Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) notes from Africa: Part 2

In part 1 of this series, I gave an overview of SEO, and some practical tips to consider when writing content and setting up your domain.  Now, let’s look at the conversion between social media and SEO.  Let me clarify: SEO can be defined as techniques and methods to make your website more visible to internet search engines.  Social media on the other hand, is a broader, more encompassing term that refers to the various social and professional internet communication platforms that people use to engage one another with, whether professional or business, or both.

SEO and social media, particularly in the ever-changing internet landscape, go hand in hand.  A holistic digital strategy will include a certain amount of convergence between the two.  These two terms are distinguishable, and should not be conflated.  Although long term strategies may be similar, the implementation and execution of an effective, holistic digital offering requires harmony between SEO and social media, but a divergent manner of execution and thinking.

Let me give a practical example.  A Facebook and Twitter campaign for xyz brand has a budget of R100 000,00. In the past (a few years ago), most strategies would look at these two topics individually (if at all) and devote the entire budget with a narrow focus on Facebook and Twitter engagement.  In the manner I am describing above, a percentage of the budget would go to search engine optimisation techniques.  If both are employed, an average site with 5000 hits a month becomes a rocking site with 20 000 hits a month.  Clearly, social media platforms will have a deeper penetration with more quality, focused exposure. Similarly, if already employing a dual approach, it is paramount that the various teams or members align their strategies and thinking towards a shared goal.

So, a SEO strategy will entail skilled copy writing, strategic placement of key phrase terms, correct setup and maintenance of your domain and, above all; relevant, fresh and well written content.  Similarly, a social media strategy requires consistency of quality, constant updates with posts, photos and other content, a varied approach across the various platforms while engaging and understanding your target market. Similar? Yes.  The same? No.

Think of it this way, if you are to build a house you need solid foundations and good plans.  This is your SEO.  Solid setup as well as clarity of thinking in strategy and execution.  The social media aspect can be looked at as the “things” in your house.  With solid foundations, you are able to bring in new “things”, such as new followers, new audience, new product and new target market.  When buying something for your house you would not simply purchase the first thing with little to no idea about how it works or where it is supposed to fit.  Your social media strategy should be the same; understand why you are doing it, who you are seeking to target and how your product is relevant to the user base you are after.  With a good foundation to your digital strategy, your SEO will compliment and augment your social media strategy.

There are nuances to each platform, and these should be taken into account. One of the most talked about is the timing and regularity of post, tweet, update etc.  My simple answer (informed by this excellent article by Jon Looman) is: it depends.Not very useful is it. Let me explain: the timing will depend on your target market and the nature of your offering to the internet. Location, cultural differences and many other factors make it difficult to give a simple 11am-3pm answer for Facebook and after 6pm for LinkedIn. While useful for illustrative purposes and using as a trend, it must depend on your social media platform, product and target market. That said, most will post in “peak” periods of internet usage.  The infographics contained in Jon’s article above set out all the various dos and don’ts but my advice will always be: understand your own market.  That will give you the necessary information on which to base decisions.

Now, onto more of those pesky nuances. There are many, and they are dynamic. You may well just do it the same on all platforms, but I am willing to bet that various subtle changes in presentation of content will generate deeper penetration. This now appears to be accepted practice but following social media news, and all technological development is now part of what is required to truly be on top.

Ultimately, the manner of implementation of digital strategies will always be dynamic, that is the nature of the beast we are dealing with.  While “likes” and brand following are important, one cannot lose sight of the fact that quality traffic will drive further exposure and ultimately yield a superior return on investment. The internet is all about fusion. The rules of engagement are changing, and will continue to do so.  Consider this in closing; the generation of “kids” that grew up on the internet are now influential consumers who see internet engagement as the norm, not something new and weird.  They, in turn, are raising a whole new generation of internet kids.  There is no turning back.

8 thoughts on “Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) notes from Africa: Part 2”

  3. Well ! SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Nowadays, there are a lot of seo service providers in the world . In my experience, XnYnZ.com helps to their customers by providing Search engine visibility service to enhance their website visibility around the internet .

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