Search engine optimisation (SEO) is continuing to rise in popularity, as it is one of the most cost-efficient ways to reach your customers. Not only is SEO one of the most effective digital marketing strategies there is, but it is also vital for any business that wants to grow in the 21st century. With over 4 billion individuals using Google, an effective SEO strategy is a no-brainer if you want to put your business in front of more eyes. The internet and social media platforms have become the go-to place for information, and shopping. Users will browse these platforms in their spare time for enjoyment, as well as utilise for researching companies, products and services as you tend to get a lot of information and honest reviews online, rather than the carefully curated advertisements on the television or in magazines.
While you may have nice advertisements on the television or in magazines, people are using them less and less, with social media and streaming sites such as Netflix. This leaves you with a very competitive search engine results page, which is where SEO can help you get in front of your competitors and grow your business.
If you’re still not sure about SEO, what it is or how it can benefit your business, here are some of the top reasons why your business needs SEO.
SEO is achieved through a series of ongoing tasks to improve the visibility of your website in the search engine results when users search for relevant queries. When your website has good visibility on the search engine results pages, you are more likely to capture the attention of potential customers and direct them to your site. This will help you reach more customers, and make more sales.
Search engines work on algorithms, which analyse the pages of your website that have been indexed and crawled by their bots. The analysis is based on a range of different factors that identify how relevant your pages are to different search queries so it can present them to users accordingly. SEO involves a lot of work, as the results are organic, and not paid for. Some of the important factors that SEO specialists will focus on is keyword research, the quality of the content, the speed of your website and the crawlability of important pages. SEO, therefore, involves a variety of work, from technical tasks to research and writing content.
To get started with SEO, you will first need a website. You should look for a reputable small business web design company that can package up your business and create a user friendly website to attract customers. You can then weave SEO tasks into the website when it comes to writing content.
Your business can benefit from organic traffic if it effectively deploys an SEO strategy. This means that you don’t have to pay for your rankings or advertisements to get traffic and conversions. Organic traffic doesn’t have to cost you anything, it is accessible to any business, it has the power to build your brand awareness and has many long term benefits. Organic traffic shows users that you are a reputable brand if you are ranking well in search engines, and is a sustainable source of traffic. If you work hard to gain top positions in search engines through SEO efforts, they are going to make you very competitive.
When creating an SEO strategy, for it to be effective you have to research your customers in detail and create a buyer persona. This helps you understand what their problems and pain points are, where they are searching for information, and what kind of searches they are making. Just a simple task as researching keywords, you will gain a better idea of the kind of words and phrases they are using, and the intention behind the queries. You can then use these on your website, and turn them into helpful content and solutions to help attract and win over customers.
This enables you to better understand your customers, and also help them along their journey. Many people will be faced with a problem, but are not sure how to resolve it. If you know what those problems are, you can meet them where they are at, and guide them through a journey. You can capture them much earlier on in the sales funnel and increase your brand awareness. This information will also help you develop better products and services.
SEO involves a lot of work, and if done correctly, will provide you with a strong foundation for your business. You’ll have an attractive, user friendly website that provides an easy solution and a business that can easily be found in the search engines. With a better website, customers are more likely to trust you because they should be able to easily find what they want. With a difficult website, it can be unfavourable and frustrating, and you will quickly lose customers to your competitors. A good and visible website will help build trust with customers, as they are more likely to see you as a credible voice in the industry.
SEO tactics are constantly evolving. While this can seem frustrating at first, it can actually be extremely helpful for your business. Google and other search engines base their algorithms and rankings on consumer behaviours. They monitor industry behaviours and intentions and those factors will be reflected in their decisions on how to rank websites. They want to be able to provide the best search results for customers. This means that if you endeavour to improve your website and business for the sake of SEO, you will also be improving it in a way that will benefit your customers. Search engines such as Google can typically make thousands of algorithm changes per year, so if you monitor them and continue to make changes, you could see vast improvements to your rankings, as well as your overall business as you make changes to serve your customers better.
SEO is something that can benefit any business that wants to increase brand awareness and conversions.