What is Search Engine Experience?
“Search Engine Experience is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the user experience of searchers on Search Engines & Websites by using Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Branding Tactics and Strategies” – DV Marketing
With the new Google changes in their search results we should re-look our own strategies, and how we group our teams/agencies to achieve the best Experience on Search Results.
The term Search Experience Optimization is not something new, Google uses the term, and in these articles from Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch.
So what makes Search Engine Experience methodology different?
Search Engine Experience consists of two parts:
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Search Engine Branding
Search Engine Experience is using SEO and Search Engine Branding to optimize or to brand all the possible areas so your brand can be seen online by searchers. Use Search Engine Branding to increase visibility of your brand & create the best experience on Search Result pages. The majority of online activities starts on search engines. Search Engine Result pages are a canvas for your brand.
In a nutshell, the purpose of SEO is to rank your website through Technical & Onsite SEO, while Search Engine Branding is becoming your Offsite SEO, optimizing every other platform and way possible to be visible on Search Results, and increasing the Search Engine Result Experience.
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
“Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) — including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.” – www.webopedia.com
SEO will be the research, technical and onsite side of your SEE structure. Your Outreach/Offsite of traditional SEO will now be in Search Engine Branding along with PPC, Social, Email, Local SEO etc.
A checklist for Technical SEO:
If you’re unfamiliar with SEO, do some reading on SEO fundamentals:
- MOZ Beginners Guide to SEO
- Search Engine Land Guide to SEO
1.1 Audit/Research
Before you start your SEO campaign, you have to do a full SEO Audit, Keyword Research, and Competitor Research/Analysis.
Set your benchmark, goals & KPI’s and control docs.
Type of Audit & Research you can do:
- Website & Technical Audit
- Competitor Analysis
- Keyword Gap Analysis
- Backlink Gap Analysis
- Keyword Research
- Content Audit/Analysis
- Local SEO Audit
Example of Website & Technical Audit
1.2 Website Architecture
“For me, great site architecture is all about improving how users and search engines find their way around your site. It’s about getting the best, most relevant content in front of users and reducing the number of times they have to click to find it.” – moz.com, SUCCESSFUL SITE ARCHITECTURE FOR SEO
1.3 Technical SEO
“…technical SEO just refers to any SEO work that is done aside from the content. Essentially, it’s laying a strong foundation to give your content the best chance it can have to rank for relevant keywords and phrases.” – QUICKSPROUT
1.4 Onsite SEO (Titles, Descriptions, Content, Onsite links)
“Onsite SEO is the process of making your website search engine friendly. In simple words, this means adjusting certain elements on your website so that search engines are able to crawl and understand the content and structure of your website.” – https://www.digitalmarketingpro.net
My Google Sheet that I work from and Copywriter (after getting website data using Screaming Frog).
1.5 Structured Data
What is Structured Data and Why Does it Matter for SEO?… “Structured data is added directly to a page’s HTML markup. Search engines use structured data to generate rich snippets, which are small pieces of information that will then appear in search results.” – adherecreative.com
1.6 Content/Outreach Research & Strategy
See Outreach below under Search Engine Branding.
How will your SEO workflow look like now:
- Audit/Research
- Website Architecture
- Technical SEO
- Onsite SEO (Titles, Descriptions, Content, Onsite links)
- Structured Data
- Content/Outreach Research & Strategy (Handed over to SEB when done)
2. SEB (Search Engine Branding)
“Search engine branding is a methodology of strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase the experience & opportunity to be visible on Search Engine Result pages by aligning offsite SEO with paid media, social media & structured data.” – Daniel Vollgraaff
2.1 Outreach
“In SEO campaigns, the primary goal of outreach is to create valuable backlinks from off-site websites to the client website. These links improve organic rankings and expose the company to new audiences, driving highly qualified organic and referral traffic to the client.” – www.straightnorth.com, OUTREACH FOR SEO.
Get backlinks to rank higher, up your domain authority and get potential prospects & leads.
2.2 Social Media
“websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.”
Social Media is a powerful channel to reach prospects & potential leads. Reaching out to your social group you can up your Brand Awareness, and get leads to your Website, by using effective CTA’s.
Social Media photos are also showing up on Google’s SERP.
2.3 PPC
“a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Essentially, it’s a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically. Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC.” – Wordstream
PPC is not organic ranking, however, it can be used to buy your way to the top to show on the Results page.
2.4 Local SEO & Citations/Directories
Like Social Media, Local SEO can help showing more rich snippets in knowledge graph, in the SERP and brands your Search Results. Citations are also effective ways to create brand awareness, and reaching out to potential prospects. Read more on: Google my Business in Step. 1 in my Search Engine Branding Article
2.5 Structured Data
Google Search can enable a rich set of features for your page in search results. The problem? Google first has to understand your content. Using Structured Data (Schema) will allow you to serve your content to Google and appear in Rich Features.
“There is no guarantee that your page will appear in Search results with the specified feature. This is because search features depend on many factors, including the search device type, location, and whether Google thinks the feature would provide the best search experience for the user.” – Google
Rich Snippet for “What is Search Engine Experience” however Google took the wrong information of my page. Trying to get Google to take the correct information.
Search result categories:
Rich result
Enriched search result
Knowledge Graph result
Carousel
Using Pinterest can improve your chances to get your images displayed. Remember to use your keywords and add the relevant information to your image on Pinterest.
How will your SEB workflow look like now:
- Social Media
- Local SEO
- Paid Media
- Outreach
- Research areas for Structured Data (Handover to SEO when done)
Read my Article on various search engine branding methods
My Search Engine Experience Workflow:
For agency. Inhouse timeline might look different.
Conclusion
The original SEO methodology can be used to achieve all of the above-mentioned -results, but for our agency we have adopted the SEE (Search Engine Experience) methodology to align our different departments to focus on the same goal, making them work together, instead of competing. This increase the chances of our brands to become more visible on Search Results pages, and it also provides one goal to works towards for all SEM teams.
