From restaurant recommendations to B2B software providers, consumers today rely on search engines for information. Therefore, no matter what type of business you have, your target customers are bound to search for businesses like yours online.
It’s important to optimize your site for search engines if you want to attract users to your site. You’ve likely heard this before if you’ve explored digital marketing options for your business. Once you accept the fact that it’s something you need, you’ll face the hurdle of figuring out how to do SEO properly.
This post will set out to show you exactly how to do that.
What is SEO?
If you aren’t already aware SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. As the name suggests an SEO strategy is used to improve the likelihood of your website ranking in the results shown by search engines.
Think of your regular process when you go to a search engine. You type in what you are hoping to find then browse the results. Often only taking into consideration the results found on the first page of your search. Proper SEO can get your business into that list of relevant results.
How Does SEO Get My Business On The First Page Of Google?
If Google’s first page is what you have your sights set on, you can rest knowing it’s fully achievable. You may have to aim for certain ‘keywords’ which are easier to rank for if your business area is particularly competitive. It will, however, require some work on your part. There is a laundry list of strategies you can employ in proper SEO to achieve this.
By far, the most efficient way is to conduct keyword research and implementation. Your target audience uses certain keywords or phrases when searching for similar products or services; figure out what these are. Then, you can try to rank well for those searches by providing quality content that integrates these keywords or phrases.
This is, of course, a simplified explanation. But, understanding this is the backbone of SEO and a good starting point.
Is SEO Important? Top 5 Reasons Your Website Needs SEO
Today, SEO plays a crucial role in many marketing strategies. To fully appreciate the importance of optimizing your website, let’s examine a few of the reasons you should do so.
SEO Helps To Establish Your Brand
Despite being classed as a traditional marketing strategy, branding and SEO are similar in many ways. Building a brand involves understanding your product and what others think of it.
The factors involved in optimizing a website are similar when you look at the process. Your content needs to be tailored to the interests and needs of your audience, then you should find ways to earn links from other websites to that content.
In developing your SEO strategy, be aware of this relationship so you can choose keywords and create content that’s appropriate for your brand.
You will establish your brand online and have it resonate with your target audience when your online presence is reflective of your ideal branding.
A Well-optimized Website Attracts More Traffic
Essentially, SEO optimization is aimed at improving your site’s search engine rankings.
Ranking high is also about attracting more traffic and ideally converting that traffic into leads and customers for your business.
A great example of this is the case study carried out by Siege Media following the organic traffic after implementing SEO. The traffic to this brand new website has grown from zero to 100,000 visitors throughout the year, entirely because of SEO.
Their target audience had specific questions they need to be answered and SEO allowed them to become one of the primary solutions. This is the most effective way to attract more users to your site.
SEO Drives Warmed Leads To Your Website That Will Convert Easily
As established in the previous section, since search engines are commonly used by consumers to find information about products and services, this offers huge opportunities for businesses.
62% of consumers start their research on a new business or service with search engines, and 41% do so when it is time to buy. If your website is the source the search engine recommends to them for a solution to their needs they will be coming to your website already aware of the value you offer.
Hence, they will be more prepared to take a chance on your business than if they were to simply stumble upon it. Which leads to the third benefit.
SEO Boosts The Authority & Credibility Of Your Website
In many businesses, the sales process has been drastically changed by the Internet.
Thankfully, consumers today have access to a wide range of helpful online resources they can use to explore their options before speaking with a salesperson.
You can participate in this learning process with SEO optimization.
Content marketing, combined with SEO, is especially powerful. If you create informative and valuable content, you can build credibility, and trust in the early stages of your potential customers’ research process.
Good SEO Sets You Ahead Of Your Competitors
Optimizing your site means doing more than improving its ranking in search results.
In addition, your company is also gaining ground on its competition.
Think about how many clicks the first result gets on a search result page. It receives an average of 20.5%. While the second result gets 13.32%, and the third result gets 13.14%. As you can imagine the remainder of that list disappears often disappears into oblivion.
In other words, as you place higher in the search results, the fewer clicks your competitors will get from the leads you are both targeting.
Now that you understand what SEO is and why you need it, let’s explore a few tools that help you on the road to that top 3 spot.
Useful Tools For SEO
When it comes to improving the online visibility of your site, there are several tools you can use to make the process simpler and more effective.
Keyword Research
Any successful SEO strategy begins with keyword research. You need to figure out what keywords your audience is searching for. The keywords that will work best for your business can be determined with the help of several tools.
Two of the top tools to assist with this are Ubersuggest and KeywordTool.io.
On-page Optimization
On-page optimization is an essential element of SEO. You need the keywords that you identified naturally integrated into the pages of your website.
Two of the top tools to assist with this are Redirect Path and Screaming Frog.
Off-page Optimization
An important aspect of SEO is the off-page optimization process, which is largely referred to online as backlinking. Though backlinking is just one element of off-page optimization it is vastly important. Backlinking is adding a link from some other website to the particular web resource you are optimizing for SEO.
Link-building opportunities are best identified by competitive research. One of the top tools to assist with this is Open Site Explorer.
Monitoring Results
The impact of any changes you make to your site needs to be measured as you make them. This is the only way you will be able to analyze if the strategies you have implemented are working. You can check if your page is ranking, or if you need to tweak the methods you have used.
Two of the top tools to assist with this are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Conclusion - What is SEO?
Site optimization is a complex, and often challenging, process. If you’re going to achieve your SEO goals, you’ll need time, patience, and careful planning.
Creating and executing a well-planned SEO strategy is the best way to see tangible results in sales and revenue. So, be sure to take the time out to do the necessary research, and allow your business to gain an edge on the competition.
