Why SEO Is Important to Your Business

Search engine optimization has become a highly touted and successful marketing strategy. Understanding the fundamentals of SEO can greatly improve your website exposure and lead to higher traffic and more leads for your business.

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

Whenever you google something, Google's algorithm works to pick stories and posts that will answer your inquiry. Search engine optimization is all about understanding those algorithms. That way when somebody Googles something that applies to your site or blog, they won't need to burrow through a few pages of results to discover yours. It'll be directly at the top.

Why Does Google Matter?

Google is the highest-trafficked website in the world. Even getting a fraction of Google’s traffic is significant for your website. Optimized content can stay in the top spot for as long as it’s relevant. A Facebook post shows up in a feed for a couple of hours. One tweet might be skipped over. But a top-ranked Google post can last for months or even years.

Is SEO Marketing?

SEO is indeed a form of marketing. However, SEO is not paid advertisement. There is no money exchanged between the website owner and the search engine to rank a page in organic search. SEO helps you market toward and capture an audience that is already searching for something that you provide, whether that be information or a product.

SEO Ranking Factors

So now that we know what SEO is and why it’s important, how do we actually optimize our website?

Content

Content is Google’s main ranking factor. Writing good content that informs the reader about a topic relevant to your page is crucial. At the same time, make sure you are writing something that doesn’t just target Google’s algorithm. If you write easy-to-read prose, Google will be more likely to rank your story well and more importantly, your readers will appreciate it, also. If you get your content right, then you’ve created a solid foundation to support all of your other SEO efforts.

Keywords

A keyword is a word or phrase that describes the content on your page. Which words do you think people will use in Google to find you? The idea is to place these keywords in prominent places like the page title, meta description, and header tags so that Google can decipher what your page is about. That way, when a user types the same keywords into a search query, your page title will show up and match what they are looking for.

Mobile Friendly-ness

Did you know more than 50% of all searches are done from a mobile device? According to Google, there are 27.8 billion more queries performed on mobile than desktop. Needless to say, mobile is the future of search. In fact, Google only ranks the search results based on the mobile version of the page. So make sure any website that provokes tapping or zooming is reconfigured with Responsive Web Design.

Site Speed

A fast page-load time is imperative to avoid high bounce rates. One of the easiest ways to improve your page-load times is to optimize all your images for the web. Odds are, you can probably make your image files much smaller without sacrificing quality. Most computer screens only show images at 72 pixels per inch (ppi), which means that anything clearer than that is wasted.

Backlinks

When one website links to your website that is called a “backlink”. Generally speaking, the more reputable backlinks you have pointing to your website, the better you will rank. Whenever backlinks occur, it is like receiving a vote for a webpage. The more votes you get from authoritative sites, the more positive effect it will have on a site’s ranking and search visibility.

Authority

Over time, domains, and pages can gain authority and hold their position as a top-ranked search result. This happens when several factors align -- consistent traffic, relevant and trusted content, good link equity, etc. Google values longevity; how long has your website been relevant and how long have you been creating content around a given topic? Over time, as you continue to write content that is both reliable and helpful, Google will take notice of these veteran articles and rank your page well. Links from high-authority sites and pages still carry significant ranking power and they drive both Domain Authority and Page Authority.

Essential Startups

Here are a few suggestions to help you get started.

Google My Business

Google My Business is a tool that allows street-side businesses to manage how they appear on Google Search and Maps. It is the biggest online directory for businesses in the world. By creating a Business Profile, you will be able to connect with customers, update store information and upload images and posts. According to Google, 50% of all mobile customers who search for a local business, end up visiting the same day.

Hiring A Specialist

As you can see, there are many factors that go into optimizing a website. Having a person with expertise in these areas could be highly beneficial to your company. It may be worth the investment to hire an on-site SEO Specialist to accelerate your website into tip-top shape.

Thanks for reading and happy optimizing!