Discuss Customer Relationship Management and Search Engine Optimization

Search engines want their results to be highly relevant to web users, to make sure that those users keep returning to the search engine for future searches. And the best way to establish what is relevant to users is by looking at how they use websites.

User data is the most effective way of judging the true relevance and value of a website. For example, if users arrive on a website and leave immediately, chances are it wasn’t relevant to their query in the first place. However, if a user repeatedly visits a website and spends a long time there, it is probably extremely relevant. When it comes to search engines, relevant, valuable sites are promoted, and irrelevant sites are demoted.

Search engines use cookies to maintain a history of a user’s search activity, including keywords used and websites visited from the search engine. Search engines gather data on the clickthrough rate of results and on bounce rates.

Site speed, that is, the performance of your website, is a contributing factor to ranking in Google. Google confirmed in April 2010 that this was one of over two hundred ranking signals (Singhal, 2010).

The following characteristics of website will help enhance its search engine optimization (SEO):

· It is valuable enough to attract both visitors and links naturally.

· It retains visitors and makes sure they return to the website.

· It converts visitors.

Social and Search

Social information is playing an ever-increasing role in search. Social content, such as Twitter messages or YouTube videos, can appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs), and there is a growing indication of social influence on search rankings.

A Google search for Coca-Cola turns up several social media profiles.

There are several social factors to consider when it comes to social and search:

· use of social media properties to dominate brand SERPs—When someone searches for your brand name, you can use your social media properties to own more of the results on that page, reducing the likelihood that a user will end up on a competitor’s website instead. Use your brand name when naming Twitter and Flickr profiles, and Facebook and YouTube pages.

· social links used as signals of relevance—Links from social sites such as Twitter include rel=nofollow. However, there is a strong indication that these links are in fact followed by search engines, and are used to determine relevance. If you focus on creating great content on your site and making sure that it is easy to share socially, you should see a result in your SEO efforts.

· personalized results influenced by your online social network—If you are logged in to a social network while searching (Facebook for Bing, or your Gmail account for Google), you could see results from or influenced by your social circle. In Bing, for instance, results can include indications of what your friends have previously liked or shared via Facebook. On Google, you may be more likely to see your friend’s blog for relevant searches.

· optimization for social search engines—While Google is the biggest search engine worldwide, YouTube is the second biggest. Even within social properties, users still use search to find the content they are looking for. Content that is housed on these properties should be optimized for the relevant social search engine as well.

Mobile Search 

As web-enabled mobile devices continue to grow in the market and become easier to use, mobile search remains a key growth area. Mobile searches tend to be different from desktop searches. They are more navigational in nature (users tend to know where they want to end up) and users are often looking for concise, actionable answers.

Mobile search input can also be different from desktop search. In addition to typing in search keywords, mobile users can search by voice, or by using images or scanning barcodes.

As with mobile web development, mobile SEO is a little different from desktop SEO, although the fundamental principles remain the same. Build usable and accessible sites with great content, and you’ve already come a long way.

Differences in approach for mobile SEO are largely caused by the following factors:

· Search engines have the ability to deliver precise location-based results to mobile users.

· Usability is critical in sites for mobile devices.

· Search engines have less data to work with (compared to traditional web) in terms of site history, traffic, and inbound links.

The fundamentals of mobile SEO are not so different from those of desktop SEO.

· A usable, crawlable site is very important—Build mobile versions of your website that cater for mobile users, using simple navigation and content stripped down to only what is required.

· Content is important and should be formatted for mobile usage—Text and images should be optimised for the mobile experience—so no large file sizes! The metadata still matters; titles and descriptions are what users see in the SERPs.

· Links are important—You should link to your mobile site from your desktop site and vice versa. Submit your mobile site to relevant mobile directories.

· Submit a mobile XML sitemap—Mobile-specific sitemaps use the same protocols as standard XML sitemaps, with the addition of a mobile tag.

· Use the word mobile on the mobile website, or use mobile top-level domains—Make it explicit to search engines that this is the mobile version of your website, and they are more likely to prioritize it as such.

Local Search

Local search refers to search behavior and results where location matters. Either results returned are local in nature, or results returned can be map based.

With blended SERPs, map-based results can be returned together with other types of results, depending on the type of search. As search engines become ever more sophisticated, location can be inferred and influence the type of results.

A Google search for pizza in Florence turns up a range of location-based results, displayed on a map.

For example, a user may search for plumber London, and the search will know to return results for London plumbers. These may even be returned on a map. However, a user in London may search just for plumber. The search can infer from the user’s IP address that the user is in London, and still return results for London plumbers (since someone searching for this term is likely to be looking for a nearby service).

For search engines to return location-relevant results, they need to know the location of things being searched for. This is often determined from sites that include the name and address of a business. Note that this site may not be yours. Location results are often determined from various review sites, and the results can include some of those reviews.

Search engines also allow businesses to claim their locations. A business can verify itself through a process with the search engine and ensure that location information is correct. Google+ Local is a good example: the business can claim a listing, add their details, and even receive reviews.

References 

Singhal, A. (2010). Using site speed in web search ranking [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-websearch-ranking.html

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