Contemporary SEO has changed, has more data at its disposal, and is more mature, so it requires a solid AI-based technological foundation
Search Marketing continues to be an indispensable lever in strategies aimed at generating performance. Suffice it to say that according to Gartner’s “Technology Marketing Benchmarks Survey,” two of the top 10 channels considered to be most effective in generating marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) are SEO and PPC.
SEO, however, has evolved strongly over time and today can no longer be thought of as a set of “technicalities” that, once set up, can be forgotten, on the contrary: doing Search Strategy in 2022 means keeping up with technological innovations, user search behavior and algorithm updates, thinking of SEO as a complex channel that must be constantly monitored, optimized and nurtured.
Doing SEO in 2022, new challenges and new KPIs
Let’s start with one fact: doing SEO means doing performance. In fact, through SEO you can better understand your customer audience, lower your CPA, and improve your digital reputation.
There are several new challenges to consider:
- The SERPs of the major search engines offer features, which can be used and leveraged to improve the performance of one’s digital strategy and presence;
- Consumers are increasingly fluid and aware, informing themselves on different channels and reacting to numerous stimuli offered by digital;
- With a view to creating an increasingly engaging user experience, several updates have been launched last among all core web vitals.
It follows that Search Engine Optimization KPIs today are different and more complex than in the recent past, even from a strategic point of view.
We have identified 6 of them, ordering them as also part of a funnel, from indexability to conversions:
- Indexability, the ability of a crawler to read the main content and elements of the site
- Average position, which is average ranking on strategic searches in Google’s SERP
- Click to rate, which is the percentage between impressions and clicks to assess the attractiveness of results
- Unbranded organic clicks, this is the number of clicks for generic searches, i.e. without the brand name
- Organic visits, by “organic” we mean visits to the site from natural searches thus without going through campaigns or ads
- Conversion improvement, the increase in conversions and traffic growth for the same amount of investment in other activities
To achieve them, the action plan must be compact and include all the necessary components thus:
- a solid technical and technological optimization element;
- a base of quality content;
- a carefully done link building activity.
Advantages and benefits of a well-structured search strategy
SEO is an indispensable channel, even more so in all those areas where digital competition and investment levels are higher. In fact, a search strategy makes it possible to make a difference, through the construction of increasingly streamlined properties tailored to the target audience, so as to ensure significant budget savings and directly affect companies’ performance and revenue.
There are 3 main benefits of an effective SEO strategy:
- Reduced CPAs, because SEO works to improve the content and user experience on the site, as well as ensuring an alternative source of traffic this has significant impacts on performance and average cost of marketing activities;
- Online reputation, because organic or natural positioning ensures excellent exposure and visibility for any brand as well as authority in the eyes of the consumer who will automatically associate the brand as a leader in that field. The SERP offers numerous keys to address the specific needs of users along their customer journey;
- Market knowledge, as kwd and trend analysis allows us to understand the needs of our target audience within the ecosystem they use. Finally, the important work of research analysis allows us to analyze the customer audience and understand what the main needs and wants are, what terminology they use, and what sources they use the most.
The explosion of mobile devices, voice searches and increasingly used search engines beyond Google (such as Youtube and Amazon) as well as Social multiply the opportunities to intercept users searching for information online.
Today, Google processes 3.5 billion searches a day, and working on Search Strategy means analyzing, understanding and meeting the needs of your users by giving relevant answers at every moment of their “buyer’s journey.”
How to do AI&Data-Driven Search Marketing?
Thanks to our artificial intelligence-based technologies and our team of experienced specialists, in ByTek we are able to combine technological innovation and strategic expertise, AI and Human Intelligence, to structure SEO activities suitable for today’s market.
Our AI-based technologies, such as Trend AI and Relevanty AI, respectively, enable rapid analysis of the search intent of hundreds of thousands of keywords to gain insight into trends and opportunities, so that we can then proceed with Link Building focused on quality, meaningful, and truly useful content for users.
Human expertise, in fact, allows insights to be directly actioned to maximize business results over time.
