Search Engine Results Pages, better known as SERPs, are your Babylon.
Most searchers never venture beyond the first couple of results pages on a search engine when they enter a term. They usually concentrate on the first handful of results, with those looking for a bargain delving a little deeper.
Your aim in an SEO campaign is to get as high up these results pages as possible to generate more unique visits and increase conversions. The best way to advance up search listings is to become an authority for certain phrases and keywords, which is where SEO can help your web campaign.
Local SEO may be a better option for you depending on how you want to target your campaign. You stand a better chance of getting noticed in your local area by incorporating local terms into your online marketing campaign. Or you may want to optimise your product listings for shopping feeds, or even delve into the world of live searching.
Search engines offer slew of options for searchers today. Most SERPs have a list of options on the side of the page that appear whenever a search term is entered. Optimising for these options can increase the flow of traffic to your website, depending on what areas of your site you choose to concentrate on.
Google Places (formerly Local business Listings)
Search engines such as Google employ business listings for local companies to help searchers find products and services that are in their area. Google for instance adds maps chronicling the local landscape, highlighting where local businesses are situated and their details, addresses and telephone numbers. Submitting websites to directories helps improve standings in local business listings, and a local SEO campaign can really help to get you noticed in local listings by concentrating on terms and phrases related to your county.
Shopping Feeds
Shopping feeds on search engines are the best ways to promote your individual products. For instance, typing a term like ‘Buy XXXXX’ into Google will collate a batch of results for product XXXXX, where it can be bought, a range of prices, seller ratings and more. By optimising specific, popular products and making people more aware of them in shopping feeds you can alert searchers to potential bargains and increasing your reputation through word of mouth.
Live Searching and Image Searching
As search engine technology progresses so does the concept of live search. Google now offers real time results for specific searches, such as if they’ve been mentioned on social networks like Twitter. Live searching brings searchers up to date with the latest news and information published about specific search terms, whether from news agencies and websites or from blogs and other sources.
Image optimisation is becoming increasingly important in SEO. By optimising alt tags and descriptions in images you can get them higher up in Google image searches. By creating original, powerful imagery for your site instead of using stock imagery, not only are you avoiding a slew of copyright issues but you’re also creating fresh, unique content that will attract visitors to your pages.