The Shift of Search Engine Optimization to Search Experience Optimization

Search engine optimization has evolved into search experience optimization.

Great marketers are always on their toes trying to keep up with the news while anticipating and adapting to any relevant changes in the industry. The job of an SEO specialist in Kenya and the world over has definitely changed over the years. This can attributed to search engines such as Google, Bing and even Apple constantly changing their algorithms and machine language processes in trying to improve the end user’s experience. Since all these search engines use automated crawling bots (pieces of software that manually sift through information in the internet to provide search results), it is difficult to simulate the traits of a human being.

In order to account for this, search engines have started to use other forms of metrics that best define great user experience. Some of the criteria being employed to rank search results as of now include mobile optimization, site speed, quality of content, site structure among dozens of other indications that give the algorithm an idea of which website contains the most relevant content to the user.

So what do these constant changes on how search engines work mean for companies, marketers and website owners with regard to their Search Engine Optimization?

As an SEO specialist for the past half a decade, I can say that Search Engine Optimization has finally evolved into Search Experience Optimization, just as predicted by some SEO industry experts. For anyone who performs digital marketing correctly in Kenya, this should come as great news. It means that using “black-hat” methods to try and get better search engine rankings is becoming less and less viable.

A brief look into the history and evolution of SEO

On-page web optimization

In the old days, when performing optimization for a specific page, SEOs would focus on mapping out three to five keywords for every URL and optimizing the page elements such as; headings and meta descriptions with these keywords. Today, however, things have changed. Machine learning and semantic search algorithms have improved such that a page can rank higher with related keywords and not only the optimized keywords. This is a good improvement in the way content is now produced since the most relevant material is the one that ranks higher instead of just matching a string of keywords.

As a result, modern-day SEOs should master content creation as well as content promotion techniques. SEO today is a mix between optimizing existing online-content and creating fresh and optimized content that answers the questions the end user is trying to ask. As a result, your online brand presence will be enforced by capturing social signals from social networks and links that direct to pages that rank high in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Page).

Devices

Back in the day, SEO used to focus on optimizing content for desktops and PCs because those were the main devices that people used to visit web pages. This was easy and straight-forward for online marketers.

Nonetheless, by the end of 2015, mobile devices had surpassed the desktop computers and PCs in terms of digital media time and the volume of searches performed on Google. Smartphones and tablets (mobile devices) account for more than 75% of the total Google searches in Kenya. Globally, this number stands at 65%. It is clear that most people are using smartphones to visit web-pages online. Therefore, SEOs are forced to consider the user’s mobile experiencing while optimizing web-content, especially apps, by making sure that mobile pages load in a matter of seconds and the design is in a suitable format.

Local SEO

Google has been consistently upgrading its local results to be more accurate and relevant. In the old days, it was easy for marketers to use black-hat practices by including keywords into the business name and getting links from all kinds of online directories and messing with their business’ exact location.

We are in 2016 and today, local SEO is all about positive reviews on Google maps(especially with recent Pigeon update) and other considerations such as content and relevance.

Social

Before we had social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like, online social sharing and communication was limited to emails and instant messaging services, platforms which fell far from any meaningful SEO campaigns.

On the contrary, in Kenya today, a lot of people are in social media where they can share everything from videos to text and custom emojis. Businesses ignoring the social platforms are doing so at their own peril. SEO has to work together with social media to increase brand exposure, drive consumer engagement and generally connect businesses with their audience in a social setting. The modern SEO has no choice but to use social media networks to promote the general online presence of a business by earning both shares and highly ranking links that lead traffic back to their website.

Closing thoughts

SEO has undergone a lot of dramatic changes over the years, internet marketing companies in Kenya and the world over have no choice but to adapt. The job of an SEO has changed from the old technical-only approach, to producing home-grown content that will end up connecting with the end user who might be using one of the available multiple devices and platforms.

Therefore, SEO specialists are supposed to be professionals who maintain and optimize the user’s experience of a brand’s online presence. As a result, SEO specialists also known as content experience specialists must work in synergy with data scientists, copywriters and online content creators to come up with effective strategies that can increase the overall online value of the brand. Managing the user experience of your audience is a campaign and not a one-time task.

#seo #searchexperienceoptimization