Over the years, the way business marketing has been perceived has gone for a makeover. Gone are the days when marketing just focussed on print media and advertisements. With the boom in the virtual space, businesses have realized that digital marketing is the need of the hour.
While we speak of digital marketing, the one element that is the key to effective digital marketing is SEO. It is SEO that binds the digital world and makes a brand build its virtual presence.
SEO when it started, focused just on website designing, but over the years, it has become clear that there is more to it. So, what are the core SEO services?
- Website designing: Though there is more to SEO, the core remains website designing as it is the soul of a business in the virtual space. So, the first crucial component of SEO is website designing. However, website designing is a broad term that includes website designing, on-page optimization, how smooth the website loads, how easy it is to navigate through the website and how engaging is the website in converting the click into a sale.
- Content management: Content is the key element of the entire SEO process. Content can be called the hero that would actually enact the entire play of the backend algorithm of the virtual world. The aspect of content management starts with keyword research. Keyword research is the framework around which the entire digital content revolves. It forms the basis of finalising the website name, the title tags, meta descriptions, the website and social media content. Once the keywords are defined, the next step is to actually start using them. The trick here is that the content that you create should not look like a keyword creation. It should have a sense of creativity and the main focus should be on giving the right information about the business in an engaging way with an organic infusion of keywords.
- Link building: If website and content are the beads that form the SEO process, link building is the thread that holds them all. Link building is the actual process that makes the brand crawl the search engine rank. It is the process of getting mentions or links within the website or between two websites or from influencers. This activity focuses on making the business get more visibility and also win credibility among target customers.
- Social media management: The last but the most crucial SEO element is social media management. There are so many social media platforms that cater to different audiences. A business based on the nature of the business decides the social media platforms that it must focus on more. Many times, people and businesses feel that social media management needs no expert knowledge. But most don’t know is that a lot of technical and creative backend process goes behind planning a social media strategy. Social media is a great place to make your business visible, directly hit your target customers, engage with them and eventually also make a sale. Therefore, social media management has garnered space in SEO services.
The above being the must and should elements of SEO, there is more to SEO services. However, SEO agencies after conducting a business audit decided what should be the strategy that would have all the elements of SEO in the right combination.
However, the creation of this ideal strategy also includes how often or what should be the frequency of availing of SEO services. Most of the SEO agencies based on their understanding of the digital world and various businesses, ideally propose the following customized SEO packages.
- Monthly: The most popular SEO package is the monthly package wherein the SEO agency offers the services to the business on a monthly retainer model. This package is created out of the thought process that SEO is a long and continuous process. Therefore, SEO must be implemented not as a short term course but as a long term learning. Under the package, the agency would suggest the combination of social media management, link building and more.
- Project basis: As the name says, this package operates on project basis. This is ideal for startups or for existing companies that are all set to launch a new service or product or an outlet. The SEO services are categorized as pre-launch, launch and post-launch. Depending upon the project size, the duration and budget for the association are finalised.
- Hourly basis: This package is more like consulting. This package is mostly opted by businesses that have a team that does the basic SEO and the business wants experts only for specific reasons.
Thus, it is loud and clear that as much as SEO is important, it is equally important that the services are customized as per the client needs.
