Source: https://stories.freepik.com/illustration/search-engines/rafiki

At this stage of the module, you are familiarised with Big Data, know what analytics are and how to track them and you also have knowledge of insights and how to make them actionable. But before we can track any analytics we need to reach people and future customers. This is what you will learn in this lesson, to learn about search engines, get discovered and make the best use of them.

Getting started with search engines

Let’s begin with the basics, what are the search engines? In simple words, they are software accessed on the Internet that searches a database of information according to the search of the user. The engine provides a list of results that best match with what the user is trying to find.

There are many search engines available and each uses their own software programs, but the way they work is similar. They all perform three tasks: Crawling, indexing and ranking. Let’s see these tasks one by one in the order they perform.

First, engines crawl the Internet to discover content, this can be web pages, news, images or videos. Each search engine uses computer programs called bots, crawlers or spiders that will visit thousand of pages. These crawlers go from page to page by following links to other pages. This process never stops as their only purpose is to visit and revisit as many pages as possible to look for new content, links, tags or keywords that will be included in the index.

This indexing is the second step. In this process search engines categorise each piece of content. For example, search engines may find various copies of the exact same information, located on different websites. This is when the search engine makes decisions and will decide which pages will be kept in the index.

Last step is the action of ranking. This is where search engines decide which content is most useful to searchers. When you search for something in the browser, the engine compares the words and phrases you use to its index, trying to find matching results. So how do search engines rank pages? Well that is top secret! There are many ways search engines use to determine rank, this could include information of the website, number of links or the freshest content. In the end, it does not matter what method or formula they use as the goal will be always the same, which is to connect the user with what they are looking for.

Source: Own creation

In a nutshell, search engines are constantly working to scour the web for content, organise it and then display the most relevant results to searchers. Understanding this process will help you make your website the best it can be.

Organic and Paid search

We’ve just learnt what search engines are and how they work. Now you are ready to know what types of search are available; these will be organic or paid.

Organic Search  

If a user looks for something using a search engine, the results page they see contains a list of organic, or unpaid results. These results will normally appear in the centre of the page, and are the results the search engine decides are the best match for the search or words the user typed in.

This might be interesting for your Start-up as there is no cost to appear in the organic results. In other words, you will not nor cannot pay to appear here. So how can you make your website visible in the unpaid results? It all comes down to optimization.

We have seen that the main goal of search engines is to help people find what they are looking for. If you can support the search engine decide that your website is what people are searching for, you’re on the right track. This action is called search engine optimisation or SEO. Effective SEO involves helping a search engine find and know your website.

Paid search

Results pages will also display advertisements, or paid results. In the list of results, they will be separated and labelled as ads.

These ads will be related to the user search and will be displayed in a quite similar way to the organic results.

They do this by design, and it’s what makes paid search advertising so effective. The ads you see complement the search results page, with the goal of helping the user find what they’re looking for. So how exactly does search engine advertising work? There are several models. Let’s take a look at one popular option, the text ads you see on search engine results pages.

Every time someone searches, companies who advertise compete for the opportunity to display ads. It happens in milliseconds and the searcher won’t see the details but only the ads that appear on the page, the so called “winners”.

Search Engines decide who these winners are by the bids. A bid is the maximum amount of money a company is willing to pay for a click on an ad. If someone clicks the ad, the advertiser is charged an amount equal to or less than the bid. So if companies bid €1 for a keywords, that’s the maximum money it will pay for a single ad click. On the other hand, if an ad shows on the page but no one clicks, it won’t cost the company anything at all.

Get discovered by search

Source: https://stories.freepik.com/illustration/search-engines/bro

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

We have previously talked about how you can help search engines decide that your website is what people are searching for, this process is called Search Engine Optimization and basically refers to the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

Millions of people search online every day, from clothes to bus schedules. These searches are opportunities for your Start-up to appear in front of potential customers.

Let’s assume you are the owner of a tech Start-up and you want to expand your business by selling your products online. SEO helps search engines understand better what you have to offer. That means, when somebody searches using words related to your business, like, “wireless ear buds”, you will probably appear in their results.

Search engines have formulas, or algorithms, that help them order the list of results. The search engines constantly intensively search the net for new content and make links between related pages.

We have previously seen that your website appears in these results by the words you use on your site or how many websites link to yours. So what variables are the Search Engines using? Well, search engines look for as much information as possible about websites, these variables could include:

• How popular sites are,
• what other people or sites are saying about them,
• they consider words on web pages or keywords in the code of a page to better understand the topic, and
• they consider the searcher’s geographic location amongst others.

Search is a simple thing to use and many Start-ups are using it every day. Although it is a particularly useful tool, it is constantly changing and therefore you should effectively promote your website online. You have to make sure your website gives search engines what they value the most, that is: unique, engaging and relevant content!

Keep reading to learn about the SEO process.

The SEO process

The process or work of SEO never finishes as trends come and go, users can change their behavior, and search engines are constantly developing. Your duty as start-upper is to consider how changes will impact your webpage and the actions to be done to continue attracting unpaid traffic. Does it sound too complicated? We provide you with 4 recommendations on how to stay up-to-date on search.[1]

1. Learn how search engines work.

Research, read and watch! Many blogs, and videos offer updates on new features, algorithm changes and suggestions on how to better optimise your website.

2. Check any possible changes and monitor how they are affecting your website.

For example, if you read that the major search engines show first websites that have social media accounts linked, if you haven’t done that action yet, you might want to do it to be a “winner”.

3. Find inspiration from other websites.

Take a look at your competitor’s websites or the websites related to yours appearing on the first positions of the search results. What do they offer? Do they regularly update their websites? Do they use photos/videos? Are they active on Social Media? What keywords and tags are they using?

4. Talk to your customers.

They are the best tool to help you know what content your site is missing, features that are needed, or products they are looking for. In fact, it is possible that the way your customers describe your products can be a form of keyword research.

Now you know the tricks for an ongoing SEO process. As you can see, it is about understanding what potential customers want, providing and sharing the content they’re searching for and changing strategies when necessary.

How to choose keywords

Choosing the right keywords is the base of successful SEO. To do so, it is essential that you perform keyword research. Why do we have to do research first? Well let’s see it with a practical example.

Let’s assume a potential customer is looking for ‘coffee’. What might Engines search for? It could be simply coffee, or it could be coffee beans, coffee shop, coffeehouse or coffeemaker. If you are selling coffee beans, you need to know the most used terms by people when searching. For that reason, it is essential that you match your website content to what people are looking for, if not you can get disconnections as visitors to your site could be looking for one product while you are selling another.

There are three things you should consider when choosing the keywords for your SEO strategy.

1. Frequency or the number of times a word is searched for. You will probably want to use the terms that people search most often in relation to your products. Hence, think about it, it might be difficult to stand out from other businesses if you use highly searched terms.  This connects with the second consideration, who is the competition.
2. Large companies with established websites may appear on the first positions of search engine results for high-volume, highly competitive keywords, like “clothes”. But your Start-up website also has big opportunities too by, for example, looking for keywords that have a bit less competition.

This is where the “long tail” of SEO enters in action! As only a small number of keywords have very high search volume but a large number have it low. For example, while the keyword “coffee” might have a lot of competition, keywords like “get coffee beans delivered in Palma” would be an example of a long tail keyword that might give you more immediate SEO results. For small Start-ups, the long tail is often where you will find your SEO opportunities as you may get good rankings for long tail keywords with less effort and costs.

3. The keywords you select should match what you offer. If potential customers visit your site looking for ground coffee but you only sell coffee beans, they’re just going to leave. For that reason, it is very important that you make sure your chosen keywords match the purpose of the people who are searching.

Now that you know all the considerations, you can start with your SEO process, but remember,  your webpage content should be made for your human visitors, not for search engines.

SEM

We are almost finishing! The last step is to learn about Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which is a uniquely powerful option for your Start-up. It is basically a form of advertising that allows you to bid for your advertisement to show along with search results for keywords that people are typing in. This will let you be seen by people at the very moment they are searching for the things your Start-up offers.

It is simple, but effective: People search for things they want. And advertisers target specific searches, but only pay if someone clicks to learn more.

Like on SEO, keywords are the foundation of search engine marketing as users enter keywords as part of search queries into search engines to find what they are looking for.

To find the right keywords for our SEM strategy it is important to consider these 3 factors:

2. Relevance: Try to focus solely on keywords that are relevant to your business, and you will have more success going forward.
3. Traffic: you might compile a list of highly relevant keywords for your business, but what if no potential customer searches for them? Keyword research tools can provide traffic estimates to help you in this process. You will probably have to test different tactics to figure out which keywords are relevant and get sufficient traffic.
4. Competition: if a keyword is relevant, and gets a lot of traffic, your competitors are more likely to be using it too. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t include it. But you should look for keywords where the relevance and traffic is high, and competition relatively low.

By combining these three factors you can set your ad campaign off to the right start. Be sure to monitor your keywords closely , if you do so, you will quickly learn about what’s working, and then you can make adjustments as you continue.

You are now ready to start with Search Engines! Do the tests first to check your knowledge and start your campaign!

[1] https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-process-promise/264047/