The Importance of SEO
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, and it consists of all strategies, actions, and practices that can improve a website’s ranking on search engines. Though you may have profusely heard that SEO is crucial to your business, you might now know why. It is a very efficient way of driving traffic to a website and attracting more views to your business.
It is also a valuable tool to build relationships with potential clients, and create a trustworthy and credible brand. But what exactly is SEO and what does it mean for your business? Let’s talk about what makes SEO so important, and how you can implement some of its key principles into your overall digital strategy.
Bringing future customers to your doorstep
Let’s think about Google for a minute. As a search engine, it decides how worthy any website is of appearing amongst the first search results whenever anything is typed into the search bar. Let’s say someone was to type in the sentence “dentists in new york”. Google determines which dentists in New York should appear on the first page of results that will appear on the user’s screen. It makes these decisions in a far from arbitrary manner, though it may seem like it at a glance. To appear first, you will have to make sure you answer Google’s criteria as to whether you’re a credible answer to the search you want to target. Here are some of those parameters:
Keywords. They are what someone trying to find you would typically type into Google. You’ll need to make sure they are abundantly included on your web pages. The more relevant keywords you use, the more Google will view you as a credible web page to include. You will be able to use these keywords to connect with the Google users that are typing them into the search bar. Research the keywords with the most search rates, and vary between long-form, short-form, and local keywords.
Off-page SEO (backlinking). Backlinks are links from outside domains that point back to pages on your domain, and vice versa. Google looks for websites with high-quality backlinks and makes these websites rank higher. Working on your backlinks will build authority and make your content credible. You’ll want to create highly shareable content, with plenty of engaging infographics. Look into guest blogging, and don’t forget to mention brands with a lot of influence on your content. SEO builds trust and credibility when used in the right ways.
SEO, a crucial part of your digital strategy
Digital marketing is a vast field that includes all and any ways of marketing a brand. What marketers are trained to do is build a brand and create a narrative around that brand. Potential customers need to feel drawn to a company thanks to an original and efficient story built around it. However, no digital marketing strategy works without good SEO. Why? Because crafting a powerful narrative and creating a brand doesn’t mean anything if no one encounters that particular brand. Building an audience around a brand also means finding ways of luring new people, and potential clients, into the company’s world. To do so, you will need to generate organic searches for your business’s website.
Organic searches are search results that aren’t influenced by paid advertising. The higher you rank, the more visitors will be able to see you as soon as they press enter on the search bar. We have talked about how you can entice Google into ranking your website higher on the search page. These organic searches are in most cases the primary source of website traffic though, so you need to incorporate SEO practices into your overall digital strategy if you want to be able to effortlessly generate leads online.
Persuading visitors to stay on your page
You’ll also want to create a clean, swift, and efficient user experience on your website if you want to benefit from the seeds that good SEO can sow. Pay attention to your content. Now that you’ve driven customers to your webpage, you’ll want your content to engage your audience. Create a blog, and post articles regularly, to increase visibility on your website by driving traffic to blog posts on similar topics to your business. Make sure the content you are adding to your website reflects positively on your website. Double-check for spelling mistakes, create content that flows nicely.
You’ll also want to make sure your content appeals to Google. To do so, first identify the length of the content appropriate to your field. Google matches each keyword with its appropriate word count - getting the length completely wrong can prevent you from ranking high.
15 seconds is the average time users spend on a website - this is called “dwell time”. Consider dwell time as the time you have to generate interest on your webpage. Make sure you:
Captivate visitors' attention by offering powerful, creative graphics; don’t let anyone look away!
Offer content visitors can engage with, something they can learn from at a glance.
Make information the users of your webpage could potentially be looking for, easily accessible and clear.
Every second counts, so work on your website’s loading time and make your page as fast as possible. You don’t want users to click away because the website is taking too long to load.
Make your site compatible with all devices, so people can access it from their smartphone while waiting for the bus, or from their computer at work.
If you’re offering a service or product, highlight your prices or rates to make the information accessible. If you’ve used the right keywords, many visitors will be visiting your page to find out more about the service you offer and will want to know how much it costs at a glance.
SEO, agency, or DIY?
As you can see, there are many ways to implement SEO practices to increase your online presence, which will inevitably lead to more clients and a wider audience. Maybe you’ll want to perform these tasks yourself, and learn by trial and error, or outsource to an agency, for the convenience of having professionals handle your Search Engine Optimization in the best way possible. In any case, anything you do to improve your website’s SEO will help tell your business’ story to the world!
