The Truth About the SEO Industry in Kenya
What Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of putting your brand, product, or service to the top level of search engines. In essence, SEO is the actual application of expanding the quality and quantity of traffic to your website through organic search results.
In explicit terms, it’s a free form of advertising on Google!. Yes, I said free, and nobody hates free goodies. Google is the mother of all search engines with a whopping 92% market share! Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of that?
Unfortunately, for many Kenyan businesses learning and utilizing SEO to the maximum is difficult. In actual fact, it seems like an impossible task, mainly due to the overwhelming tons of information flooding the internet. Even worse when they engage ‘digital influencers’ and some wannabe ‘sales experts’ who promise to rank your website on the top of Google in o time which turns out to be ultimately the opposite
SEO = Free advertising on Google
In many cases, business owners in Kenya have a hard time sifting through much of the information found on the internet. In most cases, most of that advice is outdated, misleading, or shallow. And most importantly Google continually updates it’s an algorithm which makes it hard to keep up with for beginners or SEO gurus alike (much more on the algorithm later)
Now that we have established that Google is the alpha of all search engines, I bet you that trying to figure out how Google works will make you feel like a dog that chases its tail, literally. If you followed all the advice being peddled by bloggers and journalists about SEO, it’s unlikely you will be ranked at the top of the Google food chain, in fact, you may end up damaging your websites’ performance and make it difficult to rank at all.
What Goes Into SEO?
Nearly everyone first turns to Google to find products, services, or companies even before consulting their networks. If you are a seller of ‘hot plots in Syokimau,’ it means when customers search for ‘hot plots in Syokimau,’ they see your company’s product at the top of Google. The same goes, for example, a local business that deals with phone accessories or L-shaped furniture maker, it means showing up at the top of Google for those searched vital words. The quality of traffic to your website matters a lot. Aiming to attract customers who are genuinely interested in the products or services that you offer should be the topmost objective.
1. Organic results are often more valuable to any website owner since customers tend to ignore ads and click on listings which show on page one of Google, especially the top three positions.
2. Boasting good quality traffic will translate into a good quantity of the right people who click through those search engine result pages, thereby increasing your traffic even more.
3. Keywords play a huge role in SEO. Placing your keywords into strategic positions on your website can have a considerable impact. Having a keyword list with particular attention to keywords that identify your brand in alignment with what you sell or trade will quickly connect you to your customers.
4. Google algorithms, once in a while Google will send out its ‘spiders’ or ‘bots’ to analyze and combat what is known as ‘webspam,’ which ensures a website does not employ black hat strategies.
5. The truth of the matter is most business owners do not adhere to these and even more parameters which are paramount to you successfully taking advantage of SEO fully.
6. You will find that many websites do not even have a blog page, and those who have one do not have any content written. Excellent quality and relevant content is a significant ranking factor that is used by Google to put a website on the first page of the search results.
7. Most organizations hire interns who have little knowledge about SEO and how it works. Having a professional handle such a request will only work to boost your relevancy and maintain your domain authority and brand recognition.
Conclusion
Do thorough keyword research before embarking on writing a blog post if you already have a blog in place.
Hire professionals who will walk you through all the necessary vital steps of setting a workable SEO plan which has a good business value proposition to your organization.