How is SEO related to Search Engines.

SEO means Search Engine Optimization, which means your website has to be optimized to be easily available to the search engines. To work on SEO you first need to understand how a search engine works.

The below video from google will give a fair idea of how search engines work

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Search engines are like librarians. When you need a book you ask a librarian who will guide you to the particular section and the particular shelf and then on to the particular book.

A Librarian will have “assistants” who arrange the books as guided by the Librarian and the books are bought and stored by the “purchase department”. The purchase department executive will go to various book-stores and buy relevant books based on the content in it  and then give it to the Assistant Librarian to arrange in the sections as guided by the Librarian. Libraries don’t store unwanted or irrelevant books with improper content.

Similarly, In search engines there are Bots or Robots who act as purchase or research executives that shop through various websites and collect information available on the website  (only they don’t pay for it). This information are then stored in various files in designated sections and then analyzed by a powerful central engine.

The moment we search in the search box of the search engine, the text is carried to the central engine where it is analyzed for re-direction to the particular section and the most relevant result is displayed based on the content asked for and the content available.

In other words a search engine is a database that holds pieces of text from millions of website all over the World Wide Web.

Summarizing this it means that unless the Bots get the required information in the right format from your website, they wont be able to deliver it to the search engines. Bots cannot read images so your website should have more text content in it rather than images.

The fact to be remembered is Computers are not as smart as humans. It follows the logic that has been fed into the program that it runs on.

Intelligent Human beings can alter decisions based on circumstances and situations but for a computer it follows the rule of the book where it has no thoughts of its own.

Variations in targeting clients for B2C and B2B websites

Variations in targeting clients for B2C and B2B websites

The strategy defined for B2C and B2B markets are completely different.

B2C

I case of B2C market it is essential to spread a wide net to catch the target market.

The B2C market as defined in classic conversion funnel requires a lot of visitors who can be your prospective customers to visit your website . Once they visit the website they either turn away or become prospective leads. These prospective leads may then become a buyer.

As a general marketing rule when 100 customers visit you, only 30% (30 customers) may show interest in your product. of which 30% (10 customers) may come down to the stage of negotiation and finally 5% ( 5 people) may end up buying your product.

This is what is called the classic conversion funnel.

While targeting customers through a B2C website the factors that helps the most are

1.     Branding: Name recognition, Visibility, Presence and Top-Of-The-Mind- Awareness.

2.     Building Confidence: Establish your expertise, Avoid overt self-promotion, Sell softly, Provide value with Links, Resources and Unbiased information.

3.     After Sales Arena: Focus should be provided on after sales service where there are sections for detecting and correcting customer complaints, Customer Feedback Form, Details of Service Centers with address, location map, telephone numbers, work timings etc. The name of the Center Manager would be an added asset.

The standard market tools for a B2C website promotion is primarily based on

Demographics (Who): The message about a product varies by gender. A shampoo advertisement is rarely directed towards males. Though it may be a unisex product.

Demographics segmentation is the most common type of differentiation that covers standard categories like : Gender, Age, Ethinicity, Marital Status, Family Size, Household Income, Occupation, Social Class, and last but not the least Education.

Geography (Where): The relevance may seem a bit  obscure but is not. People living in dry climates will be more receptive to moisturizers than those living in a humid climate.

This differentiation covers : Country, Region, State, City,Zip Code etc.

Lifestages (What): A teenage boy may search for games on the internet , while a girl may be searching for an ipod, iphone similarly a woman may search for either household items or beauty products. The criteria for search can varies depending on the life stages.

The differentiation covers whether the person conducting the search is Single, Married, With Children below 5 years, having children who are above 5 years, Having children who have reached Teenage, and finally retired people.

And then the cycle continues with the child. As once the child reaches his youth he then becomes the “Single”-factor.

Lifestyle (Why) : People have different reasons for buying products. Some may buy branded products, some buy products based on the effect of it on the environment, some may buy products based on their being organic or chemicals being in it.

This segmentation depends on Social Class, Lifestyle, Shared Interests and Activities.

The Challenges in B2C is the target segment is very vast, so the reach should expanded widely. The audience can be very fickle minded.The product reviews given by your visitors can be good or bad. These reviews do influence the buying pattern of lot of people. But the same things can also be an advantage.

B2B

B2B sites run the gamut of a organizations selling kitchen equipment to restaurants to Corporate Companies selling software.

B2B the sales cycle is different. It caters to a very niche audience. B2B companies have a longer sales cycle and high value purchases, with multiple people involved in closing a sale. B2B marketing requires a completely different approach.

In B2B the focus is more on Branding, Top-Of-The–Mind Visibility, Customer support and problem solving as against sales focused messages on B2C sites.

The key step is to target the  people who make the buying decisions and also people who influence these decisions.

In case of  B2B sites the top priority is to get inside the customer’s head and convey the right story.

The best way is open with the right key words that your prospects care about and not the ones that you use to describe your company. Most of the times B2B companies are entrenched in their philosophies and may miss the customer’s point of view.

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Factors to be considered while doing SEO

What is Search Engine Optimization?

A diverse set of activities done to drive traffic to your website

Why do we need SEO?

SEO has become a pre-requisite for a successful website. Of the millions of websites on the Internet it is unlikely that anyone will visit your site without knowing the web address. Someone visiting your company website, may be by the site address given on your visiting card or the email that they have received from you, either that or you have told them in a text or verbal conversation to visit the site, or they are an already existing customer of your company.

If anyone who has never met you or knows anything about your company or its products and services will visit your website only through a search result conducted on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.

SEO is the process of introducing your website to the search engines so that they can present your company information to the visitor  when they ask or search for a particular product or service that you or your company is dealing in.

What are the factors that are considered while doing SEO?

The first step in doing SEO is to define 

The Business Goals. 

1.   Branding,
2. Attracting Investors, 
3. Selling Products Online
4. Customer Service to Existing Customers
5. Gaining New Customers or any other goal that can be defined other than these.

Second Step is Research on :

1. Competitor sites : Their strengths, weakness.
2. Knowing your target audience helps in making important decisions in SEO. It is then crucial to understand and know Demographics, Geographics, Life Style, Affinity of your target clients.

Third stage is Call to action: What we want the visitor to do on our website?

As discussed earlier visitors will only come to your website through the search results shown on the search engines. We should remember that when a visitor comes to your website, if he does not find what he is looking for he may not wait for long and will immediately shift to the other websites also shown in the search results.

It is very crucial that  the landing page (the one that the visitor lands one by clicking the link of your company shown in the search results) should be attractive enough to gain the confidence of the visitor that he has come to the right place.

Conversion on a website can be defined by the visitor’s action after he comes to the site.

If it is a product or service that the visitor is looking for and if he performs any one of the action below, it means that the visitor is now a hot prospective customer.

1.  He or She, purchases a product from your website.
2. Fills out an enquiry form or registration form or Subscribes to a mailing list.
3. Remains on a particular page for a long time (Can be seen through analytics).
4. Comments on your blog page.
5. Likes you on Facebook (Through the social media link on your website).Posts a positive review.
6. Sends you an enquiry via email through the contact page of your website.
7. Calls your company sales number mentioned on the website.

But to ensure all these, it is essential to have a very good landing page.

A good landing page is one with the right information that the visitor is looking for.

The landing page should reassure the visitor that he has reached the right place and it should be easy for him to take the next step.

A new customer is always a welcome deal and is a valuable asset to your company. Even a few conversions can make a great deal of difference to your business.

What you need to know about your website ( Part 1)

You already have a website.....Great...so you are in the current market league!

But a few things to share before we congratulate you.Most of the time, a company builds a website because "it has to"..and not because "it feels the need to". So where do you figure in this. Its very important to know what your website can do for you or what it is doing for you.Its better not to have a website that detriments or harms your company image rather than having one that looks like a truck ran over it.

A few points that you should know about websites.


A Glamour Model and an Actor are both seen on the larger than life silver screen.But the similarity ends there. For a Glamour model looks count but for an actor it is about looks and substance. Good looks is short lived... so is the fame, Good Acting may give an actor a stability in their career, but Good Looks and Good Acting skills (substance) can take the actor a very long way. So does a website. 

" Just a good design doesn't make a good website...the looks and content is very important".

The person who you want the most to find your website....is the person who is searching for your website.

The target audience of your websites are your potential customers. They can be CURRENT  AND PAST CUSTOMERS SEEKING SUPPORT and can even be potential investors looking to invest in your company.

Your websites should help you know your target audience.

Most importantly you need to know what you want your visitors to do on your website.

1. View your website...( doesnt serve a purpose if they dont have anything interesting to see on it). So they should be able to find the information that they are looking for.
2. Purchase a product : In which case the landing page should have an attractive content to guide them in telling them what they need to know and how to go about buying it.
3. Fill Out a Form : There should be a reason or inspiration for them to fill the form. A visitor will never fill a form without any benefit out of it. This form can be a requisite for the visitor to download a product / service catalogue or brochure. It can be for availing a discount or a  free offer or to subscribe to a newsletter that has content which benefits them.
4. Comment on a blog : Blogs are essentially a nice way of expressing your company's visions and other news related to your product and services. This can also work as a customer service platform rather than having comments on the public social media which can be beneficial as well as harmful at times.
5. Visit your store or office : A website also works as your company's calling card.
6. Call your Sales Number : In which case the sales number should be prominently displayed on the landing page.

What ever you want the visitor to do... you need to optimize the pages that you want most of the people to get from the search engines and for best results the landing page should always have the information that the visitor is looking for.

** Landing pages are the pages on your website, where the visitors from search engines land on, when they click to your website link after it features in the results that come after they have made a search.

Landing pages play a major role in conversions as it is the page that speaks to your audience and gives the first impression of your company....so it has to be taken care what it shows as it can create a positive lasting impression or the first and last impression.