SEO – short for Search Engine Optimization. Perhaps you are familiar with this, perhaps you aren’t. Perhaps you have heard a friend that does digital marketing complain about SEO or maybe you have experienced the frustrations yourself. The question here, however, is not have you heard of SEO? But rather: what is SEO?
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Yes, we have established that SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, but what does that mean? It is the link that appeared at the top of your page when you typed something into your search engine. It is what allows companies to stand in the spotlight and what allows for the maximum amount of organic traffic to your site. SEO, in many ways, is one of the most important things that influence your ROI.
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the name given to activity that attempts to improve search engine rankings. In search results Google™ displays links to pages it considers relevant and authoritative. Authority is mostly measured by analysing the number and quality of links from other web pages. In simple terms your web pages have the potential to rank in Google™ so long as other web pages link to them.
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the activity of ensuring a website can be found in search engines for words and phrases relevant to what the site is offering. You could think of it as being quality control for websites.
How do search engines determine where your business ranks?
Search engines use algorithms to help provide people with relevant information.
To make sure that your website appears on first page, rather than page 27, you need to focus on building authority on key topics related to your business. Your website’s authority is determined through onsite and offsite factors.
Onsite: search engines give higher rankings to websites that regularly publish fresh content on a specific topic. If you own a bakery, for example, publishing regular blog posts on baking tips would start establishing your online authority.
Offsite: search engines like to see that websites other than your own are linking back to your webpages. When other websites link to your content or people share your content on social media, you have a better chance of being listed prominently in search results.
Ensuring that SEO works in your favour
To ensure that you pop up on the first page of found results, write fantastic, useful content that uses words and phrases used by people who search for your products and services. Then, make it easy for people to share and link to it.
Links are important but don’t confuse quality with quantity and don’t think about links as something separate from your content. It’s vital to understand that having great content massively increases your chances of securing natural links from quality relevant pages. These links will help you the most.
To put it simply, if you have something worth linking to, you might secure links worth having. Great sites don’t link to poor quality content – it would make little sense if they did.
While many marketing tactics rely on you reaching out to your audience, SEO gives you the power to reach people when they are actively searching out information related to your products and services. SEO leads, without surprise, have a 14.6 percent close rate, compared to the 1.7 percent close rate of leads from other channels like direct mail or print advertising.
Why is SEO so important?
If you don’t optimize your website for search engines, you risk losing potential customers to your competitors because their websites appear higher in search engine results than yours.
Think of how many times you turn to Google each day to find out which cafes serve the best hot chocolate or where you can get those shoes you love at an affordable price.
When someone searches for information that relates to the products and services you offer, you want to show up and, ideally, you want to show up prominently. Research shows that 60 percent of traffic from Google searches go to websites that appear in the first three search results.
The good news is, is that we can offer you the kind of content you need to optimize the searches for your business. If you are interested in getting a better ROI or wanting to increase awareness of your brand and bring in more revenue, contact us here for help.
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