SEO Questions – Who? What? Where? When? & Why?
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How can we try to understand how SEO will work for your website? To align an SEO campaign with your product/company requirements the first step should always be to determine those needs. An easy way to do this is by asking 5 simple questions. Who? What? Where? When? and Why?
SEO Who?
Who are you trying to target with your Search Engine Optimization campaign? Before venturing into the quest to rank number 1 one Google for any keywords you should first consider who your target audience is. The better you define your user, no it is not every user who uses Google (or any other Search Engine) to find information, the easier it will be to target the right keywords/phrases that the user searches for.
SEO What?
What would you like to achieve once the user (your potential customer) has found your blog or your company website via search engines? Would you like them to subscribe to your newsletter, feed, purchase a product or make contact with you? Determining the action you would like the user who has found your website via search results should always be considered before starting an SEO campaign.
SEO Where?
The Where question can be split into 2:
- Where is the user searching from? (home or work)
- Where in the world is the ideal user you are targeting with SEO located?
The users who will find your website via search results have different amounts of time at their disposal when comparing browsing from home or work. Once determining this by analyzing your website statistics the length of your copy on your site should be adjusted to allow them to achieve the answer to the ‘What?’ questioned you have just determined.
The location of your ideal user who finds your site via search should also be considered. Your hosting location and domain name play an important role in the Search Engine Result Pages(SERPs) especially with Google.com and Google.co.za. There are also other ways to adjust this but will be discussed in future updates to this site. Subscribe to The SEOblog.co.za newsletter or RSS feed to stay updated.
SEO When?
When will the ideal user be searching for your website? Examples: Is it while they are making a decision on where or from whom to buy property in Cape Town? Or when referring friends to their favourite accommodation in Port Elizabeth and cannot remember your domain name? This is when a simple search will answer their questions.
SEO Why?
Why should your business consider SEO? That answer is easy: more customers, increased cash flow, a return on investmet for the expenditure on your website. If there is anything more you would like to know or are in need of SEO feel free to make contact or leave a comment below.
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Comments
Looking at the questions from another angle, one could also say the following:
WHO: SEO can be used to define WHO you are in your industry or WHO you are online, determined of course by WHO you think you are and WHO you would like to project yourself as.
WHAT: WHAT would you like the user experience to be once they land on your site and WHAT should the “take-away” be when they have logged off.
WHERE: For a company selling one product or one service, embarking on an SEO campaign will depend on WHERE your product is in its product life cycle. For a product and service it will determine WHERE in the market (which end) and the target’s mind you want to position your offering.
WHEN: This could also refer to WHEN is the best time to actually embark on an SEO campaign. I have seen startups whose ducks are still in eggs (never mind in a row) and already they’re gunning for keywords and directory listings.. Get it right before you go out there. YOU WILL BE CALLED ON TO ANSWER QUESTIONS. Hard Questions.
WHY: Why should the user even bother to explore your site? This is where your USP should come through strongest.. perhaps even explicitly. To most people a website is a website is a website. Not many people view a site as a piece of digital real estate and therefore do not bother to highlight the pros and cons right from the getgo.
wow,
great article,
thanks your so much for introducing seo campaign start questions, i have bookmarked your article and now will share ir with my all friends
I CANT COMMENT TOO LONG ON THIS POST. BUT I CAN SAY ONE THING , THAT IS THIS POST IS EXPLAINED IN TOTALLY DIFFERENT WAY.
Simple and easy to understand. Fabulous. Perhaps you could include HOW? as well?
Thanks for your comment Joy-Mari. To do the ‘HOW’ bit you first need the right SEO tools…
WHEN is the best time to actually embark on an SEO campaign??just want to make things clear.
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