How to Increase Profits with SEO: Tips from Mikhail Shcherbachev
In the new episode of the podcast "Technocrats todayI spoke with Mikhail Shcherbachev, the founder and CEO of Dnipropetrovsk-based Livepage. He shared practical information on how to properly promote a website and increase its profits using SEO tools. I decided to share Mikhail's most useful tips on search engine optimization with Infonika readers. This article features interesting examples from Livepage's experience and a "company secret"—a detailed account of how the company works with each client. You can leave a comment or ask Mikhail Shcherbachev a question atpodcast page on Facebook.
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What is SEO and what is it used for?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the optimization and promotion of a website in search engines, primarily Google and Yandex. SEO improves your website's ranking in search results for specified keywords. It's important to note that this refers to organic search results, not paid contextual advertising.
How to choose a competent SEO specialist
When choosing a contractor, the most important thing to consider is the company's specialists and their previous results. Competence always plays a key role. It's important to work with someone who is genuinely interested in your project, not just a salesperson.
There are several markers that help you identify a good SEO contractor:
- No guarantees regarding the pickup location. A guarantee is always an outright lie.
- A large number of questions at the start of work. The specialist is always deeply involved in the process.
- You're immediately made aware that you, too, will have to complete a certain amount of work. The best SEO results come from collaboration between the client and the contractor.
A competent SEO team will always understand the task, weigh their options, and work only with clients who are guaranteed to increase profits by an amount greater than the initial cost of optimization.
Does a website's subject matter for SEO?
It doesn't. For SEO, the most important factors are website structure and close interaction with the client, who listens to the advice and implements the specialists' requests. They don't care what kind of website they're promoting—a children's store or a hardware store.
[caption id="attachment_11723" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Mikhail Shcherbachev's team[/caption]
Of course, we're talking about so-called "white hat" SEO here, but there's also "black hat" SEO—for targeting websites with questionable content. It has its own rules, different players, higher competition, and higher profits. And that's a topic for another day.
How many people should work on promoting your website?
At least three people must work on each project.
- It's crucial that at the outset of a collaboration, the client engages with an attentive specialist who isn't just selling services but also has a thorough understanding of the project. They should ask the right questions and write a well-written technical specification.
- This task, in turn, is necessarily checked by a specialist who has no other tasks except working on new projects.
- The third employee is the operations specialist who actually carries out the work. This specialist should not have too many projects, ten at most, of which no more than two are new.
Where does it begin?
After the client completes the brief, the company begins analyzing the data. The first step is to study competitors, compare their results with the client's, and identify the factors that contribute to the success of other websites. This is a completely viable way to find new ideas.
What are the risks of working with incompetent SEO specialists?
The worst thing that can happen as a result of poor SEO is a website being penalized by a search engine. This is how Google and Yandex fight "cheat"—people who try to achieve instant results and quickly become leaders without paying close attention to the details.
There are two types of filters:
- The first applies if a site uses hidden text and spam text (such text contains too many keywords, making it obvious that it's intended to be read by search engine robots, not humans). Search engines recognize such text.
- The second filter is imposed for posting obviously third-party, non-contextual links. Moreover, both sites—the one hosting the links and the one they link to—can be subject to the filter.
It's possible to remove a site from a filter, but it's not always easy. The filter can also cause a dramatic drop in traffic. In such cases, you have to either remove all links or, if that's not possible, submit a list of low-quality links to the search engine and request that they disregard them when calculating the site's algorithm. But this doesn't always work. Sometimes, such links are not so easy to find.
It's also important to note that after a site is released from the filter, not 100%, but up to 70% of traffic returns, as the links to the site are no longer there. So the links themselves continue to work, but it's important that they are high-quality. A link is considered high-quality if a user clicks on it, reaches the site, and achieves their goal.
How SEO Drives Profit Growth
It depends on the niche, but according to Mikhail Shcherbachev, a good SEO specialist always pays close attention to analytics. They analyze which channels are already generating profit for the client and which aren't, and how all channels can be optimized to increase revenue.
Unfortunately, the reality of Ukrainian business is that local small and even medium-sized businesses are poorly analytics-driven and poor at measuring their conversions, unaware of what brings them the most revenue. And often, this is precisely the key to success.
What needs to be done now
You need to constantly do two things that all market leaders do.
The first is the project's content development. This doesn't simply involve increasing the number of articles or blog posts. It's important to fully meet user needs. For example, if you take an online store, the following content development steps are involved: filling it with content (products), content optimization, adding reviews, video reviews, and responses to user reviews by company representatives. This way, the content will become more comprehensive.
Secondly, constantly try to place the highest quality links to yourself on good resources.
SEO – a panacea or not?
Mikhail Shcherbachev believes you shouldn't rely solely on SEO. You need to strive to build traffic from a variety of channels—SEO, social media, and remarketing. You need a variety of...
It's important to strive to keep people coming back to your website, which will become especially important as your visitor count increases. This is beneficial for both SEO and your overall business. To achieve this, you need to improve your website's quality and quality; this will guarantee growth and avoid filters and dips. If your website performs well, it will sell well. After a while, it won't be you working for the website's name; the name will work for you.
Choose good partners in everything you do. The wrong contractors can waste time and money. Make decisions quickly and monitor results.
