by Game Marketing Genie, on 01-Sep-2021 09:58:19
SEO services are at the heart of digital game marketing because of their ability to drive targeted traffic to your website. Interested users visit search engines to look for the best video games to play. With the right search engine optimization techniques, they will come across your website and learn more about your game.
When your organic traffic grows, so will your revenue, reviews, customer numbers, and authority in your industry. The best way to achieve this is with SEO.
This article shares the concepts you need to know to drive high-quality traffic to your game's website.
Why should you care about SEO?
What is SEO? What does SEO stand for? Why does it matter to me? If you have these questions, then settle in because we're about to tell you exactly what it is and why you need it.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy that optimizes your site to receive organic traffic from search engine results pages. SEO helps improve your website's visibility when people are looking for products related to your business on Google and other search engines. The better your visibility on SERPs, the more likely you are to receive user attention and attract prospective customers to your business.
SEO should be the foundation of your brand’s online presence. Statistics from Forbes show that the sites that secure the top 5 positions on SERPs receive almost 70 percent of all clicks. Also, more than half of site traffic starts with a search, so without SEO, you won't appear when your audience searches for you, and you'll risk losing a massive amount of business.
However, ranking well on SERPs is easier said than done. Search rankings may be free, but there’s a lot you need to do to get a better ranking. When online users perform a query, search engine bots crawl the internet to find the best content resources for that search. SEO works by helping the search engine crawlers access and understand your site content, allowing them to figure out if your content is the best content for a search query.
Different factors will help you optimize your website for search results, ranging from on-page strategies like keyword relevance and site content to off-page issues like links and external signals. But ultimately, the best way to rank well is to create content that caters to what your audience is looking for. Use clear, descriptive language in your posts, and don't forget to include the key phrases you think your audience might use when looking for products or services related to your site.
Our blog, The Definitive SEO Guide to Grow Your Business, gives a detailed description of the best SEO strategies you can use to connect with your audience.
How to become an SEO professional
Becoming an SEO expert doesn’t happen overnight. And these skills don’t just come naturally! So, strap yourself in and get ready for us to tell you exactly what you need to know to get your game’s website the search engine ranking it deserves.
1. Stay on top of things
SEO isn’t a static discipline. Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, and every video game developer should ensure they stay informed about SEO changes. Google alone makes more than 250 changes to its ranking algorithms every year. The top SEO professionals need to stay on top of the updates and adjust their search campaigns accordingly.
As a game dev, it can be difficult to track all the changes since you have other important issues to deal with. The best way to stay informed is to check out companies that offer SEO solutions. Such companies actively track SEO changes to ensure they offer the best services to their customers. Following them will help you learn about the ongoing SEO updates when they occur and not when it’s already too late to do something about it.
2. Don't neglect it
You won't get any better at SEO without a bit of practice. Once you learn about the best SEO techniques to optimize your site for a better ranking, you need to implement them and track your performance. Create SEO campaigns for your game marketing efforts and try different things to see what's working and what isn't. Keep updating your sites based on the learnings as you track your search performance to see if you're making any progress.
Use tools that help you identify problems with your SEO, like Netpeak Software. Digital tools like these should form the foundation of your SEO since they help you audit your campaigns and identify the issues that are responsible for your poor search performance. You don't have to use every tool that exists for your SEO tasks. Just choose those that help you accomplish your goals and give you accurate practice on search optimization.
You can also enroll for an SEO course to improve your skills and capacity to run effective SEO campaigns. There are many SEO courses online, but you need to be careful when making a selection to ensure you enroll for a course that will make you a competent digital marketer.
3. Use analytics
SEO is data-driven. According to a report from Content Marketing Institute, 88 percent of B2B and 76 percent of B2C use content marketing to promote their business, meaning there’s fierce competition for the top spots on SERPs. Data and metrics are your key to succeeding with SEO, helping you understand how visitors behave on your site, their interests, and how your SEO strategies impact your overall success.
Some of the SEO metrics you should monitor closely include:
- Positioning – How close to the top of SERPs your page is.
- Impressions – How many times your site is seen on SERPs.
- Clicks – How many times people click on your page on SERPs.
- CTR – How many impressions resulted in a click.
- Organic sessions – How many times your page was viewed on a browser.
To ensure you have the right data to analyze, you need to implement site tracking. Tracking your sites will help you make them perform. This will also help you find the pages you need to improve and the pages that convert that you can promote.
One of the platforms that will help you track your site performance is Google Analytics. The platform will help you uncover user behavior patterns, understand your demographics better, and the areas you need to improve to see success. Given the valuable insights Google Analytics provides, it's easy to see why it is such an essential asset for most SEOs. Work with a search engine optimization company to set up Google Analytics for your site.
We have explained in detail the role data plays in your marketing on our blog, Data and Web Analytics: The Complete Marketer’s Manual.
4. SEO isn't one-size-fits-all
The SEO strategies that work for others won't always be the ones that work for you. Reviewing relevant case studies to see how marketers used SEO to grow their digital footprint is great, but you shouldn’t adopt every recommendation you come across. Your brand, audience, website, products, and services are unique to you, and you need an SEO strategy that works for you.
Access your needs to understand which SEO tactics are vital for your company's growth. If you want to build your authority, you should focus on creating high-quality content that will help you earn backlinks from other sites. This content could be in the form of comprehensive guides, how-to articles, interviews with gaming influencers, and other valuable resources.
Work with an SEO agency to identify the SEO techniques you need to implement to connect with players.
5. Don't be afraid to learn from the experts
SEO isn't easy. You will face several difficulties in your quest to become an SEO expert. There are times you will feel disappointed, frustrated, and ready to give up. But don't worry, this is a normal feeling that almost every top SEO expert has experienced. What got them where they are today is hard work and spending countless hours learning about SEO.
One of the best ways to learn about SEO is to get experts to do it for you and learn from what they have done. SEO pros have perfected the art of optimizing websites for higher rankings and will recommend the best strategies that will take you straight to the top. Game Marketing Genie is a competent game marketing agency that you can rely on to learn about the secrets of search success. As we work on your campaigns, you will learn the best strategies to focus on to grow your business in today's competitive landscape. In addition, we will guide you on how to monitor search algorithm changes to help you maintain your higher ranking on SERPs.
SEO is the foundation of all digital marketing strategies. SEO principles will give your business maximum exposure and drive relevant traffic to your site.
SEO is ever-changing, and you need to constantly be on top of it if you want to stay up to date. Working with a search engine optimization company is your best bet in tracking the critical updates to ensure you don't lose your top spot. The team at Game Marketing Genie can optimize your website or help you create an SEO strategy that will help you reach your goals.
Double your traffic from Google with our exclusive SEO tips.
