Is Search Engine Optimization still relevant?

Have you ever wondered how google search engine works? Why do some results appear when you search for a certain keyword? How does one find what they need on search engines?

Well, this is all done through search engine optimization(SEO). Now you might ask what exactly is SEO? SEO is the method of making adjustments to the design and content of your website to make it appear in search engines. Why is this needed? It is to increase visibility of your website in the organic search engine results. Where people searches for a certain keyword and it matches your website, making it appear in the results page. This method will increase traffic to your website.

So here is an example of how it works below

I searched flower shops on Google and this is the first page of the results. So, the keywords i have typed are “flower shops” and Google has displayed results that are related to said keywords. Typically, the top section will show paid ads of companies that pay Google to display ads of their website to appear on the top. However, by using SEO, you can have your website be displayed in the bottom section highlighted by the red box, which are the organic search results. This means that these results are not paid ads.

What is happening now?

Is Search Engine Optimization still relevant or dead? Well, it may not be dead but maybe certain element of it is. When SEO first became an important strategy for marketers to use, they were spamming keywords on their websites just so they would appear as the top result on search engines. However, marketers at that time failed to recognize that focusing on click-through rate was far more important that focusing on top spot of results. Having the top spot may not guarantee that people will click on it. Currently, web surfers know to scroll through the page to look for organic results, as such, the top few results (which are the ads) are avoided.

Is SEO still relevant?

Here are some stats to show whether SEO is still relevant now. From above, we can see that SEO still plays a huge part in providing traffic and overall business to organizations. Companies still see the need to use SEO for their business and recognizes it to be an important strategy.

With all these said, marketers should take note that although that this may be an effective strategy, it may not work if they do not know modern day web surfers.

Importance of web surfers for marketers

Did you know that most online experience started with search engines? Yes, when people look for something online, their first thought would be to go to search engines. Even though they search for something, 75% of them do not go beyond the first page of the results. Additionally, most of them ignore the ads above and scroll down to view the organic search results. This is a very important information that marketers should remember. Knowing how people surf the net and use search engines, can help marketer plan a strategy that allows bridging between their target consumer and their website.

So, what do you think of SEO? What are your thoughts on it being beneficial to businesses? Do you think companies should continue using SEO as a strategy to pull in consumer? Let me know what you think in the comments. Thank you for reading this post. Stay tune. 🙂