Finally, what is SEO referencing? You’ve heard about it all over the web and yet you’re still swimming among more or less twisted definitions.
In the literal sense, SEO is about mentioning or referring to something. In webmarketing, referencing consists in improving the visibility of a result (page, image, video) within search engines. This referencing can be natural (SEO) or paid via the advertising agencies of different search engines (Google AdWords for Google for example).
Locally, the main focus will be on search engine optimization in the search engine of the American giant, Google. Conversely, abroad, we will focus on search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, Yandex or Baïdu (Chinese engine). Referencing will then take on an international dimension.
On a shorter scale and if you have a small physical shop, we will focus more on local SEO that will make sense.
Other types of referencing exist such as referencing in Google News, image referencing or video referencing for example.
Natural and/or paid referencing
Natural referencing that is sometimes called organic referencing is also known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO encompasses a set of techniques to improve the positioning of a site in search engines. The natural results are displayed in the engine as organic links. These are results provided by a relevance algorithm.
Conversely, paid referencing makes it possible to display a page of one’s website in the search engine by using the purchase of sponsored links. We then speak of SEA for Search Engine Advertising. On Google, it is necessary to use the Google AdWords platform to set up commercial advertisements. On Baidu we’ll use Tuiguang.
International & multilingual referencing
Multilingual or international referencing goes beyond the simple translation of content. A site for a Chinese audience and a site for a Brazilian audience are not referenced in the same way. The culture, expectations and browsing methods on the web will inevitably have an impact on your international SEO. In China, for example, the mobile represents 80% market share. A site that is not adapted for mobile phones would have no chance of success on the Chinese market.
Legal and political aspects can also play a role in your multilingual strategy. Finally, multiple technical criteria are to be implemented in order to hope to offer yourself a good positioning abroad.
Local referencing (or Local SEO)
Do you have an activity whose business depends mainly on a local area? Your target is present only in one town or in a restricted local area (a region, a department, etc.)? Then local referencing should appeal to you.
Local referencing consists in optimizing the visibility of your site in search engines according to local requests and the geolocation of Internet users.
One of the first steps will surely be to create a Google My Business listing to reference your company. Then, multiple on-site optimizations will have to be implemented:
- Optimizations of the classical SEO tags but optimized according to the zone to be targeted.
- Adding LocalBusiness microdata
- Creation of a geolocated semantic cocoon
- Creation of a blog article with a local dimension
- and so on
A final step will be to obtain local links and social mentions from the area you are targeting.
Video referencing
A search engine such as Google does not only display “organic link” type results. It also offers different results such as video through its Youtube platform.
Video referencing will allow you to display a video type result directly in a result page. It is an additional way to be present on a search engine. One more possibility that should not be neglected and is almost indispensable on some requests.
Google News referencing
Many websites provide a large number of articles in various categories.This is the case of the ne online press for example. Their survival depends on the system represented by Google News, which offers “News” type results in the Google search engine.
Image referencing
The optimization of images within your content pages will therefore be very important. The image traffic sometimes represents a very interesting percentage in certain sectors of activity.
The referencing of images starts as soon as the image is chosen. Some technical criteria will also help to improve your visibility in Google Image. The quality of the content surrounding the image will also be essential. Finally, the pages where your images will be placed must receive thematic and trustworthy links to Google.
Do not neglect these sources of additional traffic for your website. There is not only organic SEO in life, there is SEO too!