takes with respect to the speed of the site ( for desktop and mobile).

Some of the most important technical SEO factors include duplicate content, broken links, page load speed, internal linking structure and sitemaps.

The bigger picture: Evolution of SEO

Google is releasing Google Attributions as a tool to understand the interaction between brands and digital channels to allow marketers to understand the buyer’s persona as well as the user’s journey effectively.

There is more to ranking than paid and organic results. SERP features are changing the rules of SEO. HTML SEO listings are part of yesterday. Today, brands are looking at the results of videos and map boxes to answer queries.

 

How SEO evolved from mere links and keywords to intent-based long-term search queries.

For example: Two decades ago, keywords were the key to bringing in traffic. Marketers leveraged the presence of the keywords throughout the content piece to manipulate the search engine, sometimes abusing it. Technology has advanced since. Today, Google is slowly moving from keyword-based search-result to intent-based search-results. Web browsers pull out content that keeps in mind the intent of the prospect and ranks it accordingly.

 

User Intent

Let’s take the example of shoes. People no longer type in just ‘shoes’ while searching online. More often than not, it is along the lines of ‘shoes for plantar fasciitis’ or ‘Which shoes are perfect for hiking?’. The intent is very clear in the search and web browsers pull out links that are relevant to the intent. The links also reflect the search history of the user. This history helps understand the search pattern of the user and past preferences to provide personalised results.

A simple experiment can test this. When two users from two different profiles search for the same product using the same keywords verbatim, the results are bound to be different. The power of intent-based marketing helps SEO offer customised answers using intention as the base. Detailed factors such as cart abandonment details are pulled in for the same.

When searching for the recipe for pasta, web browsers even offer vegan recipes along with YouTube videos to satisfy the needs of the customers, if that’s what the history of the users prefer. A rich snippet shows extra information between the URL and the description. This rich snippet indicates precisely what the user needs to tempt him to click on the link to read more. The snippet could also offer rating to create a bond of trust with the prospect.

 

SERP Tools

There are tools in the market to help track and improve the website ranking in the search engine results page.

 

The ultimate list of best SERP tools are as follows:

 

1. SERP Checker: SERP Checker tool is a competitive analysis tool that monitors keywords and will show the ranks of the sites for each one of them.

 

 

2. SEMRush: SEMRush helps understand the behaviour of the keywords and discover the types of SERP features triggered for those keywords.

 

 

3. Moz SERP Analysis: This is a user-friendly tool to provide information about the potential of a keyword, page authority, domain authority and opportunity.

 

 

4. AHREFS Keyword Explorer: This is described as a complete keyword research tool in the market that can be used to form both content and SEO strategy.

 

 

Increased Investment in SEO

As the utility and vitality of SEO are increasing, brands are planning to invest in SEO and SERP more than ever. The following are the actions that should be taken by brands

1. Review current technical SEO set up: The success of the SEO also depends on the performance of the site. Ensure that your website utilises the right technology to create a positive user experience.
2. Certified professionals: Make sure that the internal teams are qualified to set up the changes to sync with the latest trends in the market
3. The relevance of content: While bringing relevant traffic to your platform, ensure that the content will answer their questions.

The SEO industry, especially the search result pages, has evolved dynamically over the last decade. The technology is continually evolving. We have also seen changes in the devices used to perform these searches. The increased use of voice search has enhanced the potential for various campaigns with new tactics and methods.

 

It is vital for companies to keep up with the latest trends in the market to ensure that the target audience has been reached. Using the latest SERP tools, the brands understand the search behaviour of the users, along with how they interact with the content. As aggregator sites such as Amazon dominate the SERPs, it is vital to optimise the products to suit the market conditions.

 

Surveys state that despite the presence of a degree and a few years of experience, the ride up the career ladder is not smooth. The extra touch such as certification is needed to make a resume stand out, especially in the field of Digital Marketing. Refine your efforts to stand out in your career by signing up for the TCS iON ProCert - Digital Marketing Certification.