As businesses cope with the crisis, they’re critically watching profit margins and seeking out tools to deliver consistent ROI while also curbing costs. Michal Magdziarz, CEO of DeepCrawl, highlights the steps enterprises can take to boost search engine optimization (SEO)
Due to COVID-19, enterprises are currently making critical decisions about how to move forward in our new reality. Whether it’s rethinking their overall business strategies or finding new avenues to engage with customers online, COVID-19 has forced enterprises in every sector to rework their digital approach to reach new target audiences, while also continuing to engage current and prospective customers.
While many businesses recognize the need for a strong digital strategy, many are under-utilizing one element that can make all the difference: search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a gamechanger, and it’s imperative that enterprises understand the most effective way to implement this strategy to impact bottom-line results. In fact, 53%Opens a new window of website traffic comes from organic search – and with the majority of enterprises operating purely online right now, this traffic is crucial. So how can you get started? Let’s explore three steps to take to fully utilize enterprise SEO amid the current crisis.
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1. Know your Website
Website complexity is inherent across industries because of the ever-changing nature of the modern web. In order to stay relevant to customers, enterprises are having to constantly rethink and update their online resources to engage varied audiences. The 21st-century consumer desires personalized and targeted web experiences, and SEO can help enterprises create these. But first, enterprises need to do an audit of their current online presence and website. Only then will enterprises be able to identify what they are doing right, and what they might be doing wrong.
Audits are useful because they pull all the information needed so you can create a roadmap of how to fix what isn’t working and how to further optimize what is working. Audits also provide an opportunity to get to know all the ins and outs of the site. This initial step is so important as it allows you to better understand what to do to best maximize the existing assets while also knowing what new information needs to be highlighted to stand out from top competitors. Once you have the knowledge of the enterprise’s existing domains and assets, an SEO tool can be quite powerful in maximizing them.
2. Educate your Enterprise
Enterprises are investing thousands in SEO every month. However, unlike pay per click, enterprises must understand that an organic search campaign won’t yield immediate results. A comprehensive SEO campaign will involve a combination of technical SEO, content marketing, and link building. If executed well, SEO can exponentially increase the quality and quantity of your website’s traffic and increase exposure through non-paid results. SEO acquires customers at 25 cents on the dollarOpens a new window compared to any other paid channel such as social media. As such, businesses need to understand this connection between SEO and sales, so they know what is and isn’t enhancing a company’s ranking and subsequently feeding into increased sales and traffic.
Once the education is there, enterprises can begin implementing SEO into their business strategy. Utilizing an SEO strategy allows businesses to increase traffic, drive more sales, gain exposure, build brand credibility, and finally have improved rankings. This occurs in a cyclical process and allows enterprises to constantly flourish while reaching new audiences.
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3. Automate SEO Regression Tests
Once enterprises know their site and understand the purpose of utilizing SEO, they should take it a step further by implementing tools that automate SEO regression tests. SEO regression tests help make sense of the data being pulled from a website by showing tech teams how different variables that go into the website development affect one another. In other words, they’re quintessential in identifying how a website update might affect a company’s search ranking and visibility.
When these tests are automated, they allow teams to catch any missteps during the development process, rather than after they are deployed and search rankings are already affected. This is an additional cost saver, given that the price of fixing a bug increases six times after the release is deployed. As websites are constantly being updated to align with user expectations, these tools are crucial to ensure both dynamic online presence and high search rankings are prioritized, all while cutting costs.
Enterprises are at an inflection point where they are forced to shift strategies to match current needs. A major part of that is understanding the purpose and the end goal of the online strategy and which platforms, like SEO, need to be leveraged to expand audience reach. But before implementing some of the intricate aspects that SEO entails like the automated regression tests, it’s important that businesses know their website and educate themselves on how to use SEO to gain the best results. This will ensure enterprises are getting the most out of their tech stack that they are already investing heavily in.
Ultimately, now that consumers are engaging with businesses solely online, having a dynamic web presence is more important than ever before. Right now, businesses in every sector are watching profit margins and need tools that deliver consistent ROI while also curbing costs by providing increased automation and efficiency. With today’s competitive online landscape, SEO tools can be the secret weapon for businesses to create engaging online experiences for businesses, prioritize the consumer experience, and ensure business longevity.