Search Engine Optimization: What Is It and How Does it Work?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is, simply put, a practice of increasing the quality and quantity of web traffic.

Like the words “search engine”, the medium used to increase quality and quantity is target users who use search engines. SEO is therefore popular with organic marketing or organic search.

In Indonesia, we are familiar with the Google search engine. Besides Google, there are also Bing from Microsoft, Yahoo which is one of the oldest search engines and still used, Yandex which is popular in Russia, or Baidu which is popular in China, and many more.

However, in our opinion, you need to optimize Google as a top priority. This is because the number of Google users exceeds any search engine. That way, you can reach more of your target audience through this one search engine.

After getting to know the definition of SEO, next we will discuss the types of SEO, the benefits of SEO, how SEO works, and SEO from a larger point of view, namely Marketing Channel.

Types of SEO

In general, the practice of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is divided into three types, namely on-page, off-page, and technical. A complete explanation of the types of SEO is as follows:

On-Page Optimization

On-page SEO is one of the practices of optimizing content performance on a business website that is often used by content marketing. That way, the website can produce quality content and bring in more traffic.

Some examples of on-page optimization are doing keyword research, implementing a keyword distribution strategy, optimizing metadata, doing internal linking, and others. Learn the complete way to optimize your content through our on-page SEO guide.

Off-Page Optimization

Off-page SEO is an optimization practice that is carried out from outside the website, usually requiring assistance from another website or platform. Best practices in off-page optimization include link building, promotion through social media, to utilizing online forums. Find out more about off-page SEO optimization in our off-page SEO guide.

Technical Optimization

Technical SEO is an optimization practice that aims to facilitate the crawling process carried out by search engines. In other words, technical practice is useful to ensure that the crawling process can be carried out properly without any problems.

Some of the best practices in technical SEO are using the HTTPS protocol, increasing website speed, avoiding broken links and redirect loops, adding structured data, using canonical URLs, and so on.

SEO Benefits

Website optimization for search engines has been proven to provide many benefits for your business. From bringing in organic traffic to increasing conversion potential. Some of the benefits of SEO are as follows:

• Optimizing website performance on search engines
• Provide a great user experience
• Increase brand awareness
• Bringing in more organic visits
• Bring in leads
• Increase the potential for conversion
• Drive long-term business growth

How Search Engine Optimization Works

As it is known that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing website performance on search engines. Basically, search engines have three main functions, namely crawling, indexing, and ranking.

Crawling is a process carried out by search engines to crawl all content on the internet. While indexing is the process of storing and managing content found during the crawling process. Next, search engines will rank content from the most relevant to the user's search query to the least relevant.

Introduction of Marketing Channel

Introduction: since it is public content, every people regardless of their age, background knowledge, and other related things can read this. Thus, we consider providing a relevant introduction for all of the readers.

Please take note that the term Marketing Channel might be different, especially for nowadays generation and the previous ones. Let’s call it the online and offline generation. Marketing Channel for the offline type is usually referred to as Distribution Channel. 

Under this definition, we want to emphasize that they are different. Marketing Channel we discuss here refers to the online type, such as social media, websites, search engines, etc.

PAID CHANNEL

The paid channel is a marketing channel that requires website owners to pay a certain amount for each visit they get from advertising campaigns. Some paid SEO channels are as follows:

• Social Media Marketing
• Search Engine Marketing
• Online Forums
• Online Publisher

ORGANIC CHANNEL

An organic channel is a type of marketing channel that does not require a fee for every visit that a website or application has successfully obtained. The practice is usually done through the production of quality content so that it attracts visitors organically.

Some of the media that are part of the organic SEO channel are:

• Social Media
• Search Engines
• Websites
• Online Forums
   

When do You Need SEO?

An important topic at this point is Demand. Demand in SEO is related to accumulated numbers of groups of keywords. For example, if you want to buy a phone, you “may” start to browse using these lists of keywords:

For example, when you are going to buy a cellphone, then you are more likely to start browsing with the following keywords:

Case 1, you do not know which product to buy

• Stage 1, “iphone with price around 10 million”
• Stage 2, “iphone 7 vs iphone 7 plus”
• Stage 3, “buy iphone 7 plus”

Case 2, you have decided which product to buy

• Stage 1, “buy iphone 11”
• Stage 2 (option 1), “iphone 11 deals april 2020”
• Stage 2 (option 2), “iphone 11 to***edia”
• Stage 2 (option 3), “iphone 11 sh***e”

With the example above, you will notice that the User's Journey can be varied. We only give a small example at the general level.

As an owner of a brand or product, you now realize that you need a website that captures your prospective customers’ needs. Therefore, you can now start to create a website and start optimizing search engines or SEO Google.

Want To Optimize On Your Own?

We assume you already have a website. The first step is that you only need optimization at the beginning, and learn more about keywords. We also provide SEO Terms and SEO Guidelines to assist you in optimizing your website.

SEO keyword is a keyword used by users to find some particular answers. If associated with brand and product, the answer expected is a product needed by your customers.

Here are some steps you need to take before increasing your SEO performance:

• Understand the question of your prospective customers,
• Find out the problems they have regarding your products,
• Create a website/blog article to capture the questions,
• Run optimization if your content has not yet appeared on the Google page,
• Monitor users’ activity using available tools (ex. Google Analytics),
• Get more insight on tracking tools pinned on your website,
• Repeat step 4-6 until your website appears on Google.

The second step is to master how to build content. There are various types of content that can be used. However, it is important to choose the right content type for your online business and product sales target.

Then, how to create high-quality content? You can learn more through the SEO-friendly article writing guide and follow the important phases in content writing on the cmlabs blog.

Then the third step is to find a distribution channel. There are some Distribution Channels that need to know like websites, social media, e-commerce sites, online publishers, and other channels that give a lot of navigation to the website.

In our study case, that is for SEO, let’s focus on building content and distributing the content into the website so that the content can be discovered by search engines Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

About SEO Consultant

Eventually, a brand or a company needs its own team to optimize search engines so you can focus on your business’ development.

1. AGENCY

We cooperate with agencies to support the need of their client’s content and copywriting.

2. E-COMMERCE

Writing descriptions of products/brands, webpage, and category pages using the SEO approach.

3. BRAND

Developing ideas, and creating content on the enterprise scale to effectively attract consumers.

4. PUBLISHERS

Supporting the digital publisher and content marketing targetted to the right readers.

We understand if you want to have your own team, but SEO experts today, especially in Indonesia, are not so many yet. You will need a long period of time when having a small team of only 2-3 people, even if they are still at entry-level. Your company will also need more time for education.

Even more, you need a salary system and a new group in the marketing division. This will be a longer and more complicated process. At this point, you need help from a professional SEO consultant.

On the enterprise level, we are part of the few companies that specialize in SEO consultants and quality content services in Indonesia. You can check on SEO service deals available on cmlabs. To communicate directly, please email us at [email protected] or through the live chat that we pin on this page.