Some entrepreneurs understand what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is and its benefits for their business. But some others don’t. In simple terms, SEO is an activity carried out to make our website appear on the first page of a search engine (in this case Google).
For example, we have a website that sells pure honey. If we want the website to appear on Google when someone searches for “pure honey” or “buy pure honey”, then we need to do SEO.
Another example might be if you have a business in Semarang. Then we want to target people around the city of Semarang for certain keywords such as “nearest car rental” or “computer store in Semarang”, then you can use SEO. Or if you don’t have time to do it, you can use the services of Semarang cmlabs SEO.
There are several How SEO Marketing Helps SMEs & Startups
Understood so that our SEO efforts run smoothly . But before discussing that, we need to differentiate between:
In Google search results , there is an organic section and an advertising section. What is meant by “appearing on the first page of Google” in this article is appearing in the organic section. The first thing you usually see is the search engine advertising section . If you scroll down, you will see the organic section.
Keyword “Google Suit” in Paid SERP
Keyword “Google Suit” in Organic SERP
The way to appear in the organic section is different from the way to appear in the ad section. For the ad section, you need to pay for each person who clicks and enters your website. While for the organic section, you don’t need to pay, regardless of how many people click and enter your website.
Why Do You Need SEO?
Business needs marketing. While marketing is basically how we make our products found by people. To be found by people, of course we need to be in crowded places, for example in malls, markets, and so on. In the digital world, one of the crowded places is a search engine like Google. Therefore, SEO is one of the powerful marketing channels in the digital world.
On Google, there How SEO Marketing Helps SMEs & Startups
Imagine if Google was a mall where people come in and out asking something, that means there are more than 3.5 billion questions asked every day. Among those questions are “sell pure honey”, “buy pure honey jakarta”, and so on. There are billions of other keywords, some of which may be suitable for promoting your business.
Let’s go into one example. There was a study conducted by Think With Google, which concluded that in making a purchasing decision in terms of travel, 1 in 3 people started by doing an organic search on a search engine .
In another area, namely smartphone purchases, 1 in 6 people start from a search engine. This means that search engines have become an important part of the consumer purchasing process.
Therefore, as an MSME and startup business owner, you need to consider SEO as one of your marketing media.
Let’s take a moment to imagine ourselves as Sarah, an email list aspiring businesswoman who wants to start her own line of organic beauty products. She puts in countless hours refining her goods, creating stunning branding, and building her internet presence. But when it comes time to start her company, she finds that there is no one with whom to share it.
How to Do SEO
To be able to do SEO effectively, we need to understand how search engines like Google work. Basically, they perform the following 3 functions:
CRAWLING . Google visits websites all over the world, starting with trusted websites, then following the links on those websites. On the next website, Google also looks to see if there are links to other websites, follows them again, and so on.
INDEXING . Google reads, understands, and stores copies of visited web pages into their database, so that when needed they can be accessed and displayed more quickly.
RANKING . When someone searches for something, in a split second Google applies its algorithm to understand the keywords used by the user and opening an e-commerce store with shopify searches its index for matching results. If matching results are found, Google displays the results in an order determined by various criteria that it believes will satisfy the searcher.
This is where SEO practitioners usually conduct various studies/tests to understand what criteria can make a website considered relevant by Google, so that it can be displayed when someone searches.
In general, several things that can
ONPAGE . Things on the website page that can be optimized, such as page title, page content, and so on.
OFF-PAGE . Things outside the website page, such as links from other websites, your business brand, and so on.
Technical optimization . The technical aspects of a website, such as mobile-friendliness, site speed, internal linking, and so on.
For web developers please check the following SEO guidelines and guides .
What MSME/Startup Owners Need to Do
Before going any further, it is important to clarify that not all businesses can benefit from SEO. Businesses that can benefit include those whose products or services are already well-known, so that potential customers usually search for them on Google, such as food, clothing, electronics, and so on. Businesses that may not be able to canada email lead benefit much from SEO include those whose products or services are very new, so that people are not yet very familiar with the product or service, so they don’t even think to search for it on a search engine.
Therefore, one of the most important parts
SEO process is research. In this case, keyword and competitor research. Keyword research means finding out if there are searches related to our products or services. If so, what keywords are used. While competitor research is analyzing existing competitors so that we can appear better in Google search results.
So the SEO process can be simplified into the following steps:
RESEARCH . Knowing the keywords and competitors, or in other words knowing what the market is like.
. Performing on-page, off-page, and technical optimization so that our website ranks better on Google than competitors.
EVALUATION .
Conduct an evaluation of our
SEO activities, whether they have achieved the intended objectives and what can be improved in the future.
For other SEO terms, please check the following cmlabs SEO Dictionary page .
SEO is indeed potential to support sales or branding at a low cost, but the whole process requires dedication of resources and time. Because to be indexed and ranked by Google also takes time. Not to mention creating content, optimizing websites, and so on.
As a business leader you must
First understand this, so you can set the right goals and provide appropriate support to your SEO team or the agency that helps your business.
And remember, because SEO takes time, the sooner you start the better. Get an SEO Services package for your startup?
Hangga Nuarta is a professional
digital marketer with more than 4 years of experience and has worked at two unicorn startups in Indonesia, namely Traveloka and Bukalapak.
