₦airaland Forum

Okay

Nice piece of info. But plz, your diction is not for the average Nigerians. Many won't even understand the Bleep you are talking about and i advice you use words that are easy to understand in other to attract your target Audience. Going through the above post, i was impressed but won't follow your blog or website cause you will be sounding robotic and boring to me.

HenryDion:
Nice piece of info. But plz, your diction is not for the average Nigerians. Many won't even understand the Bleep you are talking about and i advice you use words that are easy to understand in other to attract your target Audience. Going through the above post, i was impressed but won't follow your blog or website cause you will be sounding robotic and boring to me.

seriously, i understand...not everyone will appreciate ur efforts ain't it?


thanks for taking the time to read and comment....have a nice day!!

Roviarsguide:
seriously, i understand...not everyone will appreciate ur efforts ain't it?


thanks for taking the time to read and comment....have a nice day!!

I believe understanding ur post need WISDOM which I think education intend to bring but alas education has failed,I get ur point very well even tho am not an IT guru

most businesses dont understand what SEO is... so they cannot value what they dont know.

teeowl:
most businesses dont understand what SEO is... so they cannot value what they dont know.

you correct gan......

Hmmmm......SEO.

Hello,

If people on webmaster section do not understand such a wonderful insight to SEO and how it affects businesses, then I wonder how an ordinary client would understand. Seriously, if you do not understand this post, you really don't have any business being a webmaster to say the least.

Infact, the fact that you don't understand this post validates the OP's claim on SEO ignorance in Nigeria.
Meanwhile OP, I really feel you and your line of thought in this regard. I am an SEO expert and I share your views.
To a large extent, I think some clients just need you to be able to prove to them empirically why they need to invest in SEO.

Deploying some tools that will do keyword analysis, competition analysis, website audits etc will surely get them thinking.
Show them how they are performing with their competitors side by side on search engine results with various keywords will get some thinking.
Moreso, most of the websites out there are not even SEO ready. So where do u wanna start from when the clients do not even know the site is nothing to write home about.
Like you rightly said, they will rather spends hundreds of thousands and even millions to place a billboard which impact you cannot measure.
I once saw a billboard and a full page advert for a company, their website is not even stated. What a waste of money? Anyway, just keep the awareness going. They will realise the need one day, that's if they r still in business anyway .

Bigdreams:
Apt analysis.

Ignorance as you rightly pointed out is the number one enemy of the SEO market here in Nigeria.

It is therefore important just as you are doing through educational marketing to inform and enlighten prospects.

Thumbs up OP.

thanks for reading bro......this is a very serious issue as it affects all IT professionals in Nigeria......whether freelance or not.

abbyode:
Hello,

If people on webmaster section do not understand such a wonderful insight to SEO and how it affects businesses, then I wonder how an ordinary client would understand. Seriously, if you do not understand this post, you really don't have any business being a webmaster to say the least.

Infact, the fact that you don't understand this post validates the OP's claim on SEO ignorance in Nigeria.
Meanwhile OP, I really feel you and your line of thought in this regard. I am an SEO expert and I share your views.
To a large extent, I think some clients just need you to be able to prove to them empirically why they need to invest in SEO.

Deploying some tools that will do keyword analysis, competition analysis, website audits etc will surely get them thinking.
Show them how they are performing with their competitors side by side on search engine results with various keywords will get some thinking.
Moreso, most of the websites out there are not even SEO ready. So where do u wanna start from when the clients do not even know the site is nothing to write home about.
Like you rightly said, they will rather spends hundreds of thousands and even millions to place a billboard which impact you cannot measure.
I once saw a billboard and a full page advert for a company, their website is not even stated. What a waste of money? Anyway, just keep the awareness going. They will realise the need one day, that's if they r still in business anyway .

truer words have never been spoken..thanks for the encouraging comment friend.....Yes when they realize the need for SEO and other important website optimization tips...it would already be too late because the Internet waits for no slow poke businenessman/woman......


thanks for the comment...

Roviarsguide:
source:http://www.roviarsguide.com/seo/5-enemies-of-search-engine-optimization-in-nigeria

After my point by point analysis of Top 7 tips for Search Engine Optimization, i decided to approach SEO from a different angle and discuss the enemies of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This time I will talk about a big obstacle that exist in Nigeria, for the development of organic positioning, customers / companies. There are different types of customers and different excuses or problems that arise when doing SEO, but there is a common denominator in all of these hindrances: IGNORANCE.


Enemies of Search Engine Optimization in Nigeria:

1. The Market: “Search Engine Optimization is not for me, I don’t need to appear on Google”

As a first consideration, this statement is true. Not everyone can benefit from your work on SEO. Maybe it may not be immediately obvious, Search Engine Optimization does not always to increase traffic, sales and brand presence, there are some (few) markets that are beyond analysis. For them, this does not account for their customer turn out and this is true in some cases.

Many times I have met entrepreneurs and corporate executives with this thought that there’s no need for their businesses to be visible in search engines. And the first big mistake of this is to draw conclusions from their potential market precisely without doing an analysis. In most cases, one can say without hesitation that someone who personally does not use the usual search engines will not be considered a standard for your industry.

They ask: “If I do not use SEO, and my competitor does not use it, will i use SEO because my clients would use it?” (Question for the gods).

It’s quite difficult convincing these business Owners to consider Search Engine Optimization because they feel : "that’s the way things are and have always been” It is difficult to reason with people like that, most of the time when they change their mind (if it ever changes), it’s because someone close to them said their business got good sales from results obtained through search engines. It is illogical to continue with their logic: “I do what others do, when SEO is popular i will do it,” without raising a conscious analysis of whether it is actually useful for your business.

2.”I want to be first on Google for X”

Where X is the most generic keyword that they may be useful to your industry. This another form of attentive ignorance against same result you would expect, because sometimes it is impossible to achieve e.g (“I want to be first on Google for auto” when your business is from a small town, with a budget).
But sometimes it is achieved, but the result is not the desired one e.g (“your company ranked first in using the keyword ‘wheat flour” but you own a bakery and half of the people searching are looking for the manufacturers of “wheat flour”). It is often the next step to deny the usefulness of Google, going from not caring at all, to wanting to be first for anything (as if Google was something that only a few know and nobody would have thought of being first before on the same search ). This is pure lack of knowledge, nothing more.

3.”We want to be market leaders and we have $100 for full use of it”

Why can’t my Business appear on Google for free? and why should I spend to be to be in the top positions? You know there is what we call the “Nigerian Factor” where most business owners are not ready to employ (professional) Search Engine Optimization Experts to boost their online sales. The volume of investment needed in Search Engine Optimization to achieve a goal will depend on many factors, but if the client does not understand this, then things will definitely go wrong.

It is amazing how here in Nigeria, we undervalue technical and creative work on some things, and hyper-value other things that do not bring desired results. Creating a graphic piece for publication for adverts on television can cost much more, than if that same graphic piece goes to Facebook. Do you understand the logic ?? The effort and the work are similar, but the latter brings in more conversions to your business. After all, there are more Nigerians online on Facebook than those watching the television (quote me if I’m wrong) But Search Engine Optimization is not magic… something that not many understand despite the fact that SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION has been around for more than 20 years of the existence of search engines (The first search engine of the web, Wandex was released in 1993).

4.”Our priority is the offline market”

While this may be true, people who are offline beings all have an online life. Again, this argument lacks a basis in data, and is based on a completely subjective opinion. If there was a market study that determined that the target audience does not use search engines at least to get to your product or service, then it is valid to consider a better investment destination before you do it digitally. But if, for example, 97% of people with internet in Argentina frequently use a search engine (data from the “Digital Future, Argentina 2013″ by ComScore), this means that the previous statement is increasingly at least suspect.

5.”I want this and I want it now”

The objectives maybe coherent and well formulated, but if an immediate result is intended, you can choose to only promote ads. There are no magic solutions in SEO, let alone instant solutions. This can cause a very rapid disillusionment and the business owners who may end up having issues with their SEO specialist.. Managing expectations is key to SEO, and again, customer ignorance often is the cause of these issues.

Well friends, this is my analysis of our local SEO clients, many jobs fail to materialize for these reasons and while many may begin, before long it ends with customer frustration.

I hope that this will help our local SEO experts to be more aware of the difficulties that still exist in our NIGERIAN market. These difficulties start from ignorance; the worst enemy of Search Engine Optimization in Nigeria. Listen to opinions, open a dialogue with your client as a first step to advance .
I would really welcome comments, because this an issue for most SEO experts here in NIGERIA.

source: http://www.roviarsguide.com/seo/5-enemies-of-search-engine-optimization-in-nigeria

Nice piece roviar, but i think the number one factor like you said is IGNORANCE but not only the ignorance of the client, the ignorance of the buyers/prospects, there are not enough searches for businesses in Nigeria, Nigerians are also a long way from trusting websites enough to buy and as we all know we prefer reading celebrity news all day than reading other things. With that said, what do you think are the top 5 factors that will promote SEO in Nigeria?