What is SEO and is it relevant for the Malaysian market?

Introduction

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the practice of optimising a website and its content to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal of SEO is to increase organic (non-paid) traffic to a website by making it more relevant and attractive to search engines and users.

Essentially, you need to know how search engines such as Google works. Whenever a person is searching for something for example “How can I get more attractive?” Google needs to provide the answers to this person. Whether the answer is related to reducing weight, practising a healthy diet, or showing quick solutions such as surgeries or skin care products, search engines have algorithms that analyse the search intent of the users and determine the ranking of websites in their search results. SEO involves understanding these algorithms and implementing various strategies to optimise a website’s structure, content, and other factors that influence search engine rankings.

How SEO works

SEO techniques can include keyword research and optimization, where relevant keywords are strategically incorporated into website content to match user search queries. Other aspects of SEO include on-page optimization, which involves optimising elements within a web page (e.g., title tags, meta descriptions, headings) to improve visibility to search engines. Off-page optimization involves building high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites to increase the authority and credibility of a website.

By implementing effective SEO practices, websites can improve their organic search visibility, attract more targeted traffic, and ultimately enhance their online presence and business success.

Comparison Between Search Engines

Based on this research by Edison Tse et al, [1] compared to Google’s huge success in the US and Western countries, Google did not have much luck in some of the major Asian countries such as China and Korea. In China, which has the largest Internet population and potentially the largest Internet market in the world, Google is far behind the local search market leader Baidu. Baidu holds around 70% of the search market while Google has only around 21%. In Korea, the local market leader Naver has 62% search market share and Google only has 4% (Bonfils, 2010; MarketTheGlobe, 2010; VisualEconomics, 2010).

However in Malaysia, data from Statista [2], in 2022, 97.22% of Malaysians use Google as their default search engine. Because of this, as a business owner, we would also want our website to be optimised for Google.

Spending thousands of Ringgit to build a website is okay but if people can’t find your website organically it would be a waste of money. Now the next question is, what does it mean by organic search?

Organic Search

Organic search refers to a user finding our website without us paying Google to promote the website. There are a lot of benefits to this. One of them is that we are not losing money for a short term gain. The other benefit is that it is more credible and trustworthy to have our website appear as no. 1 ranked in Google than paying Google to highlight us as an option. Not understanding what I’m trying to say? Well here is a screenshot of a normal search on “How to lose weight”.

As you can see from the example here, there are 2 websites that are being promoted under the word Sponsored. These are examples of paid ads. If we are using SEO, our website will be under these sponsored websites and can appear as genuine and credible. This is what a good SEO can bring value to an organisation or a company.

Summary

There are a lot of ways on how to do Search Engine Optimization that we will cover in our future topics. However, if you want a quick result and someone to handle the work for you, consider visiting us at Imba Robotics https://imbarobotics.com/ and we’ll manage your website for you. We have a team of experts and combined 20 years of experience in this field to help you with your website. Schedule an appointment for further consultation.

References

1. Tse, Edison & Zhao, Wugang. (1970). Competition In Search Engine Market. Journal of Business Strategies. 28. 123-150. 10.54155/jbs.28.2.123-150. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355135977_Competition_In_Search_Engine_Market
2. Market share of leading search engines across Malaysia in 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/954408/malaysia-market-share-of-search-engines/