An interview with SEO expert of Marcom Company, Tural Rustamli who continues his career in the direction of marketing and communications in Azerbaijan and Georgia is presented.

What is the level of interest of companies in Azerbaijan to digital marketing?

The interest of many companies in digital marketing is increasing even though in smaller steps. If some companies were saying that it was enough to have a site in previous times, today they take thisissue more seriously. Companies understand that the period of traditional marketing tools is about to end, and their clients already have got all the information from the internet. Today's companies have already started to calculate how many clients have cost them. However, it was impossible intraditional marketing. Companies could not figure out how many people saw TV, radio, or outside advertisements, and how many clients they earned from those advertisements.

Do the websites of companies in the local market meet the SEO optimization conditions? Which type of gaps do the companies make mostly?

There are hundreds of thousands of sites in Azerbaijan that are uninteresting for the Google search engine. Most of these sites have text, programming, and structure problems. Let’s think, if the site has a poor, copied content and SEO rating, how a site of that company may be interesting for a Google search engine. First of all, it should be noted that SEO is not a system, but it is a digital marketing tool and strategy.

The point of concern of many companies is related to the text and structure of the site. For example: You see that it is 10-year-old company, but standard sentences of 2-3 lines have been written in every section of its site. On the other hand, when the companies give the services related to update of their site and SEO Optimization services to an outsourced company, they do not introduce them their company’s business, philosophy, the first and second class services or products. This results in unfinished work. Companies often choose the wrong partner in the field of marketing. Since the client is not well informed about the relevant division of digital marketing, many marketing companies deceive that company by using it as opportunity. As a result, the client company concedes, and the executive company cast a shadow on the name of other marketing companies and the sector.

The new algorithm of Google Search has already taken SEO from the database. How does it display on websites of local companies?

A number of news reports that more demand is in the direction of Black Hat SEO.Black Hat SEO is a way to make the site on the leading places that is prohibited by Google. Since it has extensively been used in European countries, thousands of sites have been blocked by Google. Although Google's official announcement is still missing, it is expected that Google will synchronize data with SQL base to restrict the use of the Black Hat SEO in 2019. In this case, the written keywords and titles will not only be investigated by Google booth, but even these keywords and titles will be clarified. I think that if so, more than 70% of sites can be also blocked by Google or they may be subdivided into search results in Azerbaijan.

Can the proper building of SEO Optimization bring profits for the companies? How is this process going in the world?

Companies building the proper digital marketing strategy can enhance their image online and increase the reliability of their websites by adapting to the latest changes related to SEO. Although the SEO optimization strategy initially requires costs, the allocated funds will help you to achieve long-term good results, and save on the company's funds allocated for the paid-up advertising if these costs are handled properly. Naturally, it depends on the marketing company in which the company cooperates with. SEO optimization service in foreign countries brings significant profits to companies and individuals working freely. There are such people and companies in this field that earn around $ 40 to $ 80 per hour. Compared to AdWords, since the SEO Optimization is free of charge, brings the companies significant profits. If you take into consideration that the Google Adwords advertising cost $ 10 will appear to 1000 users, this process is implemented free of charge in SEO. Upon reaching the target (100,000 users), a company's spending $ 10,000 will be prevented.

It is essential to know exactly what is SEO optimization for building this process properly. Companies shall understand that SEO can not arrange sell itself independently. It is illogical to expect users to come to the site or to have high traffic on the site, if users are not happy about it. All components need to be unity. SEO optimization is not a few days process. It takes months to improve the site's status, and the site is always worked on.

Is there a company or individual in Azerbaijan that can perform SEO Optimization professionally? Working with which part can be effective and safe for the companies?

There is both an experienced company in this area, and individuals who use the client's lack of knowledge in the field and deceive them. The part in which the SEO optimization service works depends on the nature of the company's business and financial status. There are the fields which require a team to provide SEO Optimization service. For example: the average number of keywords to be searched for implementing SEO analysis service in the sector of real estate exceeds 300 words. The sole analysis of the keywords in such number will take a long time and also the company will give the site a person who does not know the appropriate technical entries. This is wrong both in terms of security and the lack of a written agreement between the parties.

There are also cases where the company wants to benefit from the SEO optimization service, but the mistakes made by another company collecting its the site prevents to carry out the optimization. In this case, the client company is in despair and is forced to abandon the SEO Optimization service. I would like to recommend companies that orders the SEO Optimization service to check whether the individuals work with the experienced programmers or not, if those companies work together with them. Because, in order to eliminate mistakes during programming, it is recommended to work with an experienced programmer. Otherwise, the effectiveness will be lower than expected.