Sudarshan Ramrajan, Digital Marketing and Content Specialist at the International Advertising Association shares his thoughts about his article on Search Engine bots and the way ahead for businesses on the digital space.
Considering the number of thought pieces on search engines that already exist, what makes your article different?
While there are a lot of content pieces explaining the concept of Search Engine bots in technical terms; there are hardly any that are targeted towards the masses. The thought leadership in this piece is taking two contrasting worlds- a bot and humans and personifying the bot to drive the point home for the masses.
What are the various factors that come into play for a page to be ranked by search engines?
Some of the key factors include page speed, use of keywords and phrases, titles, tags, user experience and internal linking. These are very simple to understand conceptually, but you would be surprised how big an Achilles heel it is for many businesses.
How has the search engine bot evolved over the past years? Can you cite any examples?
Over a period of time, the volume of searches made the way people converse have increased- meaning they don’t necessarily perform searches using a particular order of keywords. People don’t just “Search”, they “Converse”. Search Engine Algorithm updates take all these factors into account to get the bot as close as possible to humans. I would also keep an eye out for SEO in the era of voice search.
How relevant is Search Engine Optimization in the current world?
Consider your website as a retail shop. To get the best out of each potential customer who enters your shop, as an owner, you would ensure a neat (if not sparkling) shop design, proper segregation and display of products, use of signs and guides to ease user navigation. SEO is similar to this in many ways. It too focuses on optimizing your shop (i.e. the website) to give users the best possible experience and ensures they get what they want without having to break a lot of sweat.
What is your digital marketing mantra for businesses in 2020?
Sleek website design, tactical internal links and a well-defined user journey- coupled with marketing automation platforms that aggregate and nurture every user and lead should be the mantra. To cope with the ever-changing digital ecosystem, this has become a basic necessity for all businesses.
