Email marketing: what it is and how to implement it

Two Dimensions of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

 Importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As the use of search engines becomes more common, search engine optimization (SEO) becomes more important. The importance of SEO is proportional to how much more we use search engines in our lives. In many industries and companies, SEO is usually a small part of marketing, including advertising, but this may change in the future.

For example, in a platform service that collects and displays various information, a small change in search engine policy can greatly affect future sales and profits. It wouldn't be surprising at all if the stock price dropped by tens of percent at a word from Google and the market cap evaporated by trillions. 

Many companies and people already value search engine optimization (SEO) and put their resources into it. Although it is combined with advertising, there are not many places that do it properly, but it is also search engine optimization (SEO), such as trying to get better exposure on the shopping mall platform. However, there are many cases where efforts are wasted without understanding the basics of search engine optimization. 

This article provides the basics you need to understand for search engine optimization (SEO) and information to help you choose the right direction for your situation. 

Terrain and Players

Search engine optimization (SEO) is, of course, important to the search engine. Other than that, some competitors want to do SEO for similar reasons, as users of those search engines. It sounds so basic, but it is a fact that many managers and practitioners easily overlook. 

search engine

The most popular search engines are Google and Naver. But that's not all. All online services that use the search function a lot are search engines. YouTube, Instagram, and shopping platforms are all search engines. 

The purpose of a search engine is to find, collect, and present information that is most useful to users and suitable for their search intent. In the middle, advertisements or other services are inserted and sold.

Search engines are always torn between their original purpose and their revenue model. Naver is losing its search engine share to Google by focusing only on its revenue model without properly showing useful information in fields that require even the slightest bit of detailed knowledge.

 Google concentrates on showing useful information, and then imitates Naver's actions whenever there is a need to pay more. Conversely, Naver is also interested in the original function of the search engine to recover its declining market share and residence time. 

From the point of view of a company or person doing search engine optimization (SEO), any search engine must follow the characteristics and rules of that search engine. It is similar to that a person cannot choose which country or in which house he will be born, and it is useless to complain about it. 

competitor

If there are no competitors, there is no need for search engine optimization. If there is no competitor or competing content, you will be ranked number 1 in search rankings without the need for optimization. 

But in reality, there are many competitors. Search engine optimization expresses your competitive situation and competitiveness in search word rankings. 

An easy way to think about competition is to rank search terms in company or product names. These are also called branded keywords. When you search for a brand or company name, the ranking displayed by search engines is higher than the ranking of search terms related to the product or service you are trying to sell. *

Competition is tougher than you think. In many cases, they use ads to appear higher than their competitors' search rankings, which is why they spend quite a bit on their own branded keywords. It's like paying monthly rent for the house you own. It doesn't make sense logically though. The reality is yes. 

(*Note: If you type the company name but do not rank first in the natural search terms, it means there is a big problem in your competitiveness in search engine optimization. )

user

The most important thing in terrain is the user. Users are the customers of the search engine and your customers. Searches with low search rankings will also rank higher as more signs of liking from users increase. And those users are, after all, your prospects. 

Users don't really care about search engine optimization, search engines, or how good your product or service is. They just do what they think is best for their circumstances. 

The key to search engine optimization

At the heart of the situation surrounding search engines is user choice. Users want to find useful information that is convenient to collect, but that fits their search intent. 

Search engine optimization is a game where search engines, you, and your competitors play a game about your choices. 

There are two main ways to play this game well. One is content to search engine optimization (SEO) and the other is technical search engine optimization (SEO). Both are important and should do well, but the focus is on one side. Doing either one extremely well, or doing both equally well, will give you good results. You don't even have to think about being extremely good at both. 

Content Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is an ideal form of search engine optimization. It's that difficult too. If you search for “Socrates”, information about the person named Socrates does not appear, but information about Socrates Oratory Academy does not appear. This eliminates the reason for the existence of search engines. 

How to do a good content search engine optimization (SEO) is simple. All you need to do is provide the most useful information about your product or service. 

Of course, the reality is not that simple. Search engines are basically machines that process human language in different ways. As a result, we do not fully understand the intent of the user and the usefulness of the information. As the technology advances, they're pretty good at it, but they're incredibly good in certain areas, and outrageous in others. 

An easy way to tell is the way we use search engines. No one solves everything with just the top organic search terms. Find the information and content you need by clicking on the items in the 2nd, 3rd, and 10th places.

Aside from the natural language processing capabilities of search engines, the interests of search engines also play a role. It is difficult to know what are the reasons for the detailed algorithm change of search engines. And above organic search rankings are ads. Also, for some search terms, it allows you to view and finish in the search engine without having to check the links in the 1st and 2nd places. This can be convenient for users, but detrimental to the site that ranks number one. 

Another reason why content search engine optimization (SEO) is difficult is the preemptive effect. If it came out 5 years ago, nothing has changed in terms of information, and the search results that people have already searched for a lot, there is no reason for search engines to show them properly even if they do something similar. 

Again, content SEO is the quality and usefulness of the information. This is difficult because the competitor has similar information production capabilities.

Example: Ballast I&C

Ballast put all of the marketing-related keywords you wanted on the first page of search engines, and most of them were in the top 5. And it makes this very easy. 

Example: In the search term “Marketing Trends,” what you wrote last year and this year are ranked side by side on the first page of Google search results. If you search for “2020 Marketing Trends”, it ranks in 3rd place. (Technically, it was much less cared for than its competitors. It was published late for this kind of content, making it less relevant.)

General keywords such as content marketing, brand story, b2b marketing, or even narrow keywords such as Google Tag Manager usually rank 1st to 3rd with Ballast's site content.  

In other words, the content of the content is doing well in search engine optimization.  

There is only one secret. This is to summarize the contents that will be helpful for marketers and managers who have thought about and experienced the subject. Usually, the information that comes out about search engine optimization is technical. However, the example content of Ballast demonstrates just how important it is to search engine optimization. The reason and context in which this is possible will be discussed a little later. 

Technical Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As mentioned above, content search engine optimization (SEO) is difficult in most situations. And it's difficult to run or service organizationally. So, when we talk about search engine optimization, we often talk about the technical field. Most of the information on search engine optimization is produced by entities selling related products or services. They have an advantage in talking about what they can sell. 

Technical Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is refining the shape of your content so that search engines can understand it better. It is to process the content itself or information about the content itself so that the search term is easy to understand. a few examples 

• Keyword optimization
• meta description
• link address
• link building 
• Image meta information
• website structure 
• Website usability
• speed
• layout

etc. 

Technical search engine optimization (SEO) is harder than you think. If this were as easy as the feeling expressed above, the related service wouldn't exist either. 

The reason why technical search engine optimization (SEO) is difficult is that there are many targets for search engine optimization, and if several cases overlap, the total number of cases easily exceeds tens of thousands. 

They also have to constantly respond to changes in search engine algorithms or policies. 

I don't think the effect of this response is very large. However, in a highly competitive sector, these small differences can have significant short-term implications. Also, if there is a competitor but I am not alone, it is the human heart that is anxious.  

That's why technical search engine optimization (SEO) is equally important. 

Case: Zinus

Zinus is a domestic company that has recently multiplied by selling foam mattresses on Amazon. I haven't looked into it in detail, but it's used Amazon search engine optimization and advertising well to achieve its own success in a fast-growing market. And based on these achievements, the market has expanded to the domestic market.  

Wildcard (Joker): Brand

There are also variables that affect both content SEO and technical SEO. Brand. All other things being equal, the more influential a brand is the more search engines and users like it. The meaning of brand here is a bit broad. There are many factors that make up a brand, not only the recognition of a product or company, but also the usage metrics, influence, and number and frequency of searches on the site. 

Although I mentioned the unusual situation of branded keywords before, if you take a picture of a brand and do a search, of course, the brand's exposure is the best and the click-through rate is high. Users searched after taking first place in the search engine. The more general and universal the search terms, the less the brand exerts its powerful influence, but the invisible power of the brand is still at work. 

 

Two-dimensional usage: what, when, how

“So what should I do?”

As I said before, it's near impossible to be incredibly good at both. It is similar to the absence of the word “majority elite”. Depending on the current situation, you need to decide which direction to pay more attention to. And to do that, we need to answer one question. 

Key question: What do you sell?

The key question is what is the product or service? no, see. To answer this question, you must also answer all of the following questions: 

• How common is the product (service) overall?
• How competitive is it?
• Are there many competitors? 
• Are your competitors strong?

This question reveals the discriminating power of content for search engines.

In general, if there is a small number of competitors, B2B, or a niche market, the content discriminating power is high, and if the consumer product or commodities are strong, the content discriminating power is low. However, this is a general trend, not a rule. 

When and what to choose?

If content discriminating power is high, content search engine optimization (SEO) is important, and if content discriminating power is low, technical optimization is important. More precisely, if your content discriminating power is low, you have no choice but to optimize your content.

Content SEO. Advantages and limitations

If it's easy to create content that outperforms your competitors in terms of information and usefulness, then you should focus on Content Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You should not ignore the technical aspects at all but just stick to the basics. And if you create superior content, most of the technical aspects are solved. Because it naturally includes a concise title, an easy-to-understand structure, and content that will keep people occupied for a long time. 

Content SEO is easy if you do it right, but it's hard to "do it well". It's usually in line with the saying in content marketing to create the best content. Creating only the best content solves everything, but competitors have similar thoughts and efforts. And while it's easy to create the best content in a small field, it's hard to extend this edge to the general and universal. 

Technical SEO. Advantages and limitations

The reason why there is more talk about technology than content search engine optimization is that many companies do not have the ability to discriminate against content. There are cases when similar products are sold on a shopping platform, or when content is limited and strong competitors like a hotel reservation platform exist. 

So technical search engine optimization tends to be a zero-sum game. It takes a lot of effort to stay a little ahead of the competition. Even if I'm good at something, it's often easy for competitors to catch up. But sometimes, there are organizations that are consistently good at optimizing their technology and keep getting ahead little by little. 

conclusion. The source of high ROI is a strategy and asymmetric rewards 

To summarize the most important thing: You need to figure out which optimization direction is more appropriate for your current situation, and then act accordingly. This is usually called a strategy. 

Content search engine optimization is possible, but it is easy to fail no matter how much effort you put into technical optimization or vice versa. And many companies face this challenge. 

Under the premise of not missing the most important thing, the next thing to consider is asymmetric rewards. It's hard to do, but you need to find an area that rewards you when you do it well. In other words, if you do what you can and should be good at, you have to work hard on things that are difficult and require a little less attention.

 You need to focus on technical SEO while exploring areas for improvement in content SEO, or when you become content SEO, you need to find ways to do better in small technical areas. It's difficult, but the rewards are great if you succeed.