Search Engine Optimization is part science, part art

Search Engine Optimization is part science, part art

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, and its sister area of expertise, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) are incredibly important for most technology startups. In fact, for any kind of online retailer of physical or virtual goods. The bulk of traffic at most websites comes from organic search, or in other words, when users plug-in keywords at a major search engine and see the URL of the website in question appear reasonably high in the list of results. The way search engines determine where a particular website ends up in the search results is through the use of sophisticated ranking algorithms. In case of the 800 pound Gorilla of Search, Google, this algorithm is called PageRank. The methodology used by PageRank isn’t completely known but we do know about many of the variables and ingredients that feed the ratings black box… SEO is all about optimizing and enhancing these variables to make sure that your site ends up with a high PageRank and thus appears within the first page or so of Google organic search results.

SEO is a bit of an art, a sprinkling of science, a lot of hard work and oodles of patience. Art, because you don’t quite know every little detail a ranking algorithm will take into consideration. Science, because ultimately PageRank and other techniques like it rely on highly quantifiable elements. For example, the number of inbound links to your site, the weight or importance of each one of the sources pointing to your URL and so on. Optimizing these definitely requires some good thinking. There’s tons of hard work involved because building link networks with high quality sites and getting the word out about your site to win those inbound links isn’t easy. You have to either pay link building networks, or go out and communicate with other website owners who might cover the same subject as you and then get them to link to your site. Then of course, there’s patience… Google can’t instantly pick up all these distributed links all over the web, nor does it spider your website every day (unless you’re CNN). So changes you make will take days, weeks and even months to actually appear on Google’s radar and start to impact your traffic.

SEM relies on paid click throughs (click-thrus, as they are often called) that you buy on a PPC (Pay Per Click) search engine advertising network. Google has one called AdWords. Microsoft Bing has one too and so does Yahoo through its Overture acquisition. To implement an SEM campaign, you essentially target certain keywords, for instance, “Anti Virus Software”, “The Tallest Building Burj Khalifa” or “Vacations in Gwadar“, put together a text or graphical ad that will appear when users type these terms into a search engine and finally, place a bid for what you are willing to pay per click. Since common and popular keywords (e.g. Anti Virus Software) will have lots of competition, you can expect to pay quite a bit of money – up to a few dollars per click – to ‘buy’ in bound traffic. Now, if you have a good landing page, i.e. the location that users are taken to once they click on your paid ad link, a good product, well written ad copy (offer text) explaining the value proposition effectively and a good pricing strategy, you can expect to make some decent money. If 1 out of every 100 visitors ends up ‘converting’ or buying a product from you and you’re paying $1 per click, then you should price the product well above $100 to cover costs, marketing expenses ($100 in this case) and your profit. Pricing, in this case, is part of the science behind SEM because you need to keep a sharp eye on your conversion rates, cost per click and other variables to determine margins and profits.

Another way to look at paid click throughs is that they underline how important organic SEO is for your site. If you get a good natural rank without buying keywords or paying Google, then you have a much better shot at getting higher traffic levels, better conversion and being able to get away with a lower priced product!

I’ve tried to give a very basic introduction to what SEO and SEM are and why they are important to internet focused companies. Obviously, one article cannot do justice to an area that is constantly evolving and one that hundreds of books have been written on. In a follow-up article, I do want to highlight SEO/SEM activities that are going in Pakistan and the emerging domestic expertise in this area. In the meanwhile, here’s a question for you: Do you use SEO/SEM to promote your company, blog, personal website or online store? Do you know of anyone in Pakistan who is providing SEO/SEM services and is doing a good job at it? If so, please comment!