You have probably heard of or read about Search Engine Optimization at least once, especially now when the bulk of purchase decisions start and sometimes end online. If you have not heard the term Search Engine Optimization or SEO just yet, you will. And I am not referring to this post alone.
Having a website does not always guarantee you a spot in search results or high website traffic. Your website is constantly in competition with hundreds – if not thousands – of other sites. Unless you are an early investor who does not have to worry about competition just yet, you need to start thinking about SEO, why you need it, and how it can help you.
Search Engine Optimization is the practice of including content on your website that will improve your site’s visibility on search engines and their users – in other words, it helps people find you and can help your site show up more often in relevant searches. Let us start with a quick review of how search engines find a website and determine what is relevant to your query.
Crawling, Indexing, & Ranking
With every search, Google, or any other search engine matches the content they have access to online to a query through the process of crawling, indexing, and ranking. Crawlers, or bots, gather information from billions of websites by using the links on each website to find new or updated pages. This information is stored in a database or search index. An algorithm evaluates multiple factors to determine what is relevant to a search, then ranks the best answers before presenting options. Achieving a top spot in search engine rankings shows searchers that your site is a credible source.
Boost Your Site’s Credibility
Just as people rely on search engines to find information, search engines need people to provide information. User behaviour, like the terms people use, determines both the results of a search and what positions they rank. As a result, the higher you appear on the search page, the more clicks and traffic the website gets. Achieving a top spot in search engine rankings shows searchers that your site is a credible source. In a study performed in 2019 on how people use Google, only 7% browse past the first page of results. Thus, having your business rank on the first page of results or preferably at the top is crucial to your survival. This is why you need a strategic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan in place for your website.
Increase Traffic to Your Site
The rules and standards used to rank websites continue to change as search engines get smarter. Therefore, websites need to continuously provide search engines with the best information to index, rank, and display in search results. Search Engine Optimization incorporates multiple strategies, actions, and best practices to increase the quantity and quality of your website traffic. The right optimizations will increase your domain/website authority, position it higher on the results page, and get you more clicks.
Find the Right SEO Expert
Depending on your willingness to learn and the complexity of your website, you could perform some basic SEO yourself. But why settle for a mediocre website and results? That’s where having an SEO expert comes in handy. However, keep in mind that many agencies and consultants provide search engine optimization services, but quality varies. It is important that you have an SEO expert who is transparent with the process of optimizing your website. Do not adhere to old “black hat” tactics that will put your website at legitimate risk of penalties. Instead, contact us today to get in touch with an SEO expert that prioritizes a balance of search presence and user experience. Our experts focus on the factors that turn curiosity into clicks, clicks into conversions, and conversions into loyal customers.
For more information on SEO and digital marketing best practices, be sure to follow us on Facebook!