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What is SEO in South Africa?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Basically, it’s the process of improving your website so that it will rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This is important because when people search for terms related to your business, you want your website to appear as close to the top of the SERP as possible. The higher you rank, the more likely people are to click on your listing and visit your website.
There are a number of different factors that go into SEO, including things like the content on your website, the keywords you use, the way your website is designed, link building and many other factors. But perhaps the most important factor is the content on your website, you need to create quality original content. Previously it was link-building, this is the process of getting other websites to link back to yours. Search engines view links from other websites as a vote of confidence, so the more links you have pointing back to your site, the higher you’re likely to rank, so previously you could just get a lot of backlinks and you were able to rank websites with even little to no content but this is changing I have personally ranked multiple websites with little to no backlinks but by using quality original content.
Google’s duty is to actually give us the best possible answers to the questions we are asking, let me give you an example, Say we were searching for a “motorbike” and Google gave us results for a “wedding dress”, we will search again but if Google continues to show us “wedding dresses” when we are searching for “motorbikes” the likelihood is that we will look for other alternatives to Google. This means that it is in Google’s best interest to give us the best possible answer to the queries that we are searching for.
So it is imperative that we create quality original content and we leverage backlinks and other SEO tactics to enhance that content.
If you’re not already doing SEO for your South African business, now is the time to start. It’s an effective way to attract more visitors to your website and increase sales.
What is the most popular search engine in South Africa?
South Africa’s Most Used Search Engines in October 2022
As you might expect, Google gets the lion’s share of South African searches, at 93.49%. Bing follows at 5.58%.
Key takeaways:
Quality original content should be your priority, small businesses may be able to get a foothold on less popular search engines where there is not as much competition and eventually get ranked on Google as well.
SEO Effectiveness Statistics
In terms of cost, SEO is likely the most effective of all digital marketing strategies. Unlike paid advertising, your return on investment is ongoing – the work you put in keeps bringing in traffic (and hopefully, customers) over the long term. Of course, results will vary significantly depending on your industry and how much competition you have, but here are some interesting statistics to bear in mind!
🇿🇦 How much does SEO cost in South Africa in 2022? 🇿🇦
SEO prices in South Africa vary for a number of reasons, the primary one being it’s entirely possible to do SEO for free yourself! Of course, this takes a lot of time, especially if you need to train yourself up in best practices and don’t have much experience. For this reason, most SA businesses find it more practical and effective to outsource their SEO.
Usually, this means paying a monthly fee for an agreed set of services (such as blog posts, page optimisations, keyword research, and Google Analytics reporting) to a specialist SEO agency. Typically, these packages range between R5,000 to R20,000 per month. While this might sound pricy, your ROI is generally quite favourable, especially in the long term.
Some smaller businesses prefer to outsource to an SEO freelancer working on their own. This generally costs between R500 to R1,500 per hour, and is certainly an option for start-ups with unpredictable cash flow. Just be sure to follow up on the freelancer’s experience and testimonials, as SEO done poorly can be difficult to untangle.
What has been the biggest change within SEO in South Africa over the last 6 – 12 months?
The three latest major Google algorithm updates occurred in October, September, and August of 2022:
19 Oct 2022 spam update:
This was a global update aimed at detecting and punishing search spam / spamdexing (trying to manipulate rankings through a number of methods, such as including lots of irrelevant keywords in content).
20 Sept 2022 product reviews update:
Aimed at rewarding product reviews that are genuinely helpful to searchers.
25 Aug helpful content update:
Aimed at rewarding content that focuses on providing useful information rather than just performing well in search results.
These recent updates give us a big clue as to what the best SEO strategy for 2023 might be, and what the latest trends in SEO in South Africa should hopefully reflect:
- Black hat SEO techniques are never worth trying
- Focusing on providing genuine value to searchers will always be the best SEO strategy
- Publishing honest, relevant, accurate, in-depth and helpful content and complying with best practices is the best way to boost your SEO rankings.
SEO solutions in South Africa FAQ
Does SEO really work?
Take a look at some of these SEO stats and decide for yourself!
- 49% of marketers agree organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel
- The first five organic results on page one of Google get 67.6% of all clicks for that query
- 70% of digital marketers regard SEO as more effective than PPC (pay per click ads)
- Google receives over 900 billion searches per year. And SEO is how you get your slice of the pie!
What is White Hat SEO?
White hat SEO means playing by the rules, following the guidelines and best practices laid out by giants like Google, and generally doing the right thing: offering genuine value to your website visitors.
What is Black Hat SEO?
On the flipside, black hat SEO means trying to use trickery, bribery, sneaky tactics, clickbait, or other shenanigans to fool search engines into ranking you higher than you deserve. As you might suspect, these techniques generally backfire – often spectacularly! The worst offenders may find themselves so heavily penalised by search engines that they never recover.
What is the cost of SEO?
This depends on a number of factors, including how strong your competition is, what your current rankings are like, and how much of a demand there is for your offering.
SEO prices in South Africa vary for a number of reasons, the primary one being it’s entirely possible to do SEO for free yourself! Of course, this takes a lot of time, especially if you need to train yourself in best practices and don’t have much experience. For this reason, most SA businesses find it more practical and effective to outsource their SEO.
What is the most popular search engine in South Africa?
As you might expect, Google gets the lion’s share of South African searches, at 93.49%. Bing follows at 5.58%.
How effective is SEO?
‘Near me’ and ‘where to buy’ searches on mobile devices have more than doubled in the past two years. And after performing one of these searches, 76% of people end up visiting one of those businesses within 24 hours.
As you can see, SEO is an important tool for driving traffic to your website in South Africa. If you’re not sure where to get started with optimizing your site for search engines, DEZIGN-IT can help. We are a team of experienced digital marketers and web designers who know how to create a successful online presence for businesses of all sizes. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you increase your website’s visibility and ranking in search results, our guarantee speaks for itself!
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