The ever evolving audience and their effect on SEO

Searchers have over the years evolved a lot. Not only do they know how to search, they know how to get to their results faster.

Earlier there weren’t that many businesses on the internet and neither were there that many people looking for information on the internet. It was actually easier for websites to rank by just implementing some basic SEO elements in their website.

But in the last 15 years things have changed dramatically.

You can type in any search term on the search engine and be sure that you will be rewarded with some result. The search engines have evolved to accommodate the needs of this growing internet savvy population. The internet today is accessed by everyone from children to the elderly. Search engines are constantly optimizing their algorithms to cater to the needs of every visitor.

Another thing that has changed a lot over the years is location specific search. There used to be country specific search engines that would cater to the need of specific searches for those locations. But these days, even if some of them still exist, they are not that frequented by visitors these days. Major search engines by default provide you country/region specific information.Local Google, Yahoo, and BING have possibly all the information anybody would need regarding businesses in your area.

How has SEO changed to keep in tune with the much aware, and internet savvy audience?

SEO has changed a lot in the last decade; SEO has evolved from a process that involved a little bit of tweaking of web pages to the universally accepted optimization process which we now know as SEO. Optimizers are now involved right from the inception of the site vis-à-vis earlier when a completed site was optimized and tweaked without involving major changes, and one could still see results. That has changed now.

Some of the areas that have evolved the most are:

1. The concept and the design of website:

Websites are designed keeping in mind the target audience. The concept is developed keeping in mind what the site is about.

2. The language and copy:

Is written keeping in mind the target audience who is looking for something specific. What is in this for me? This needs to be answered. SEO helps by blending attractive copy with key phrases.

3. Technology:

People are now more open to buying online, if we compare this habit with 15 years back, how many were willing to provide their credit card information so easily on the internet?
A lot has changed since then; promoting secure and safe purchases online to assure visitors is of prime importance, for every website. Acquiring certificate that ensure safe and secure transaction should be of critical importance of every web site. Technology has evolved and so have mindsets.

4.Online support:

Proving online 24X7 support, chat, and help files is a very user friendly way of ensuring that your visitors can reach you anytime and does not log off because of want of information.

5. Doing away with the Meta tag only concept and graduating to an overall SEO implementation.

6. KISS (Keep It Short and Simple):

Most of the visitors are busy, they do not have the time. SEO helps by understanding each business’s requirement and optimizing every page based on that.

These are some of the areas that have readily changed to keep up with the evolving audience.

Today more and more school going children access the net, they practically get answers for their home work from the internet, Wikipedia being one of the most visited sites for any reliable information.

What can SEO do to help businesses and visitors in this case?

A business that provides tutorials for children will find value by optimizing their presence on the internet across all the possible places where their target traffic searches for information and visits.

SEO can help by:-

1. Content and site Optimization: Optimize the presence on the internet for keywords that the children or parents might use to look for tutorials.

2. Links: Contact webmasters of school websites for a link on their website that might refer children and their parents to some of these useful online tutorials.

3. Promotion: Work on promotion plans with online book stores such as Amazon, Flip kart…

4. Web Pages: Creating pages on social networking sites and providing information to parents regarding availability of such tutorials. Providing sample free copies, a chapter or two might be a good idea.

5. And much more…

The above is a perfect blend of SEO with the requirement of the fast paced world today.

With the social networking sites becoming more and more popular, SEO has re-invented itself by becoming a part and parcel of this revolution. SEO can be successfully implemented across all platforms, across every media, be it websites, Social media, Video search, photo search. Every successful business online, will find ways of reaching their audience by ensuring that they have optimized their presence with the help of SEO.

Almost everything can be found on the internet, for webmasters it is imperative that their websites retain the interest of the fast paced visitors. SEO can help to ensure that visitors find you, visit your site, and convert. SEO will continue to evolve and re-invent itself, and will be of use if implemented correctly for every online presence so that searchers get what they are looking for easily and faster.

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