{"id":57,"date":"2023-12-19T22:44:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T22:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/writingfordigitalmedia\/?post_type=chapter&p=57"},"modified":"2024-02-03T18:49:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T18:49:07","slug":"branding-content-strategy-and-seo","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/writingfordigitalmedia\/chapter\/branding-content-strategy-and-seo\/","title":{"raw":"Branding, Content Strategy, and SEO","rendered":"Branding, Content Strategy, and SEO"},"content":{"raw":"

While many of us might take the Google search bar for granted each day, search engines are remarkable tools that make the internet functional. Researchers estimate that there are nearly 2 billion websites<\/span><\/a><\/span> currently online (Djuraskovic), with somewhere between 30 and 50 billion individual web pages<\/span><\/a><\/span> indexed through Google (Georgiev). Perhaps even more mind-blowing is the rate of increase. Remember that the World Wide Web was launched in 1991, just over 30 years ago, and as web publishing tools have become more accessible, an increasing number of websites are created each year. In the last 8 years (since 2015), the number of websites has doubled. Site<\/span>e<\/span>fy.com<\/span><\/a><\/span> estimates that 252,000 new websites are created each day, which equates to 10,500 new sites each hour (Huss).<\/p>\r\n

It\u2019s amazing that so much information exists on this thing called the internet and that anyone can access it from almost anywhere using a device that fits in their pocket. And perhaps even more amazing than that is the ability to quickly\u2014often with very little effort\u2014type in a couple of terms into the search bar and be connected immediately with the information that you are looking for. Out of the 50 billion web pages that exist in Google\u2019s database, it finds pages that are (usually) relevant to your search and presents them in a search engine results page (SERP) that is easy to peruse, increasing your chances of landing on the exact right page that fits your query. The topics are limitless\u2014daily news stories, historical documents, product reviews, travel tips, studies in academic journals, healthcare information, and so on. According to the latest statistics from Oberlo<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Google responds to more than 99,000 search queries per second, adding up to 8.5 billion searches each day. That doesn\u2019t include queries on other search engines<\/span><\/a><\/span>, such as Bing, Yahoo, and Baidu (Broadband Search).<\/p>\r\n

The point is that the content on any given web page is only valuable if people can access it. In chapter 13, we discussed the primary importance of an organization\u2019s website, which is at the center of its communication strategy and houses key information about the mission, products and services, and daily operations of the company. In many cases, a customer can complete the entire buyer journey\u2014from start to finish\u2014online without ever setting foot inside the store. However, the entire process hinges on the customer\u2019s ability to find the company\u2019s website, so that when they identify their need and put in search terms to find a viable solution, they are connected with relevant resources and can quickly and easily discern that a particular website will provide the best solution. This is what it means to be \u201coptimized.\u201d In general, this term means that something is working at top efficiency so that it\u2019s as effective and useful as possible. In the world of website design and digital writing, it means that the website is developed using strategies that not only enhance the user experience when they are on the website but also help them find<\/em><\/span> the website in the first place. A web page with effective SEO (search engine optimization) makes it easier for Google (and other search engines) to find, index, and rank the page. The better the SEO, the easier it is for Google to distinguish how relevant the page is to a particular search and the higher that page will rank on the SERP. This is the most effective way to draw traffic to a website. In fact, compared to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, the \u201corganic\u201d search results that emerge through effective SEO are approximately 20 times more likely to bring traffic to a website<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Moz).<\/p>\r\n

This chapter focuses on the fundamentals of SEO and how to effectively integrate it into a website to increase traffic and audience engagement. First, we\u2019ll briefly review larger concepts of content strategy, branding, and digital orchestration so that you can see how SEO fits into this bigger picture. We\u2019ll then look more closely at how search engines work, the benefits of SEO, and the specific strategies for incorporating effective, ethical SEO into a website.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Learning Objectives<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

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