Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) notes from Africa: Part 1

With the emergence of social media as a serious tool for business and communication, search engine optimisation, or SEO, is pivotal to any social media strategy. Your brand, website, blog etc. is worth nothing online if it is invisible. Similarly, any online marketing strategy is far more effective with higher visibility. According to global consultancy firm McKinsey and Company, there are around 1.6 trillion searches a year online. Although the year on year figures show growth, recent reports are showing some stagnation.  Be that as it may, the sheer value associated with internet searches is incredible, and worth getting right.

This is a three part series discussing SEO.  Firstly, I will give an overview of SEO and point to some relevant resources and suggest a few simple methods.  Secondly, I will, with reference to real examples, discuss optimal times for posting on social media platforms and the various nuances between each platform.  Lastly, with reference to SEO, I will look at social media strategy and activation techniques one can employ in a holistic digital strategy.

So, what is SEO? Simply, techniques or methods to optimize the visibility of your website to search engines, primarily; Google, Bing, and Yahoo. YouTube ranks second highest (to Google, Yahoo third) in search volume but I will restrict this discussion to search engine optimisation in the narrow sense, i.e.: queries entered into traditional internet search engines.  The bottom line in the digital world is that the higher the visibility, the more views, leads, sales and success.

There is no silver bullet or magic wand in SEO.  Google and co are constantly tweaking algorithms to ensure spam is kept to a minimum and quality content is delivered to the end user. Phew. However, some prefer to employ so-called “Blackhat” methods which seek to cheat or fool search engines into thinking the site is relevant and has the requisite quality.  In the “old days” (a few years ago), this was possible but as time has passed, the algorithms and technical teams managing them have got smarter and have more experience.  Paint-by-numbers SEO’ers will soon cease to exist. Another Phew.

Conversely, “Whitehat” methods are those that play by the rules and seek to deliver what we all want when we go online; relevant, quality content. Spend 5 minutes on Google with the search terms SEO Tips or SEO Techniques and you will be flooded with a plethora of advice, hints, tricks and links regarding SEO and business SEO.  The overriding advice is the following:

·         Content must be relevant, well written and fresh;

·         Get your site “linked” (having other relevant websites link to you and linking internally shows   the search engines your site is important and relevant);

·         Describe your content well.  Strategically use key phrases and search terms;

·         Setup your site according to current best practice;

·         Constant maintenance and upkeep, regular posts, photos etc.

Like a fine wine or good investment, a legitimate, sustainable SEO strategy takes time to mature. While there are quick wins out there, a strategy must be long term in its vision. Patience and consistency are the two watch words here.  As alluded to above, in the past (and to a certain extent, right now) some SEO companies would operate with several mindless checklists and implement various generic changes such as:

·         Linking your site to  largely irrelevant spam filled servers;

·         Linking largely irrelevant largely spam filled servers to your site;

·         Uploading pre-coded changes to your domain;

·         Generating web traffic to your site with “bots” or scripts; and

·         Hiding or “stuffing” keywords on your webpage to fool search engines.

These methods, Black-hat in nature in my view, trick the search engine algorithm (usually Google) into falsely pushing the site to the top of the pile delivering the required result to the crafty internet marketer. This worked, and will continue to do so for a while yet.  But, recently Google introduced two “updates” (Panda and Penguin) to eliminate spam, prevent Blackhat techniques and above all, promote quality content for the end user. Is it corny to say +1 Google? I think the bottom line here is that the landscape is a dynamic one and sustainable, ethical social media strategies are the only ones that will survive.

Understand your SEO / social media strategist’s service offering.  Understand the risks if it all goes terribly wrong, especially when considering the many “affordable search engine optimisation services” out there.

In the SEO world, change appears to be the only thing we can expect with the various search engine methodologies and algorithms. Try, by way of example, searching for a Facebook infographic, the  trend is always moving, and the same can be said in the Google internet world. Be wary of offerings that guarantee xzy in a short period of time.  If the “links” and “traffic” you are offered as part of the package are links to spam or scripted bot code, that will penalize your website, not promote it.  If your traffic has predominately been of the scripted spam bot ilk, you will not be enjoying Google’s new updates and will have noticed your site slip down the rankings.  However, all is not lost.  The simple, sustainable techniques mentioned above will make you rise again!    

Now, with that out the way, what are some SEO tips and tricks you can implement right away? The answers are all freely available online. Google, Yahoo, MSN and others release guides on style, content, webmaster tips and many others.  If you are serious about your strategy, you should probably be at least superficially familiar with the basic requirements and rationale behind SEO.  You can get a good feel for things by reviewing the following resources:                                     
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