Many is aware of the importance of SEO today, and rush to set it up. But it is really an on-going journey and definitely not one that is set-and-forget.

More so when Forbes published about Huawei releasing Petal Search as an alternative to Google, covering both core search and app installer. Google SEO itself is complex enough. But will it dominate Search Engine forever?

Even if it will, how would your SEO strategy be impacted if more of your Google organic traffic starts diluting due to new search habit arising from the emergence of a rival Search Engine?

Got confused? Let me get it straight.. Have the right expectation on SEO for your business. SEO is basic must-do for your online presence, but when it comes to business performance, scale, projected revenue… I will quote one whom is more qualified.

To depend on SEO as your core business acquisition strategy is like rolling the dice in the roulette.

– JJ Delgado, former Head of Amazon Marketing and mastermind of Black Friday.

I was privileged to be sponsored to join an exclusive session with JJ Delgado after attending his Digital Transformation seminar in Malaysia few years back. For a fair view, he did caveat that of course purely ranking a few buying keywords can be profitably for niche sites or if you are building micro-blogs. For Amazon, it’s a different level of playing field where the basic fundamentals of SEO are not abandoned for sure, but, its brand name alone will likely fetch lion share of its organic traffic! He did recommend one to be crazy good at Paid Marketing.

SEO brings greater search visibility, which in essence, requires both science, and art. The science being the website technical and on-page optimization, as an example. And the art.. being the true appreciation of user intent and psychology.

If you are a solopreneur sitting behind the computer like me, you will likely fair better in SEO by having a good hosting server, a WordPress-based website, and a remarkable Content Marketing Strategy.

But if you are a company, you will want someone accountable for the SEO team which often requires Tech and Content Marketing role & responsibilities.

One action I can start now to setup SEO for my website

If you have not heard nor setup Search Console, you miss out a big part.

Search Console is the basis of your SEO performance management and reporting. With it, you gain access to a library of data and Google suggestions on how to optimize your Search Visibility.

Let’s set it up in 10 minutes. Be ready with the access to your Hosting Provider portal.

Step 1: First login to Search Console using your website administrative Google Account.

For first timers, you can choose Domain as your property type. This Property will aggregate all data from all different protocols (www, non-www, http, https) and subdomains. Even if you want to have a segmented view of the data later, you can do it using page filter to the Performance Report within your Search Console.

Step 2: Enter your domain or subdomain (without http or https or www). Follow the example.

Now, this important step is to tell Google that you own or is given the rights to manage this website. You will be given a TXT record to copy and paste into the DNS configuration of your website.

That’s when after Step 3 below, you need to login to your website Hosting Service provider (not Domain Registrar) to insert the TXT record.

Step 3: Find your hosting provider for the instruction documented by Google here.

Step 4: Login to your Hosting Service Provider portal, and follow step 3 and 4 in the document that is specific to your Hosting Service Provider.
Note: When you see Google Suite, and it is NOT relevant to you, just ignore it and follow the steps to add the TXT record.

Step 5: Go back to your Search Console page to click verify on the Domain Property that you have created.
Note: It might take some time or days, to verify successfully. I did mine immediately but on 2nd attempt, so just keep trying. Quoting from Google below:-

Done!

If you wish to work deeper NOW with the old or legacy tools and reports, you will want to setup another type of Property via URL prefix using same domain or subdomain (yes you can). These legacy tools are not available for the new Domain-type property pending replacements or maybe even deprecation.

But if you are not, it’s probably not worth the time so just skip that for now and move on.

Submitting a sitemap would most probably be your next simple step in setting up the SEO fundamentals for your website.

Source: migmarketingresources