Search engines are a massive tool that drive the entire internet. With a simple Google search, you are introduced to all the storefronts, answers, or information you are looking for! This brings curious users and problem-havers together with content creators and problem-solvers. Needless to say, search engines are pretty powerful. In the blog, we are going to cover what is SEO and how you can use it to help your business!
The impact of SEO
First off, search engine optimization or SEO is the process of understanding the inner workings of a search engine’s algorithm and can help your business get to the top of the organic search results. SEO can help your business get to the top of the organic search results with well written content, keywords, and more!
Data shows the number one search result will get about 40-60 percent of the traffic, making it important that your business keeps SEO in mind! Countless people are searching and many have the intent to buy products. SEO can give your business very valuable traffic. That’s why many businesses, ecommerce stores and organizations make SEO priority for their digital marketing strategy.
You want the internet’s most powerful tool working for your business, not against it! So, understanding the nuts and bolts behind the search engine is definitely worth your time.
The organic results section of search engines is a completely level playing field. You may have noticed the first one or two results are often marked as paid advertisements. After paid advertisements, there is no way to pay Google to be ranked higher. This is where SEO comes into play. Understanding the principles of search engine optimization and putting the time in is the only way to truly improve your businesses organic search results.
What aspects of my website are important for SEO?
The answer is everything. The whole user experience will contribute to SEO ranking, but here are a couple areas you should prioritize when looking to improve your SEO.
Create Content For People And SEO
Google will take notice of well written, high quality content on your website. There is no shortcut to improving your search engine success, so spending the time to create content that users will find worthwhile is a great way to increase your ranking. If a piece of content is unique, answers an important question, or provides value to users, the search engine will notice. If users quickly click away from low quality content Google will also know. Google always considers the relevance of your site, so it’s important to keep content relevant on your website.
Many small businesses are utilizing blogs as a way to bring high quality content to their websites. In addition to being an avenue for great content, a blog is a way to remind search engines your site is still alive and relevant to customers. Going too long without updating or adding content to your site may tell search engines your site is falling behind the competition.
Research the Right Keywords For SEO
While you are creating wonderful content to improve your SEO ranking, you also need to understand keywords. Keywords simply help the search engine identify the topics of your website. You want to match the keywords of your content to the search queries your potential customers will make. If your potential customers will be searching “car repair shops,” mentioning car repair and other close keywords in your content will direct those searches to your site.
It’s a good idea to also consider the competition that comes with a keyword. Choosing “shoes” as a keyword will be fairly competitive, however, “used basketball shoes” might be more specific to your audience. A good tip is to mention keywords throughout the title, headings, and in the body of your content. Keep in mind Google may punish sites that over use keywords to exploit search engines, so tread carefully!
Understand the technical side
Hidden in your website’s code are more signals to help search engines understand your site. HTML tags aren’t visible to your visitors, but search engines use them to determine what your site is about. For example, the <title> tag is most important for search engines.
There are guidelines for creating your HTML tags and other technical aspects that experts understand. Errors on the technical side can confuse search engines and hurt your website rankings. You can use a free SEO audit tool to find hidden errors in your website. Fix these errors and find a boost to your web ranking.
